Antigone Reaction Essay

854 Words4 Pages
There is an old saying that family is forever. Friends may come and go, seasons rotate in and out, but nothing can change the blood that runs through your veins. Family is something you’re born into, some rich and some poor, weather born with a gold spoon in your mouth or no spoon, you are born into a family. Being born into a family is something we have no control over while in the womb of our mother. This, unfortunately, places the child into a position where certain roles will need to be filled by them; roles that could possibly conflict with family power also given. The line between family and power is blurred and needs to be addressed. It is Antigone that first addresses this blurred line with her sister, Ismene. After the death of both of their brothers, it is their duty, their manifest destiny, to ensure that both of their brothers receive a rightful burial. Antigone understands this is her role, her job, within the family. A rightful and respefectful role if you ask anyone in today’s world. While this is so, with now both brothers dead, she is faced with a very difficult decision. That question being how to bury her brother and not be stoned to death in the process. Like in all families, there is a role that the younger must take on when their elderly parents reach the age of death. This role requires them to give the newly dead a proper burial and demands them to accept the fact that they, the newly dead, have moved onto to another life stage that very little is known about. As Antigone’s brothers past away during the same time, the time has come for her to fulfill one of her last roles that is owed to her brothers, to give them respect in this time and to give them a proper burial. This would seem fine, however Antigone is also being faced with an issue of family power. Seeing as both her brothers were next to be seated at the throne of the empire,
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