Antigone :: Essays Papers

Antigone When reading anything it is usually to the benefit of the reader if the author leaves the ending of the story at the end. So when I started to read Antigone and figure out right away that she would die I wondered what purpose it served to read the rest of the play. Had I not ruined the play, how ever, I would not have ever known how Antigone was to die. Nor would I have know if Ismene would also die or if Polyneices would ever get a proper burial. Needless to say I finished the play.Following the story line I was extremely impressed by what I thought was courage and family loyalty on the part of Antigone to risk conclusion just to bury her deceased brother. I wondered if I, faced with the same situation, would choose the same. I tend to think that I would be more like the mousy Ismene who did everything she could think of to dissuade Antigone from what she was destined to do. I cant be sure though because I dont believe in or worship the same gods Antigone did.Cont inuing on I started to glean more of Creons personality. I learned that he was not the humble and merciful person I thought he was but quite a he was a prideful and maybe even a tyrant king. I say this because why else would you leave someone that has already been defeated and is dead, left(a) unburied and then threaten death to anyone who tries to bury him? To mean this personifies cruelty and yet I can see that maybe he had a incomprehensible agenda in doing this. This act, instead of being used as an unjust punishment, might be seen as a tool of deterrence. I certainly wouldnt compliments to be killed just to bury someone else.Further on in the play, through Teiresias, I started to realize that Creons ruling would backfire on him in a most fitting way. I dont wish death on anybody but isnt it justice served that Haemon should die because of Creons killing Antigone. No one can say that Creon wasnt warned, twain by Haemon and Teiresias. However, the deaths didnt stop there bec ause after learning of Haemons death Eurydice kills herself and so Creon is hurt twice over. After a while all this death gets cheerless and I started to wonder if anyone would be left alive by the end of the story.