What You’ll Love about… Antigone by Sophocles
Thanks to Sigmund Freud, Oedipus Rex is the most well-known play by Sophocles, but Antigone is his best and most interesting play. It seems to have made a lasting impression on Shakespeare. I would say that Antigone is the ancient Greek play that most closely reflects the values and sensibilities of Shakespeare’s body of work.
The play’s development of its tragic sensibility is breathtaking. One of the elements of ancient Greek tragedy that you will probably struggle with is the idea that a character’s suffering may not be fair. In Antigone, Antigone has done nothing wrong, but the gods make her suffer because she is the daughter of Oedipus. The sins of Oedipus are considered so great that his entire family is essentially cursed. Even Oedipus’s suffering seems undeserved, since his crimes were accidents.
Primarily because she bears the curse of being the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone finds herself in a no-win situation; either she leaves her dead brother Polynices unburied and defies the will of the gods, or she buries her brother, as the gods require, but defies the law of Creon, King of Thebes (and Antigone’s uncle).
Antigone’s sense of conviction is admirable even though it leads to her destruction. You should recognize in her words and actions honesty, piety, conviction, and sacrifice. These qualities are…
