Ethics and Literature Book Report: “Antigone”

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Introduction
The play “Antigone” by Sophocles exceptional piece that describes the aftermath of a civil war. At the beginning of the play, Sophocles introduces two sons of Oedipus, Polyneices and Eteocles, who are at the battlefield fighting for Thebes' kingship. Unfortunately, the two brothers die on the battlefield. Creon is chosen to take the throne and decides that Eteocles, who led the local army, to be buried, while Polyneices, who led the foreign army to be left to rot on the battlefield. However, Oedipus's daughter, Antigone, decides to give his brother Polyneices a decent burial, an action that does not get well with Creon.
As a result, Antigone is condemned to death by Creon. Learning about the sentence, Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone's fiancé, pleads with his father to reverse the verdict. At this point, Tiresias, a Thebe prophet, enters and advises Creon that the gods want Polyneices buried. Unluckily, Creon ignores Tiresias’s plea, and Antigone has already hanged herself. On learning about his fiancée's death, Haemon kills himself. Similarly, after being informed about his son's death, Eurydice commits suicide, leaving Creon alone.
Catastrophe characters in the play
Antigone and Creon can be considered the catastrophe characters in the play. The decision to bury her brother stimulates the series of tragedies in the play. On learning about his brother's death, Polyneices, Antigone is so determined to bury him, “Go on, and make excuses. I am on my way. I’ll heap the earth upon my dearest brother’s graveCITATION Sop01 \p 5 \l 1033 (Sopocles 5).” As a result, King Creon passed a law against anyone who would bury Polyneices, who he considered a traitor. However, Antigone buried him anyway, an action that leads to her death sentence. Consequently, she kills herself, which causes her fiancés Haemon and Creon's wife to kill themselves. That is, if Creon had listened to Tiresias’s advice, Antigone would not have been sentenced to death, and the suicide of Haemon and Eurydice would have been evaded.
Ship passing through a storm
Creon uses the ship passing the storm as a protracted metaphor for the struggling Thebes. Using “storm,” Creon refers to Polyneices who have threatened the ship's survival (his kingship). The state's ship stresses that all people on board lose th...