Theme In Antigone :: essays research papers

Antigone, by Sophocles, is a play that has three major themes. All three of these themes play a very important part in this play. The three major themes are fate, love, and pride. Oedipus had killed his father, king of Thebes, not knowing it was his father and then took over Thebes. He married Iocaste, queen of Thebes (his mother), and had four children; one was a girl named Antigone. When Oedipus had figured out who he was and what he had done he moved away and cut out his eyes. Iocaste's cousin, Creon, had taken over as king of Thebes. He had made Oedipus' two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, enemies of each other and they killed each other. Creon denied Polyneices proper burial because he was an enemy and that where this play begins.Fate is what had gotten the family of Oedipus where we begin this play. Fate is why Oedipus had killed his father, marry his mother, and then find out all about it. Fate then tortured Oedipus and he cut out his eyes. Fate had made Creon new king of Thebes and then have Oedipus' sons kill each other. Antigone's fate was to die trying to honor her dead brother and be loyal her family. In the first paragraph of the play it reads, "My darling sister Ismene, we have had a fine inheritance from Oedipus. God has gone through the whole range of sufferings and piled them all on us, -grief upon grief, humiliation upon humiliation". This tells just how bad fate had treated the family of Oedipus. Creon's fate though was to lose all of his family and live the rest of his life knowing it was his entire fault. In the end of the play Creon says, " Nobody else to share the blame. Just me... I killed you. I killed you my dear.Love is what had gotten Antigone in this problem. Her love for her brother was so great that she sacrificed her life for the respect that his deserved. Haemon's love for Antigone had made him kill himself when he found her dead body. Creon's wife's love for Haemon had made her kill herself when she found out Haemon had killed himself. In the end because of all this Creon was the one that was denied love.Pride is what had gotten Creon in the mess that he was in. His pride was so great that he couldn't even admit that maybe he was wrong.