Great Works at 10.20am Spring 2015

Antigone is one of the most unique female characters I have ever read in the books. Unlike many other pretty or smart female heroines, my first impression of Antigone is that she is brave, fearless, but also stubborn and even a little bit paranoid. She is definitely not perfect. The character flaws of her make herself more vividly.

People always admire Antigone because of her love towards her family and her courageousness to challenge the power and authority of the state. These good qualities are all true. Antigone does love her brothers. She is willing to risk her life to just bury her brother Polyneices, no matter how Ismene disagrees with her. Antigone also love her sister, Ismene. After Antigone is caught, she has a short conversation with Ismene that she wants Ismene has a good life after she died. The most important reason people like her because of her unprecedented actions that reconceived the role of women in society more than 2500 years ago.

Antigone also has many negative traits. Her stubbornness is very obvious throughout her dialogues with Ismene and Kreon. Just like her uncle Kreon, Antigone is headstrong and reckless, never going to quit what she thinks need to be done. Her stubbornness caused her to act before thinking and eventually to commit suicide. Another disadvantage of her is self-righteous. She subjectively judges Kreon is a bad man, but from my point of view, it is a pretty normal way to punish a traitor. On the contrary, her action of burying a traitor is not necessarily legitimate, even that traitor is her brother. Antigone thinks that she did it for love and responsibilities, but she ignores the fact that Ismene and Haemon also love her. They will be sorrowful if Antigone is dead. However, she never put it into consideration. From this point of view, she lacks sympathy for people who cares about her.

To be honest, Antigone would be more fit in today’s society. She’s strong and powerful. She has the quality that many successful women have and more importantly, she is on the side of moral standards.