According to Brown, “The dramatist depicts incidents which arouse pity and fear for the protagonist [Antigone], then during the course of the action, he resolves the major conflicts, bringing the plot to a logic and foreseeable conclusion (Brown, para 5). The tragic hero in Antigone is Creon. Tragic heroes are not all good and not all bad. Creon suffers a great deal due to his tragic flaw and destructive pride. Creon believes the gods make him suffer the loss of his wife and son as punishment for his pride.
The conditions forced because of the animosity between the families made the couple feel prohibited to be together and thus hiding their love. Due to the rivalry two other important characters were killed, altering the ending of the play. Additionally, the star cross lovers can be held somewhat liable because overall it was their decision to take their own lives and their decision to continue with their relationship knowing all the risks and ramifications. Undoubtedly the most significant influence was fate. Fate predetermines every outcome of the play, because it is an intense energy that no one can control or change.
Because Creon was attempting to become a dominant male figure and became overwhelmed with power he created laws that the society had to abide by. He wanted his laws to override any other religion and any family values. The way in which Creon went about this is conflicted with Antigone because Antigone would not abide by his rules. Creon clearly discriminated against woman and felt as they were inferior to all males. The way in which Creon and Antigone oppose each other adds fuel to the fire in the conflicts between the sexes.
There is a conflict between Antigone and Creon throughout the play; both of them having their own ideas and opinions regarding divine law represented by Creon versus human law obeyed by Antigone. This conflict controls the whole play. It is an issue of which law is the right one and if Creon's and Antigone's acts were justifiable. In the play, Antigone decides to bury her brother Polyneices, who according to Creon fought against his native country and can not be buried as an honorable warrior. The play brings out moral questions: when we know that those in power were morally wrong, do we break their laws, or do we collaborate with them by obeying?
Our own brothers’ burial! Hasn’t Creon graced one with all the rites, disgraced the other? Eteocles, they say, has been given full military honors, rightly so – Creon’s laid him in the earth and he goes with glory down among the dead” (Sophocles 1343). Antigone is sharing with her sister Ismene, her thoughts about her brothers’ burial. Because her brother Eteocles was fighting for Thebes, he has been given a proper burial.
Antigone and her sister, Ismene are together in two scenes, the prologue and the second scene. They always argue because of their different opinions. Ismene feels that although she loved her brother, he is dead, and they should respect the law and not bury him with honor. The other contrasts come between Creon and the guard and Haimon, who is Creon’s son, in the third scene. Creon and Antigone also contrast in the way they live.
The gods fear of being forgotten has them constantly threatening the lives of others. They yearn for attention and assurance from other people. Also, they are content on making their lives miserable because that way they can have the assurance of the mortals having constant thoughts about them. This obviously shows their lack of confidence they have in themselves and the mortals. The gods depicted in the Odyssey are shown as needy and sniveling beings.
Not only does this demonstrate his inclination to rule through force but it shows he believes himself above fate. However in reality, his threats further alienating the one immortal who can help him avoid his doom. These obedient immortals represent Zeus’s brutality, stubbornness toward fate, and exemplify his tyrannical method of rule. The immortals compassionate to Prometheus’s plight express their sympathies but also express their fear of Zeus’s wrath. Hephaestus, who is extremely troubled by having a hand in punishing his friend, still executes Zeus’s orders stating, “…it is a dangerous thing to treat the Father’s words lightly.” (lines 16-17).
Dionysus was also sometimes at the heart of frenzied madness. Dionysus was not the God of all of this but he was all of this. Could the stubbornness of Pentheus driven Dionysus into madness that he took hard measures upon Pentheus. Dionysus has come to Thebes to make sure that he his known by all and also to take revenge on his family who insulted
Being a daughter, she has minimal rights and is not entitled to do whatever defies her father. She is very defiant of her father, which is clearly shown in the first scene of the play. She argues and refuses to marry Demetrius for Lysander, but without prevail. She loves Lysander wholeheartedly, and will rather “grow, so live, so die” instead of marrying Demetrius. In act of love, Hermia refuses to marry the man Demetrius, despite knowing the very harsh consequences of defying her father.