Happy Day

When reading Sophocles’ Antigone, one can be so easily absorbed and engrossed in the fierce engagements between Antigone and Creon, that they may overlook more subtle and discrete essential aspects existing in the play. A perfect example of this is present in the character of Ismene, the often depicted weaker, more powerless daughter of the Oedipus line. Throughout history, several theorists and analysts have come up with various hypotheses about the true nature of Ismene’s character. Perhaps the most stirring of these hypotheses originate from the ideas of Jennet Kirkpatrick’s The Prudent Dissident. In this work, Kirkpatrick argues that not only is Ismene a “duplicitous character” who is more than a shadow of her intense sister, but that she is also directly responsible in the mysterious first burial of their brother Polyneices. While Kirkpatrick’s views on Ismene are at best controversial to many analyzers of the play, there is small credibility to her words, and to an extent, I believe Ismene is more than what the play projects her as (weak and unimportant). Ultimately however, I cannot agree with Kirkpatrick's argument that Ismene was responsible for burying Polyneices, and based off events in the play, all of Ismene’s actions reflect not resistance but loyalty/love for her sister. A significant portion of The Prudent Dissident serves to prove the point that Ismene was responsible for the “burial” of Polyneices in the beginning of the play. This however, is a false and illegitimate claim. Since the opening of the novel when the sisters were conversing with each other, we get the sense that Ismene would never do the deed of risking her life for the burial of someone already dead: “And now we in turn- we two left all alone- think of how we shall perish...It is foolish to meddle.” (83) From looking at Ismene’s words here, not only can we conclude that she was entirely against the deed from the beginning, but we can also see that in contrast to her sister,