How Does Antigone Change Throughout The Play

Antigone is basically the beginning and the end of the playwright. From the

prologue to the final scene, the play hinges on her acts of defiance or heroism. In

the beginning of the play, Antigone is basically the ugly sister in regards to Ismene.

Antigone is kind of grossly described to be honest. She’s small, scrawny, and

practically a spoiled little girl. Antigone makes choices for herself without any real

regards to advice or others opinion. So all in all I would say she makes pretty

unjust choices. Of course in her time period, women's choices were always unused

and considered “not smart” but hers in particular was not very wise.

The play is a melodrama so everything is spiced up. So she’s pretty hard to

put up with, always doing
what she wants is what it looks like. She’s pretty jealous

of people and is always after her own desires. She causes problems to Ismene,

clearly jealous of her.
She causes big issues with the whole kingdom really, when

she tried to bury that man. She’s flat in the sense that her opinions or views change

only slightly, when her world is flipped and the circumstances are no longer the

same. She was all about what she thought best until there was no kingdom to

defend and no body to defy. Then of course she died and became a nobody

character obviously.

Antigone herself made quite a statement in the storyline though, she was a

small little girl, who ends up defying the governing laws and upsetting the balance

of things. That’s quite an uproar. She actually ends up and loses everything due to

her small act of defiance. Her family, pride, and sense of whatever confidence she

had, were all put at stake due to her want for more. Her desire. Yet her desire and

defiance turns into genuine gratitude by the end. She has the same mindset as

before, yet she just realized maybe it wasn’t as bad and learns to appreciate the

fact that she still had everything. But in the end, she has nothing. Which is why I

believe she ends up dying is to show, she found the true meaning yet has no reset

button that can let her fix things. No repeat and can’t replace what she’s done.
So

she hits her eternal reset button by ending herself. She had pure love in the end. A

sense of gratitude that for once, she did what she thought was best. But in the end,

everything was done, abolished due to human and selfish desire. The

unmistakeable need for something more, some deeper fulfilling that she felt like

wasn’t there.

I believe Antigone ended up paying the price, as everyone did due to

human morales. The rules and laws, the decrees and forewarnings all point

the same way. Don’t bury her brother. Yet she does. Because she feels it will

fulfill him, and her. She was not one of little faith. She was willing to lay

down her belief and mindset to the point of her death, just to say, “He

deserved better.”

Later you read that she stands up to Creon, a feat in itself. She puts

herself in the path and similar choices of Oedipus. Like Oedipus, she is

internally ugly. A fool for not rendering to the betterment of others in the

community. In the very end of her life span we see who Antigone really was,

the beauty and cleanliness she found so endearing in Ismene. Of course it’s a

sad beauty, the beauty you would come to appreciate if situations were

better. Her beauty is a sort of unsettling, not normal beauty. For she isn’t

like anyone else in her life. Yet she distinctly resembles traits of all. Creon’s

pride, Oedipus’ craving for desire. Yet she holds her sisters internal beauty.

In the end at least. Her choices were rash and unadvised but it was a coming

of age choice she just wasn’t ready for. I wouldn’t base her character off the

fact that she messed up and destroyed everyone and everything. Instead

I’ve come to the terms of maybe she just wasn’t at the time and place to do

such a thing. That with enough encouragement and watching over she

would’ve become an Ismene. She would’ve been less rash and thought it out.

Yet Creon’s pride and her desire got in the way to make her character viewed

differently. In ways, I’d assume that the author wanted to focus on hidden beauty.

An example of discovering hope under the rotten circumstances. But that’s not how

the readers have seemed to take it. So I feel like the fact of if Antigone is flat or

round, dynamic or static, lies in the morale views and personal mind set of the

reader. I personally believe she’s flat. That she is the same girl from the beginning

to the end, yet the situation unfolded revealing true intentions and a deeper

meaning to her way of life and the choices that followed.