Pride In Antigone

During the course of Antigone, written by the playwright Sophocles, we come to find that the feud between Oedipus’ sons Polyneikes, the elder, and Eteokles, the younger, results in the death of both men. Polyneikes had rebelled against Thebes, while Eteokles remained loyal to his family’s home. Kreon, Uncle to Polyneikes, Eteokles, Antigone and Ismene, has seized the throne and as a result of Polyneikes’ betrayal, declared a law that he shall not be buried nor shall he be honored. Antigone and her only remaining sibling, Ismene, have reacted completely differently to this decree; Antigone reacts with reckless abandon, and Ismene simpers in the face of her new King. The law Kreon sets in place is understood by Antigone as “Polyneikes’ sorry body can’t be touched. The city is forbidden to mourn him or bury him—no tomb, no tears.” (Sophocles 748) Kreon enacts this law based upon his own pride, and his need to rule the city with an iron thumb. Kreon states that “it
Antigone accepts what she sees as her fate from the onset of the play, while Ismene struggles with the decision to disobey. Antigone knows what she has to do for her family, for the gods, while Ismene has not quite reached that conclusion. Ismene is “held back by the injunction upon her sex to suffer male rule.” (Paul 433) We see this in her opening: “…we’re women. How can we fight men. They’re stronger. We must accept these things—and worse to come.” (Sophocles 749) Antigone shrugs this off, declaring that she alone will do the honorable thing by burying their brother. “She enters into the role which the social order determines for her sex, but does so to excess[sic]…” (Paul 433) To excess meaning she goes outside of what is generally expected of women in Thebes: she publicly mourns her brother, despite the judgment that will come alongside of her actions; in spite of the fact the law declares death for those who defy Kreon’s