A CLASH OF IDEALS
...who’s a fool.’ In this era, that type of behaviour is simply not done. When she is finally relegated to her fate, Antigone takes her own life, rather than allow hunger and starvation to claim her instead. Most would consider Antigone’s actions heroic and morally righteous: she stood by family all the way through to the end. However, Antigone’s character possesses several key contrasts. Before she is escorted to her tomb while still alive, Antigone laments ‘What law do I appeal to, claiming this?/ If my husband died, there’d be another one/ and if I were to lose a child of mine/ I’d have another with some other man/ But since my father and my mother, too/ are hidden away in Hades’ house/ I’ll never have another living brother.’ Antigone’s entire argument is based on unflagging loyalty to her blood lines. However, she states that she could disregard the death of her child, or husband, for they could be easily replaced. But wouldn’t her child have her blood? And wouldn’t there be any sort of emotional link between her and her husband? Antigone’s hard heartedness makes it difficult to accept her emotional outrage at her brother’s death, and makes Haemon look like a sap for caring about her enough to take his own life after she committed suicide. Not to mention the fact that Antigone continually runs down her sister at every opportunity. Throughout much of the play, Antigone seems as if she has designs on martyrdom, which comes across from her haughty, holier-than-thou attitude. For example, when she speaks to Ismene in the beginning of the play, she says that Ismene is ‘unworthy of her ancestors,’ and states: ‘My honours for the dead/must last much longer than for those up here/ I’ll lie down there forever. As for you/ well, if you wish, you can show contempt/ for those laws the gods all hold in honour.’ Even when Ismene wishes to share her death sentence, Antigone rebukes her, not so much out of love as out of annoyance, as if Ismene is trying to compete or tarnish her status as a martyr. ‘Hades and the dead can say who did it/ I don’t love a friend whose love is only words.’ As her argument hinges upon her moral basis, her more disingenuous aspects are hard to overlook, and makes it difficult to side with her. Several democratic elements that remain to the present were initially developed in the Grecian society; one such principle was that of ‘Non-Governmental Interference,’ where the private and religious lives of people were out of the realms of government. And with his actions, Creon expressly crossed the line. By refusing his family to bury Polyneices’ body, Creon was taking into his hands a choice no human being is allowed to make - who enters Heaven and Hell. Creon’s insistence on ruling with an iron fist is criticized, not only by Antigone, but by the Chorus, Haemon, and the prophet. When the Chorus sings ‘If he treats his country’s laws with due respect/and honours justice by swearing on the gods/he wins high honours in his city/ But when he grows bold and turns to evil/ then he has no city. A man like that—/ let him not share my home or know my mind’ it clearly defines their position. Creon, in his quest to become a strong leader has assumed too much power and become arrogant (‘They shake their heads and have not kept their necks/under my yoke, as they are duty bound to do/if they were men who are content with me’), a flaw that is made apparent by his harsh treatment of the guards, the chorus, Antigone and even his son, and his rampant paranoia, where it appears to him that everybody is taking a bribe. The Chorus makes it clear that they will reject Creon if he continues along this path, and so will the rest of the city. However, Creon can be sympathized with. His unwillingness to bend the rules for a member of his own family was necessary to show the state that he was a strong leader, and capable of making decisions without being influenced b...