In Sophocles ’ Grecian calamity, Antigone, two characters undergo character alterations. During the drama the audience sees these two characters ’ attitudes change from near minded to open-minded. It is their stopping point minded, obstinate attitudes, which lead to their diminution in the drama, and finally to a series of deceases.
In the beginning Antigone is a stopping point minded character who subsequently becomes unfastened minded. After the decease of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the swayer of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will have a funeral with military awards because he fought for his state. However, Polyneices, who broke his expatriate to “ slop the blood of his male parent and sell his ain people into bondage ” , will hold no entombment.
Antigone disagrees with Creon ’ s unfair actions and says, “ Creon is non strong plenty to stand in my way. ” She vows to bury her brother so that his psyche may derive the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the jurisprudence placed against burying her brother and her ain ideas of making what she feels should be done for her household. Her purpose is merely to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper entombment so that she will follow “ the Torahs of the gods. ” Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, “ I say that this offense is holy: I shall lie down with him in decease, and I shall be as beloved to him as he to me. ” Her ain Torahs, or ethical motives, drive her to interrupt Creon ’ s jurisprudence placed against Polyneices entombment.
Even after she realizes that she will hold to bury Polyneices without the aid of her sister, Ismene, she says: Travel off, Ismene: I shall be detesting you shortly, and the dead will excessively, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish program: I am non afraid of the danger ; if it means decease, It will non be the worst of deaths-death without award. Here Ismene is seeking to ground with Antigone by stating that she can non disobey the jurisprudence because of the effects. Antigone is closed-minded when she instantly tells her to travel off and refuses to listen to her.
Later in the drama, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the effects yet she is non sorry for her offense. She says her offense is merely, yet she does repent being forced to perpetrate it. Antigone now has the ability to see her effects because her action of burying her brother is complete. She knows her offense is justified, but her new open-mindedness leads her to see the option. Even though she knows she will decease with honor she is sorrowing for the manner she was forced to perpetrate a offense to take an action she believes is justifiable. This is seem when Antigone says: Soon I shall be with my ain once more.
. . To me, since it was my manus That washed him clean and poured the ritual vino: And my wages is decease before my clip! And yet, as work forces ’ s Black Marias knows, I have done no incorrect, I have non sinned before God. Or if I have, I shall cognize the truth in decease. But if the guilt Lies upon Creon who judged me, so, I pray, May his penalty equal my ain.
Antigone ’ s statement shows open-mindedness because she says she does non believe she has sinned but if she has she will cognize in decease. Before Antigone believed that her actions were non iniquitous, but how she shows an unfastened head. She is besides stating if it is Creon ’ s mistake that she will decease so may he decease besides for directing her unjustly to her decease. Antigone says: Thebes, and you my male parent ’ s Gods, And swayers of Thebes, you see me now, the last Unhappy girl of a line of male monarchs, Your male monarchs, led off to decease. You will retrieve What things I suffer, and at what work forces ’ s custodies Because I would non offend the Torahs of heaven Come: allow us wait no thirster. She comes from a long line of male monarchs that were fated to decease because of a expletive placed on them.
She volitionally leaves to decease cognizing that it is an honest decease. Antigone hangs herself, in the grave she was placed in by Creon, utilizing a snare of her all right linen head covering. Creon, Antigone ’ s uncle, experiences a alteration of close-mindedness to open-mindedness with his actions throughout the play. Creon’s close-minded attitude can be seen when he says: This is my command, and you can see the wisdom behind it. As long as I am king, no traitor is going to be honored with The loyal man.
But whoever shows by word and deed that he Is on the side of the state, he shall have my respect while He is living, and my reverence when he is dead. Creon is saying that as long as he is king that this is the way it will be, and you can see wisdom behind it. Unfortunately he is convinced that this is the right way to rule, and it is this attitude that leads to Creon’s decline. When Choragos tries to explain why Polyneices is now buried Creon says: Stop! Must you doddering wrecks Go our of your heads entirely? “The gods!” Intolerable! . .
. Is it your senile opinion that the gods love to honor bad men? A pious thought! Creon does not accept that a higher being could possibly judge Polyneices differently then he has. This example of close-mindedness shows that Creon compares his views with those of Greek gods. After learning that Antigone is the person who defied his law he says: She has much to learn. The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron Cracks first, and the wildest horses bend their necks At the pull of the smallest curb.
This is ironic because he is saying she has an inflexible heart when in fact he is the one who is stubborn or inflexible. When asked by his niece what he wants more than her death he says, “Nothing. That gives me everything.” The audience gets a continuous look at Creon’s close-minded attitude. When he says Antigone’s death gives him everything he means everything in a positive sense. In actuality her death brings him everything negative. This is how his close-minded, stubborn attitude leads to his decline.
As a result of his inflexibility, he loses Antigone, Haimon, and Eurydice. After the loss of his niece, son and wife, Creon’s change is sudden. While talking to Choragos, he tells Creon to, “Go quickly: free Antigone from her vault and build a tomb for the body of Polyneices.” Creon’s response is contrary to his earlier stubbornness, “It is hard to deny the heart! But I will do it: I will not fight with destiny.” Creon is now becoming open-minded. He says that he will no longer fight destiny and this shows that he was not right to punish Antigone in the first place. Another example of Creon’s change is shown when the Messenger says: Take the case of Creon: Creon was happy once, as I count happiness: Victorious in battle, soul governor of the land, Fortunate father of children nobly born. And now it is all gone from him.
This illustrates Creon’s decline due to his stubborn, inflexible attitude. He has lost all of his happiness, explained by the Messenger, leading towards his decline because of his stubborn personality. The Messenger says, “Haimon is dead; and the hand that killed him is his own hand.” Choragos’ response is, “His father’s? or his own?” The Messenger replies, “His own, driven mad by the murder his father had done.” Haimon’s suicide is being placed on Creon’s stubborn murdering. He also admits to this later when he says, “I have killed my son and my wife.” Choragos attempts to explain Creon’s newfound open mind when he says: There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise.
This statement illustrates that Creon’s “big words” are punished by the deaths of his niece, son and wife. Creon learns to be wise or to become more open-minded after he is too late to stop the deaths in his family. Creon was a proud man, but with time and consequences he learned to be wise. Antigone is a tragedy that involves the changing attitudes of two characters. It is through the changes made by Antigone and Creon from close-minded to open-minded characters that the play becomes a tragedy.
With Creon’s stubborn laws and Antigone’s stubborn opinion in the beginning of the play, the tragedy may take place.
