Antigone is a very tragic play that explains what happens when two stubborn people collide. This play gives many examples how ones pride can get in the way of right and wrong. Antigone, which is the main character in the play, was the play's tragic heroine. In the first moments of the play, Antigone is opposed to her radiant sister Ismene. Antigone was described as scrawny, sallow, withdrawn, and a brat. Antigone has a boyish physical look and curses her girlhood. Antigone has always been difficult, terrorizing Ismene as a child, always insisting on the gratification of her desires, refusing to understand the limits placed on her. Antigone draws attention to the difference between divine law and human law, playing a significant part in the play.
Antigone violated against state power for what she thinks is right, which is mainly her part in the play. Anouilh's adaptation explains Antigone's act of its moral, political, and religious view through Antigone. Antigone's tragedy rests in her refusal to go back on her desire. Against who ever get in her way, she will bury her brother to the point of her own death. Her desire locates her in a line of tragic heroes, specifically of Oedipus. Like Oedipus, she wanted things to go her way no matter what happens. In refusing to go back on her word to bury her brother, she moves outside the human community. As with Oedipus, it is precisely her moment of abjection, when she has lost all hope. As Ismene notes, Antigone is not beautiful like the rest, but beautiful in a way that stops children in the street, beautiful in a way that unsettles and frightens.
Antigone is very much her fathers daughter, and she begins the play with the same swift decisiveness with which Oedipus began his. Within the first fifty lines, she is planning to defy Creons order and bury Polynices. Unlike her father, however, Antigone possesses a remarkable ability to remember the past. Antigone begins the play by talking about the many griefs that her father handed down to his children. Being aware of her own history, Antigone is much more dangerous than Oedipus, especially to Creon. Knowing how bad her family is, Antigone feels she has nothing to lose. The thought of death terrifies Ismene, but does not even faze Antigone, who looks forward to the glory of dying for her brother. Speaking about being killed for burying Polynices, Antigone says that she will lie with the one she loves, which shows how secure she is about her situation.
More than any other character, Antigone puts serious doubt on Creons authority. When she points out that it is against the will of the gods or the unshakable traditions of men, she places Creons right against Polynices burial in a perspective that makes it seem shameful and ridiculous to not bury her brother. Antigones motivation for burying her brother is more complicated than simply reverence for the dead or for tradition. It shows that Antigone is so determined to do what she think is right throughout the play.
In conclusion, Antigone is a woman so desperate to maintain her belief to bury her brother, even if she has to see death. Antigone is a very powerful play; because of the main female character that does what she think is best. Also in the play it states whether or not the gods did favor her by making her a hero or disapproved by letting her die. I acknowledge that Antigone did what she felt was right no matter what happened to her. Playing a significant part in the play, Antigone drew attention to the difference between divine law and human law.
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