Antigone And Medea

Improved Essays
Tragedy can often change the outcome of certain circumstances by altering the behavior and testing the character of those involved. Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea are impressive works of literature that completely embody this statement. They are the types of literature that evoke emotions of understanding and justification within the audience at certain times. Both female character influences the actions of those around them with their owns.

For instance, both Antigone and Medea take extreme measures in order to obtain revenge or it may seem that way. When their circumstances are looked at more closely some of their actions can be justified. Antigone’s decision to defy Creon's edict and bury her brother pushes Creon to sentence

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Antigone is a play about two brothers on opposing sides of a war. Both were killed in battle and the new king Creon has ordered one to be honored while the other to lie unburied. Antigone, one of the sisters, defies Creon’s order and buries her brother Polyneices. Once Creon learns what Antigone has done, he orders her to be imprisoned in a cave. Antigone argues with Creon about morality and what the gods would want.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Creon: Not even death can make a foe a friend. Antigone: My nature is for mutal love, not hate. Creon: Die then, and love the dead if thou must, No woman shall be the master while I live.” (522-524)…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the first ode of the play Antigone by Sophocles, the unique qualities of human nature are expressed through literary devices. These devices include: extended metaphor, simile and personification. The use of metaphor shows intellect and ingenuity, the use of simile shows intellect, and the use of personification shows skill. All of which culminate together to show the ways that humankind is different from other living organisms.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gandhi once said, “Anger is the enemy of non violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.” Pride and honor meant a lot to ancient Greeks but in the play Antigone by Sophocles, the reader sees that too much pride can prove to be a fatal flaw. At the start of the play, both Antigone and Creon seem to be morally justified in their quests. Antigone simply wants to bury her brother, who had died in battle, but Creon demands that nobody touch the body because he had died fighting against Thebes. When Creon finds out Antigone buried the body, he punished her severely.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Macbeth, Brutus from Julius Ceasar, John Proctor from The Crucible, Hercules, Sirius Black from Harry Potter, and Spiderman all have a common fate; they are all tragic heroes. A tragic hero is “a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat” (Dictionary). Every hero has a downfall and a purpose; typically it is for the greater good for everyone else. In The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles, Antigone and Creon are characters who could be tragic heroes. Bounteous people do not envisage Antigone as a tragic hero; these people believe she is crazy, has no purpose, and does not help the kingdom.…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Justice In Antigone Analysis

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited

    Santirocco, author of “Justice in Sophocles’ Antigone,” states, “ [Antigone and Creon are a lot alike] both are isolated, both are stubborn, both respond to others, including those who love them, in the same imperious way, and both doom themself and others by their actions. The greatest similarity, though, lies in their pursuit of justice” (186). Antigone knows from the beginning what her morals are, which are steering her actions. She felt she was on the side of justice for what she did, and leaving her brother out to rot in her eyes was unjust. Antigone knew the punishment that lied ahead, but because her love and relationship with her brother was strong she was unconcerned of the consequence.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Acting on emotions is used in Ancient Greek plays to show audience members and society how to act. It was often shown in the plays that the characters acting on emotions rather than in a logical way lead them to a bad situation. In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, has to find out who has killed the former king, Laius. In a horrible twist of fate, he finds out that Laius is his father whom he killed, and the queen whom Oedipus is married to is actually his mother. In Antigone, the story goes on to tell the fate of Oedipus’ daughter who wants to honor her dead brother by burial, but the act is prohibited by the present king Creon, Antigone’s uncle.…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Starting with Antigone, if she would have just chose to be more like her sister Ismene, and follow the societies roles for women, there would be no deaths for Antigone, her husband, and Creon’s wife. In lines 74-75 Ismene states “Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men”. If Antigone just would have listened to Ismene, there wouldn’t be any conflict between the family. Perhaps if Creon would have listened to the gods orders on burials then there could have been conflict resolved. Therefor if the two could have behaved differently than the outcomes would have been…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oedipus The King

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the script, Oedipus the King, the author Sophocles displays a perfect model of tragedy. The main character, Oedipus, experiences a tragic downfall caused by his undeniable fate. Throughout the story key components help to contribute to the idea of a tragedy. Tragedy is describes the downfall of a hero through fate, hubris, and the will of the gods. Throughout the story the closer Oedipus gets to the truth, the closer he is to tragedy.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gender Bias in Antigone In Sophocles ' Antigone, gender biases are quite prevalently used to portray the inequality between men and women in a misogynistic society. Sophocles used the major conflict between Kreon and Antigone to demonstrate this ideology. Kreon, who was Antigone’s uncle and the ruler of Thebes, would not listen to her reasoning simply because she was a woman.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Realism In Medea Essay

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Euripides’ Medea is a telling tale which delves deep into the realm of the modern human being’s greatest internal conflict, balancing the tug of one’s heartstrings amidst the vacuum of society’s value system. The darling daughter of a barbaric Greek kingdom, Medea’s life is warped by the blinding light of love. Thus readers are compelled to understand the distraught state of this loyal woman, which came about following Jason’s decision to marry the daughter of Corinth. Despite opposing views, Medea’s decisions, and ensuing actions, were substantiated given the circumstance within the play. Foremost, the emotional myriad which coated Medea’s heart, from the effects of losing the love of her life to being exiled from Colchis, placed her in a…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In life, “we [can] do everything right, act on the best information available, and with the best of intentions, yet still commit unspeakable horrors” (“The Tragic Hero in Greek Drama”). Aristotle created a definition of a tragic hero based on Sophocles’ characters in the tragedies Antigone and Oedipus the King. His definition, known as the Aristotelian tragic hero, has specific requirements the character must possess. Creon is the character that best exemplifies Aristotle’s tragic hero because of his virtue, his hubris, and his realization of his fate; however, others may argue that Antigone is a better example of a tragic hero because of her virtue and her hamartia, but in fact, Creon displays more qualities of a tragic hero Aristotle has…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sophocles’ Antigone tells the story of a young female living in an ancient Greek society in the city, Thebes. Throughout the play, there are two major themes, which this paper will critically look into, that appeared to be very relevant to the present time though they were not aligned to the social norms at that time. The two themes are civil disobedience and feminism, which both can be utilized in today’s society. First, the main character, Antigone portrays the act of civil disobedience, which is rare during that time.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tragedy is an unescapable abyss that not only haunts heroes, but also the common man. In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles tells the story of Oedipus, who strives to defy his prophecy, to ultimately show that fate is predestined and cannot be avoided. Upon hearing his destiny, he ignorantly puts the foretelling aside and suffers from dramatic irony as well as elements of astonishment and great change throughout the play. Thus, “Oedipus the King” is a prime example of a tragedy with the countless upbringings of tragic irony as well as Oedipus’ portrayal as a tragic hero, both of which support the general theme of established fortune.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sophocles’ Medea and Euripides’ Oedipus are both horribly tragic characters. They are similar characters in that they worsen their situations through pride, duty, and rage. However, they also vary drastically in terms of morality, fate, and sophistication. Sophocles’ Medea and Euripides’ Oedipus clearly define two opposing sides of Greek tragedy. First, Medea and Oedipus similarly elevate the severity of their predicaments through pride.…

    • 1601 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays