How the Choices of the Characters Affected Each Other
Uploaded by Admin on Dec 13, 1999
In everyday life, the outcome of your day can be altered by the simplest or most complicating choices. Antigone's decision to bury her brother, Creon's choice to sentence Antigone to death, and again Antigone's choice to end her life were important decisions that other characters based their conclusions around. The choices of the characters in Antigone change the outcome of the play and the lives or choices of other characters.
The famous "first" decision of Antigone was to bury her brother Polyneices against Creon's order and Ismene's opposition. Three deaths including her own resulted from this controversial decision that shaped the play. Was Antigone doing this to seem saintly or because she felt it was her duty as a sister? "I will bury him myself. If I die for doing that, good" (123). This answer lies within Antigone.
The action Creon took to solving his problem of Antigone's actions against his issue was to sentence her to a slow death of starvation. "Away with her at once, and close her up in her rock-vaulted tomb. Leave her and let her die" (150). Little did Creon know that this would cost him his most valuable treasure, his family.
A long term solution to a short term problem was a way to explain Antigone permanent decision to kill herself. "We saw her hanging by the neck. The rope was of woven linen of her dress" (159). Her choice lead to Haemon and his mother's decision to also kill themselves out of grief for one another. ". . .the poor, demented boy leaned on his sword and thrust it deeply home in his side. . ." (159), "She is dead, your wife, the mother of him that is dead - the death-wound fresh in her heart" (159).
How a person uses his or her day determines not only the fate of themselves but also the attitudes and actions of others. The subtle and somewhat dramatic choices the characters of Antigone choose, steer the play thought many twist and turns making it a memorable dramatic.