Throughout the 5th
century, Sophocles was a great philosopher and Greek playwright who, among
many, still influence present day government and lives of those around us. One
of the finest examples of Greek
Tragedy known today is considered to be the play Antigone written in 422 B.C.E. Antigone
was written as a drama with a tragic hero (though some may argue there was more
than one) and was based off of the legend of Oedipus. The play could be
considered to include the tragic downfalls of both Antigone and Creon- which from there stems a
considerable external conflict presented in the play. This leads to the problem
of Antigone and her fearless, headstrong, courageous and valiant innate nature
to follow through in her beliefs of burial rites and break the law. One of the
biggest issues besides the sole fact that Antigone had defied Creon’s law was
that not only did she defy him, but she was a woman! It was bad enough that
someone had disobeyed his ruthless decree, let alone the fact it was a woman
who had infringed and breached his law. Thus, Creon became outraged and refused
to “yield” to a woman and let her “win”. That then brought about the question
of the significance of gender in Sophocles’ Antigone
and how men viewed themselves as superior to women. Creon viewed Antigone’s
actions as outlandish and was offended and appalled that a woman would
challenge his rulings and decisions as a ruler. Creon then followed through
with the death sentence more enthusiastically solely because Antigone was a
woman, disregarding the fact that she is his niece and his son’s future wife
and ignoring everyone who told him otherwise until it was too late.
Throughout
the play, there are multitudinous displays, predominantly by Creon, of how
gender played a major role. The first example of gender inequality was actually
presented by a woman herself- Antigone’s sister, Ismene. When Antigone tells
her sister of her plans to bury Polyneices, Ismene immediately disapproves and
explains to her why it isn’t a good idea. Whilst explaining to Antigone all the
reasons she should not bury their brother, one of the reasons she lists is
because they are women. “…You ought to realize we are only women, not meant in
nature to fight against men, and that we are ruled, by those who are stronger,
to obedience in this and even more painful matters...” (Ismene, 70-73). This is
also where the problem of Antigone’s nature and personality first appears.
Ismene is more reserved and passive and Antigone proves herself to be extremely
aggressive and headstrong. As for their ruler and uncle, Creon, he displays his
sexism multiple times throughout the play. First of which is when he’s speaking
to the Chorus, “…There is none so foolish as to love his own death...” (Creon,
239). He immediately assumes that the person who broke his law is a man because
no woman would ever defy a man’s law. Also when Creon is speaking
to the Sentry they both repeatedly use the pronouns he, his, and him when
discussing the deed and how it was done. When the Sentry returns with Antigone
and claims she is the one who has “done the deed”, Creon says, “…I swear I am
no man and she the man if she can win this and not pay for it” (Creon, 528-529).
Creon feels that if Antigone gets away with her crime, that makes her a man and he feels emasculated. He
refuses to partake in what seems like a role reversal with him and Antigone if
he agrees to free her and show weakness as a ruler and a male.
Later in the
play, when Creon is speaking to Haemon about Antigone’s death sentence it is
evident that Haemon supports Antigone and is on her side. This fact alone revolted
Creon because his one and only son sided against his own father for a woman.
Creon says to him, “…Do not, my son, banish your good sense through pleasure in
a woman, since you know that the embrace grows cold when an evil woman shares
your bed and home…” (Creon, 699- 702). Creon then proceeds to say, “…So we must
stand on the side of what is orderly; we cannot give victory to a woman. If we
must accept defeat, let it be from a man; we must not let people say that a
woman beat us” (Creon, 728-731), He explains to Haemon that if they were to
alleviate the law for anyone it could only
be for a man but never for a woman. In
his eyes, Creon would be embarrassed and ashamed for his people to see him
“yield” to a woman and accept defeat. Later in their conversation, Creon says,
“You woman’s slave, do not try to wheedle me” (Creon, 814). He refers to Haemon
as a “woman’s slave” because not only was he siding with someone who committed
a crime, but he was siding with a woman. Creon becomes clearly aggravated by
Haemon and more so disappointed and practically nauseated by his attempt to
practically inveigle him to free Antigone. Naturally, Creon refuses to listen
to Haemon and when Antigone is walking to be put in the “rocky cavern” the
Chorus says to her, “Surely it is great renown for a woman that dies, that in
life and death her lot is a lot shared with the demigods” (Chorus, 887-899).
They mock her as she enters what is to be her death sentence and tell her that because
she is a woman she is worth nothing more than having her space in life and
death shared with demigods, essentially making her life invaluable. The last clear example of gender bias shown
in the play is when Creon is responding to Antigone’s cries on her walk of a
shame “…we are guiltless in respect of her, this girl. But living above, among
the rest of us, this life she shall certainly lose” (Creon, 935-937). Creon
says how they all respect her as that was tradition to respect women, but for
her to try and live among the men and
try to be as important and superior as them is a life she can no longer live
and will not get the same respect.
Antigone was written, gender inequality and
enormous sexism was definitely was not unorthodox and possibly would’ve gone
unnoticed in the play if it wasn’t so conspicuously shown. On the other hand, when people read Antigone in the modern era, they are
usually appalled at the huge gender bias throughout the play and wonder how
women bared being deemed inferior to men.
Antigone shows readers how far we have come as a society for women’s rights
and equality and helps readers appreciate the freedom and respect woman have today.
Although Antigone was Creon’s niece and his son’s fiancé, he refused to alleviate
the law because he was afraid his people would see him as weak and not fit as a
ruler. Moreover, he would be eternally embarrassed because he would have
succumbed to a woman which was highly looked down upon. Antigone was known for
her bold personality which gave her respect of all the women in Thebes and many
people felt she did right by her brother and the Gods. Creon was blinded by his
hubris and only knew to release Antigone after he spoke with the blind prophet,
Teiresias, and by then Haemon had killed himself after finding Antigone had
hanged herself. Creon’s wife, Eurydice, then killed herself after finding about
the deaths of her son, leaving Creon with no family but Ismene and forever
ashamed of what he has done and disgraced in the eyes of his people and most
importantly, the Gods.
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