Antigone: A Fateful Future?

Eteocles died a hero, Polyneices a traitor. The battle to decide which one of them takes the throne of Thebes ends in the proper burial of one brother, and the disrespectful ignorance of the burial rights of the latter. So begins the play of Antigone, a story of loyalty but also of disobedience and death. Angered by the mistreatment of her brother Polynieces’ body, the fiery Antigone disobeys a civil law of Thebes, which states that no traitor will be buried. In doing so, Antigone upholds the divine laws of ancient Greece, which make it necessary for all people to receive a proper burial at death. This begins a recurrent theme of the importance of divine law over civil law, and a pre-determined fate as opposed to a future that can be chosen. Because of Antigone’s loyalty to divine law, she makes the decision to bury her brother, admit to her crime, and take her own life, and in doing so, chooses her own fate.

Angered by the king of Thebe’s decree that Polyneices must not be buried, Antigone makes the decision to bury her brother, though her sister begs her not to. The opposite of her sister Antigone, Ismene begs her sister not to put her life on the line by burying their brother Polyneices. Frightened by the threat of death and a firm believer in the role of men as authoritarians and not women, Ismene warns Antigone against defying Creon. “…Think how much worse our end will be than all the rest if we defy our sovereign’s edict and his power. Remind ourselves that we are women and as such are not made to fight with men…Therefore shall I beg the shades below to judge me leniently as one who kneeled to force. It’s madness to meddle” (Sophocles, 193).

Afraid of the consequences, Ismene tries to convince Antigone that challenging Creon cannot end well. Ismene offers Antigone many reasons why resisting is futile, giving Antigone a chance to review her decision. Antigone, however, chooses her own fate by reaffirming her belief that burying her brother is the right thing to do. “I go to bury him. To rest loved by him whom I have loved, sinner of a holy sin…please your fantasy and call it wicked what the gods call good” (194). Antigone clearly believes that the god’s law, or divine law, should be placed above Creon’s edict, or civil law. Though she could have easily changed her decision, Antigone unyieldingly stays true to her choice and therefore chooses her own path, rather than being controlled by fate.

Caught in the middle of burying her brother by the palace sentry, Antigone takes responsibility for her actions by not denying the charges brought against her and in doing so, she continuously supports the decision she makes in the beginning of the play to bury Polyneices. Because she defies Creon’s edict, she openly accepts the blame for her actions and makes an enemy of Creon. When the guards arrest Antigone, she does not resist and also admits to burying her brother, which the sentry explains to the king. “That’s when we swooped and closed upon our quarry. She didn’t flinch and when we charged ‘er and done with what she’d gorne and done, and done before, she just admitted it” (209). Antigone could have changed her future by running away or protesting loudly in order to start a riot, but she remains calm. By handing herself to the guards willingly, she shows that she is fully aware of the actions she is taking and does them out of her own will. Had she been controlled by fate, Antigone would have had less control over her situation from the beginning and would not have made such a big decision and followed through with it. Antigone shares her beliefs further when she criticizes Creon’s close-minded and foolish ways. “I never thought your mortal edicts had such force they nullified the laws of heaven, which unwritten, not proclaimed, can boast a currency that everlastingly is valid…I, whom no man’s frown can frighten…need no trumpeter from you to tell me I must die, we all die anyway (210). Displaying her courage in the face of the law, Antigone proves that she is unafraid to die. She condemns Creon’s lowly ‘mortal’ laws that, in Antigone’s opinion, hold no value with the gods. Antigone’s future could have changed had she made different decisions, such as not admitting to her crime and not insulting Creon’s edicts. The range of choices she could have made show that Antigone is controlled by her own choices and not fate. If fate had been a factor, she would not have been able to take the path that she did and make the choices she decided to.

The most prominent way Antigone shows her ability to make her own choices is by hanging herself. The foolish and unsure Creon opts to encase her in a tomb instead of stoning her, but little does he know that Antigone makes the decision to hang herself in her lonely prison. Aware of her situation and what awaits her, Antigone accepts her death sentence with a calm and regal manner, as she states the reasons for committing the crime of burying her brother to the Chorus. “So taken, so am I led away…I go alive toward these sepulchers of death, what ordinance, what law of heaven broken, what god left for me to cast my eyes toward…if I find the sin was theirs, may Justice then mete out no less to them than what injustice metes out to me” (232). Antigone accepts that she will die and opens her arms to death. While someone who had not made the decision to die in order to stay true to their values might have had qualms about what awaited them, Antigone maintains poise and elegance in the face of her doom. The sentry relays the task of releasing Antigone to Creon’s queen, Eurydice. “…We heaped a monument to him, a mound of his native earth, then turned away to unseal the vault in which there lay a virgin waiting on a bed of stone for her bridegroom-Death… and in the farthest corner we could see her hanging with a noose of linen round her neck” (245-246). Antigone herself completes the task of ending her own life. If she had been at the hands of Fate, she would have merely died in the tomb, but she ends her own life, and in doing so she takes her future into her own hands. By hanging herself, Antigone makes her final stand against Creon, showing that she regrets nothing and eagerly awaits rejoining Polyneices in the afterlife.

Antigone is a play about one girl’s stand against the injustices of civil law and the triumph of the decrees of the gods. From the moment Antigone decides to bury her brother and maintain his honor, she takes her future into her own hands. Given reasons not to commit this crime from her sister, Ismene, Antigone goes forward with her plan anyway. When caught during the burying process, Antigone does not protest or try to talk her way out of her punishment. She openly defies Creon by insulting his leadership capabilities and his ability to judge. She takes her future into her own hands for the final time by taking her own life, not willing to spend another day under Creon’s rule. Representing someone who firmly believes in their own actions and takes their future into their own hands for something they truly believe in, Antigone is a symbol of powerful resistance in the form of a girl unwilling to accept an unjust king’s laws.