The ancient Greek tragedies, Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides, both contain compelling arguments conducted amongst its main characters. The tale of Antigone describes the struggle of a young women who is punished for disobeying mortals in order to respect the gods. Medea gives an account of a woman who seeks revenge after being tremendously grieved when betrayed by her husband. The main characters of both tragedies find themselves in heated debates with their male counterparts. Perhaps the most convincing arguments come from Antigone's claim to Creon regarding her innocence, and Jason's exchange with Medea. When Antigone is brought before Creon she admits to her guilt in disobeying the king’s edict. However, she says she …show more content…
Thus, it was essentially Aphrodite who orchestrated their marriage by making Medea fall in love with him and subsequently, credit would be due to the goddess. To the audience this remark seems extreme, to claim that the love Medea has acted to strongly on and used to rationalize her extreme behavior is not grounded in sincerity, but in fact a result of the intervention of the gods. However, this does an effective job at causing the audience to question Medea and she hence begins to be seen no longer as just the tragic heroine without fault. It discredits the basis for Medea’s arguments in claiming her love as so great as to go through such extreme measures. In formulating his arguments, Jason utilized the rhetorical appeal of logos. He gave logical reasons to back up his claims. It was his logical appeal to the audience that began to persuade them away from sympathizing purely with Medea. In contrast to Medea who used pathos and acts out of passionate rage, Jason’s cool and articulate arguments made Medea’s claims seem like that of a rampant child. Antigone employed the appeal of ethos in her arguments. Antigone was trying to convince the audience of her credibility and that she as making the ethical decision in disobeying
Furthermore, Antigone proclaims, “These laws —I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man's wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods.” Here, Antigone shows that she is more fearful of divine judgment than of Creon’s punishment. This is significant as it shows that Antigone would much rather face death than eternal punishment by the gods. Finally, Antigone demonstrates
In the Greek tragedy Antigone, written by Sophocles, the characters Antigone and Creon evoke complex emotions of sympathy and empathy from the audience. The play explores the themes of duty, justice, and the consequences of one's actions. Through the characters of Antigone and Creon, the play generates a range of emotional responses from the audience, from sympathy to frustration to despair. Antigone is a tragic hero who evokes sympathy from the audience because of her unwavering sense of duty to her family and to the gods. She defies Creon's edict by burying her brother Polyneices, knowing that she will face death as a consequence.
In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Antigone, there is a popular debate over who the true protagonist and antagonist of the play is. Antigone is the better choice for the protagonist in the play because her actions are what initially cause the the tragic outcome to occur. Unlike Creon, Antigone obeys the gods and shows respect for her family. Creon, however, can be characterized as the antagonist because of his opposition to Antigone, the protagonist. Antigone’s motives for burying Polyneices are honorable.
and she went through with her plan anyways. This quote also shows that Antigone will keep her word and do what she thinks is right even if she is gonna be punished if she gets
She knows she is destined to die, but she has no regard for her punishment and is standing up for what she believes in. If citizens do not agree with King Creon’s laws they will be punished, hence they always agree with him. They fear his power, not himself, while Antigone fears neither. Antigone is promptly treated like common street trash now that she stood up to the king. The king does not care who you are, only what you
Antigone Antigone was wronged and Antigone is tragic hero because she wanted to get a proper grave site, Creon was her uncle, Antigone was the good one. Antigone wants her brother to be buried but her uncle wouldn’t let her. Her uncle Creon was a very mean man.
Countless times, Creon was implored to change his mind to preserve the safety of others. However, due to his uncompromising and egocentric nature, he repeatedly denied this aid, and therefore caused the tragedies of the deaths of his niece and his son. The events that occurred in the play Antigone accurately represent the characteristics of a tragic flaw and subsequent suffering that define a
In the classic play by Sophocles, Antigone is a tragic story of the bold Antigone who defied her uncle, King Creonʻs, edict by burying her brother, Polyneices, who died attacking the city of Thebes, trying to take the power away from their brother, Eteocles, who refused to share the throne with Polyneices. Even though Antigone knew that going against Creon and burying her brother would not end well for her, she still choose to risk her life to do what is right. After being caught breaking the law, Antigone is appointed to be locked away, isolated in a cave until she dies, but she hangs herself at the end. At the same time, things for Creon are not looking good, as everyone around him seems to be against him in his decision for punishing Antigone. Everyone Creon cares about kills themselves from a curse that is put on Creon for not following the Godsʻ laws.
She is so obedient to Creon she even goes as far as to claim the laws set in place are for “public good.” This can be linked to how during the experiments mentioned in The Perils of Obedience the testers would sometimes do everything asked of them, no questions. This is similar with Antigone. Even if she does know in her heart that it’s wrong, she lets what is happening happen. That is where Antigone can be connected to The Perils of
Antigone's actions consistently display her dedication to the will of the gods, and Creon's behaviour steadily exhibits his fierce devotion to state laws. Thus, this Greek tragedy compellingly establishes and thoroughly explores the intricate and perplexing relationship between the two themes by utilizing the literary device of
Medea and the women of Corinth both share, to a different extent, the experience of being unfairly categorized as the caretaker of the family, which aids Medea in persuasion because she can be trusted as a woman to speak on the patriarchal society. She continues as ‘’of all creatures that have life and reason we women are the sorriest lot’’ (229-230) of all the living things Medea describes women as the ‘’sorriest’’ which suggests that women are pitied and helps Medea to allure the Chorus to be on her side. Medea suggests to the Chorus that Females ‘’must at a great expenditure of money buy a husband and even take on a master over our body: this evil is more galling than the first. ’’(231-233) Medea is arguing that women must sacrifice a ‘’great’’ amount of money to ‘’buy’’ their partners. This conveys the patriarchal community in Corinth.
The story of Antigone by Sophocles is a story of a sister on a quest to bury her brother who was killed in combat. The new incoming king forbids such acts of burial for the brother, as he is labeled a traitor. Antigone has shown that she is a strong woman as she continues to believe in her ways of things. Even if she is told by others to stand down, she continues to hang on to her beliefs till the end. Creon who is told by his son and Teiresias is late to think about how her punishment was unreasonable that he took it too far.
In Euripides’ text The Medea, Medea can easily be painted as the villian. She is a woman who killed her own children in an attempt to spite her husband. But, by examining the text, we can see that she deserves some sympathy. She has little to no control over her own life and has to rely on the will of men. And as a foreigner in Corinth abandoned by her husband, she faces even more challenges than the native women of Corinth did.
In this quote, she is trying to harn Creon that although he thinks very highly of himself, he will never be able to anything to disrupt the gods and their unwritten laws (being that all men deserve burial). Additionally, the word choice and tone used by the characters also differs. When Creon talks he makes it clear that he thinks of himself quite highly and is convinced that he is above everyone else because of his excessive pride and noble stature. This leads to a tone in his speech that is very obnoxious and off-putting. To the contrary, Antigone regards herself quite low and stands for
Antigone’s first core value is that she believes in putting her family first. This core value influences her decision that leads to her attempting