LRJ #2 - Antigone

- Antigone wants to have a proper burial for her brother, Polyneices, but she can't bury him because he was fighting against their city, Thebes. She carried through with it anyways and now Creon could kill her for it. Antigone is perceived as a very strong and stubborn woman, but also shows her loyal, and courageous care for her family. Lines 118-119 on page 824 show how she cares for her brother even though he went against their city. "It is my nature to join in love, not hate." Antigone really does not care what happens to her because she knows that what she is doing is right. This is shown in lines 107-108 on page 824. "There is no guilt in reverence of the dead."

- Antigone's fatal flaw was that she chose to bury her brother, because even though she thought she was doing the right thing, she would be vanquished from the city because of it. Her stubbornness led up to this because she refused stop at trying to get her brother buried. This is shown throughout many quotes in the story such as page 824, lines 107-108. "If that is what you think, I should not want you, even if you ask to come. You have made your choice and you can be what you want to be; but I will burry him; but if I must die, I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me. Not the living who makes the longest demands. We die forever. You may do ask you like, since apparently the laws of the gods mean nothing to you."

- Antigone's anagnorisis is that she realizes that even though her uncle is the king, he still will not cut her any slack for her trying to bury Polyneices. He will still kill her no matter what. This is shown in paragraph 242. "O city of my fathers in the land of Thebe! O ye gods, eldest of our race!-they lead me henc--now, now-they tarry not! Behold me, princes of Thebes, the last daughter of the house of your kings,-see what I suffer, and from whom, because I feared to cast away the fear of Heaven!"

- Antigone's Peripeteia happens when she kills herself because she knew that the after life would be better than starving in a dark, cold, cave. She knew she was going to die for this crime all along, so rather than suffer. She decided to end her life right away. There was nothing else to live for and she was going to die anyway.

- The audience has a catharsis when Antigone is about to be sent off to the cave where she will starve. The audience is not sure what Creon is going to do with her and it is quite suspenseful. When the audience finds out that she will be sent off to a cave to starve, they feel very bad for her because she was only trying to do good. She does not deserve such harsh punishment because she was staying loyal to her family. This is shown in paragraph 235. "Tomb, bridal-chamber, eternal prison in the caverned rock, whither go to find mine own, those many who have perished, and whom Persephone hath received among the dead!"

- In Antigone, women seem portrayed as weak characters. There appears be the vibe that women cannot do anything on their own and they always need help from men. This is shown in when Haemon says this quote in paragraph 197, "If thou art a woman; indeed, my care is for thee." Even Ismene talks about how women should not fight against men because they would lose. This is shown in paragraph 16. " Nay, we must remember, first, that we were born women, as who should not strive with men;"