essay type questions on antigone

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English Composition 2

Essay questions for sophocles's antigone.

A thesis statement can be regarded as an answer to a question, so coming up with a one-sentence response to one of the questions below could give you a good thesis statement for an essay on Sophocles's Antigone .

• In what ways is Creon responsible for his own downfall?
• Does Creon suffer from excessive pride?
• How would you characterize Creon as a ruler?
• Is Creon deserving of sympathy?
• How might we interpret Creon's character psychologically? What personal characteristics lead to the decisions that he makes?
• What personal characteristics lead Antigone to defy Creon in burying her brother?
• How should we regard the character Antigone? As prideful and reckless? As heroic? As an innocent victim of tyranny? As a martyr? As a masocist? As an idealist?
• In what significant ways are Creon and Antigone similar?
• In what ways is Ismene important to the play?
• In what ways is Haemon important to the play?
• How are women portrayed in the play?
• What does the play say about the place of women in society?
• What does the play Antigone say about absolute power?
• What does the play say about obligations to family and obligations to authority?
• What does the play say about human laws and religious laws?

These are only some of the questions we could ask about the play. Can you think of other questions?

Copyright Randy Rambo , 2022.

Antigone Essay Topics and Questions

Table of Contents

Understanding and Exploring “Antigone”: A Guide

Whether “Antigone” captivates or bores you hinges on your taste in plays. This masterpiece delves into profound aspects of human nature and societal interactions. To assess critical thinking, educators often assign essay topics related to the text. Successful responses require an intimate understanding of the play’s multifaceted issues. Remember, as a literary work, it’s crucial to discuss “Antigone’s” themes while referencing specific instances from the text.

How to Select an Optimal “Antigone” Essay Topic?

Choosing the right topic sets the foundation for your essay. If your instructor provides a topic, ensure you comprehend the instructions and the underlying question to offer an apt response. If there’s any ambiguity or uncertainty, don’t hesitate:

• Consult your instructor for clarification.
• Discuss with peers who have a good grasp of the topic to gain different perspectives.

If you’re choosing a topic independently, keep the following in mind:

• Follow Guidelines : Stick to your instructor’s criteria, such as focusing on themes or literary techniques.
• Choose Your Strength : Opt for topics that resonate with you. For instance, if exploring femininity feels more intuitive than delving into mortality, trust your instinct. This ensures not only ease but also enhances the quality of your essay.

Top “Antigone” Essay Topics

• Analyze how character interactions propel “Antigone’s” plot.
• Assess Creon’s stance on authority and critique its practicality.
• Delve into the theme of family responsibility as portrayed in the play.
• Discuss gender roles and their representation.
• Examine the significance of female characters in advancing the narrative.

Character Analysis:

• The transformation of Creon throughout the play.
• Is Antigone a heroine or a tragic figure? Discuss.
• Haemon’s loyalty: To his father Creon or his lover Antigone?
• What is the role of the Chorus and its influence on the audience?
• Analyzing Ismene’s cautious nature compared to Antigone’s rebelliousness.

Themes Explored:

• There is a clash between divine law and human law.
• Loyalty within the family versus loyalty to the state.
• Consequences of hubris in the play.
• Morality and its complexities in Antigone.
• The costs of dissent and the price of obedience.

Literary Devices:

• Symbolism in Antigone and its significance.
• The use of foreshadowing and its impact on the narrative.
• Role of irony in the tragic events of the play.
• The structure and purpose of the stichomythia in dialogue.
• Dramatic tension and its buildup throughout the narrative.

Philosophical Insights:

• The nature of free will in the face of destiny.
• Ethical dilemmas faced by characters.
• What is the definition of justice in Antigone’s world?
• Perspectives on death and the afterlife.
• The concept of duty and its implications for characters.

Gender and Society:

• Portrayal of women in ancient Greek society through Antigone.
• Masculinity and its standards in the play.
• The societal expectations placed on both genders.
• Power dynamics between male and female characters.
• The impact of gender roles on decision-making processes.

Religion and Tradition:

• Role of the gods and their influence on human affairs.
• Significance of burial rites in Greek tradition.
• There is tension between old religious beliefs and new societal norms.
• The interplay of fate and prophecy in the narrative.
• Divine intervention or absence thereof in the unfolding tragedy.

Political Undertones:

• Creon’s leadership style and its implications for Thebes.
• The play is a critique of authoritarian rule.
• What are the responsibilities of a ruler versus the rights of citizens?
• The idea of tyranny and its manifestations in the play.
• The role of public opinion in decision-making processes.

Comparative Analysis:

• Antigone vs. other Greek tragedies: similarities and differences.
• The portrayal of familial ties in Antigone and Oedipus Rex.
• Comparison between Antigone and modern-day political dramas.
• Themes shared between Antigone and Shakespearean tragedies.
• Antigone in the context of Sophocles’ other works.

Modern Interpretations:

• Relevance of Antigone’s themes in today’s world.
• Modern retellings or adaptations of the play.
• The play’s influence on contemporary literature and films.
• How would Antigone’s narrative change in a modern setting?
• Lessons from Antigone applicable to current global issues.

Narrative Techniques:

• The pacing and structure of Antigone.
• Techniques used by Sophocles to evoke empathy.
• The balance of dialogue and action in the narrative.
• The role of soliloquies in character development.
• The interplay of light and shadow in stage directions.

Questions of Morality:

• Evaluating Creon’s decisions: Were they justified?
• Antigone’s defiance: Righteous or impulsive?
• The gray areas of right and wrong in the play.
• The consequences of moral rigidity.
• Personal convictions vs. societal norms.

Reception and Legacy:

• Initial reception of Antigone during Sophocles’ time.
• The play’s influence on Greek drama and tragedies.
• Legacy of Antigone in literature curriculum worldwide.
• Analysis of critiques and reviews over the centuries.
• The play’s impact on feminist literary studies.

Miscellaneous:

• The concept of heroism in Antigone.
• The role of nature and natural elements in the play.
• Analysis of secondary characters and their significance.
• The depiction of love in various forms: familial, romantic, and patriotic.
• Dreams and omens in the play and their interpretations.
• The setting of the play and its significance.
• The cyclical nature of tragedies in Greek drama, as exemplified by Antigone.
• Exploring off-stage events and their implications.
• Analysis of key quotes and their relevance to the overarching narrative.
• The juxtaposition of youth and age in the play.

Pertinent Essay Questions on “Antigone”

While numerous questions arise from “Antigone,” here are a few to consider:

• Does Creon face any consequences? Elaborate.
• Contrast the characters of Creon and Ismene.
• Identify instances of symbolism in the play. Do they amplify the core message?
• Explore internal conflicts the characters grapple with.

Crafting a Stellar “Antigone” Essay

Writing about “Antigone” can be challenging, but the following steps can simplify the process:

• Comprehend the Question : Always understand what’s being asked. For example, if the question pertains to themes, avoid focusing solely on character traits.
• Revisit the Play : Even if you’re familiar with the text, re-reading can unearth nuances and provide fresh insights.
• Adhere to Structure : A cohesive essay begins with a compelling introduction, followed by a well-organized body, and concludes with a meaningful summary.
• Antigone (Sophocles Play)

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Before You Read

Scene Summaries & Analyses

Scene 1 and 1st Ode

Scene 2 and 2nd Ode

Scene 3 and 3rd Ode

Scene 4 and 4th Ode

Scene 5 and 5th Ode

Scene 6 and 6th Ode

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Discuss the theme of blindness, both literal and metaphorical, in Antigone .

In Scene 1, Antigone and Ismene argue over what is right to do with the body of Polyneikes. In your opinion, who was in the right? Explain with references from the text.

Aside from Teiresias , who has the gift of foresight, who is the wisest character in Antigone ? Explain with references from the text. 

Related Titles

By Sophocles

Oedipus at Colonus

Oedipus Rex

Philoctetes

Women of Trachis

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Ancient Greece

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Dramatic Plays

Tragic Plays

Department of Greek & Latin

Antigone Study Guide

Sophocles (c. 497/6- 406/5 BC) is, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, one of the three ancient Greek tragic playwrights by whom complete plays survive. He won at least twenty victories in the tragic competitions, and never came third (last), a feat which suggests that he was the most successful of the three. Seven complete plays of his survive, of which Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus are the most well-known and frequently performed. The following three essays explore the play's themes and context.

Sophocles' Antigone in Context by Professor Chris Carey

Greek tragedy is a remarkable fictional creation. We are used to a theatre which can embrace past and present, fictitious and historical, bizarre fantasy and mundane reality. The Athenian theatre was far more limited than this. Like virtually all Greek poetry at all periods in antiquity, its subject matter was heroic myth. Invented plots with fictitious people and events were very few (and not found before the late fifth century). Historical tragedy (the staple of theatre from Shakespeare to the present) again was very rare. With very few exceptions, tragedy was about heroes. For Greeks at any period, the world of the heroes meant the world which they met in epic poetry, and especially Homer, the ultimate Greek classic.  

Because we are so used to Greek tragedy, we don't usually stop to notice how strange all this is. The heroes are members of a superior elite. And the epic world is always ruled by kings. It has assemblies, and they matter; but they don't have power. Hereditary monarchy had become a rarity in Greece long before the rise of tragedy. So the epic world was politically remote. In fact, of all Greek states in the classical period, Athens was probably the furthest removed from the political world of epic. In democratic Athens public policy and legislation were in the hands of the mass assembly. Yet for two hundred years and more mass audiences sat in the theatre of Dionysus and watched plays about kings sponsored by the democratic state.

The issue is of course more complicated than this. Firstly, the world of the epic was a very familiar world to the Athenian audience. Epic poetry was performed every year at the civic festivals, which meant that the heroic age was a shared possession for the vast audience in the Athenian theatre, not just the property of an educated elite. Secondly, the world inside the plays and the world in which the audience lived were engaged in a complex and shifting relationship. In any attempt to represent or even to understand the past, the present acts as frame which shapes presentation or perception; we may or may not be aware of it, but it is always there. Literature which deals with the past therefore has a foot in two worlds. This includes Greek tragedy. Tragedy is riddled with anachronisms, on politics, gender, ethnicity, status, even technology (people in tragedy write letters and suicide notes, for instance, while in the epic world writing is completely absent except for one very mysterious passage in Homer's Iliad ). The effect is to make the tragic world a middle space where heroic past and present meet.

This makes the tragic stage an ideal space to explore political issues of interest to democratic Athens. Not all tragedy is political and not all of the political questions are unique either to Athens or to democracy. But Athens (with rare exceptions) was unusual among the classical Greek states in its openness to dispute and dissent and Athenian drama is almost unique in Greek literature in its ability to explore areas of actual or potential political tension.

This is true in the case of Antigone . Anyone in the audience listening to the newly appointed regent Creon might well catch echoes of contemporary sentiments about loyalty to the city. The rhetoric of devotion to the city above all else and at any cost which Sophocles puts in his mouth sounds very like the rhetoric of the democratic statesman Pericles in the historian Thucydides (Pericles even goes so far as to claim that we should all be lovers of the city). The sentiment has a powerful appeal. This was a world of citizen soldiers and a citizen was expected to fight and if necessary die for the city. As Creon says: 'This land - our land - is the ship that preserves us and it is on this ship that we sail straight and as she prospers, so will we.' But his insistence on loyalty to the state to the exclusion of all other allegiance prolongs into the present the rifts of the past and proves disastrous for the next generation of the family and robs him of his family.

The issue of burial which forms the focus for conflict in this play had political echoes. Burial was a vitally important aspect both of family and of civic life. For the city it was a means both of honouring devotion and also of punishing disloyalty. The world of this play is not just postwar but post-civil-war. The dead Polynices came with a foreign army to take his home city by force and died in the attempt. In Sophocles' Athens anyone executed for treason could not be buried in Attica. So some features of the play probably sounded very familiar. Democratic Athens demanded a lot of its citizens and at the probable date of Antigone this was visible especially in the treatment of the dead. As far as we know Athens monopolized its war dead to a degree unmatched by any other Greek state. Where most Greek states simply buried their dead on the battlefield, Athenian practice was to collect and burn the dead and bring the bones home. They then held a state funeral and buried the war dead in communal state graves (excavations for the new Athens metro unearthed one such burial just a decade ago) with no designation of family, just the name of their tribe. The war dead are now the property of the city. At the same time private grave memorials almost disappear. It looks as though only public burials, and specifically those for the dead warriors, matter. But by tradition the family not only buried its dead but also made offerings every year at the family tombs; and the job of preparing the dead and the lead in mourning fell to the women. By the late fifth century the private memorials, including memorials for those who died in war, become more common, and it looks as though the tensions between the demands of the state and the needs of the family have been resolved. But tensions there probably were and death and burial was one of the key areas. Issues such as family or individual versus state are Greek issues as well as Athenian issues. But they were probably present in Athens to an unusual degree and were at their most visible at the time Antigone was performed in the late 440s.

Antigone is not about Athens' burial of the war dead. And it is not about contemporary democratic ideology. It is a story about a clash of wills, a clash of principles and a clash of loyalties. About power and its limits and legitimacy. About commitment, tenacity and integrity. And it is not a sermon. It throws up more questions than it answers. It could play in any theatre of the Greek world, as it has played in countless theatres in many languages since. But for its Athenian audience the echoes of contemporary areas of tension gave it an added intensity.

Questions and Activities:

• How would the experiences of ancient Greek theatrical audiences have differed from those of modern ones? How might that affect our appreciation of Sophocles' Antigone ?
• If you were to translate the basic story of the play into modern Britain, what aspects would you change, what would you retain, and why?
• What difference would it make if Antigone were staged in a contemporary setting, rather than the distant past? 

Antigone and Creon in Conflict by Dr. Dimitra Kokkini

Antigone is a play full of intensity. Audience (and scholarly) responses have always been conflicted when it comes to analysing both characters' arguments. For some, secular law and rationality, as expressed by Creon, are right, while Antigone's religious approach is to be rejected as irrational. For others, Antigone's argument is the only one with validity. The remaining views recognise various degrees of legitimacy in both arguments, eventually proving the impossibility of the task in discerning right from wrong in this conflict.

Despite the fact that this explosive clash highlights the vast differences between Creon and Antigone in terms of world views and loyalties, it also brings to the fore their similarities in terms of characterisation. Creon continuously asserts his power, both in terms of social and gender status; he is the ruler of the city, in fact, its defender in what is seen an unlawful attack by Polyneices against his own fatherland (the gravest of sins in civic terms). Moreover, he is a man, faced with an insubordinate, stubborn, powerless female who is also a member of his own family and under his jurisdiction and protection. Antigone, on the other hand, continuously asserts the validity on her argument in religious and moral terms, being, at the same time, constantly aware of her limitations due to her gender and position in the city and her own family. Yet, although they both take pains to highlight the unbridgeable gap between them, contrasting civic/rational (Creon) and family/religious (Antigone) duty, they are remarkably similar in the way they approach and respond to one another. Both are characterised by unyielding stubbornness, a deep belief in the rightness of their own value system, and complete failure in identifying any validity whatsoever in each other's argument. Both insist on upholding their respective values with obstinate determination to the end: Antigone dies unchanged, whereas Creon's change of heart comes too late having first caused the destruction of his entire family.

More importantly, neither of them are easily relatable - or indeed sympathetic - characters. Antigone is often too self-righteous, obsessed with honouring Polyneices at all costs. She is dismissive of Ismene, almost indifferent to her betrothed, Haemon. Creon is equally obsessed with administering what he perceives as justice, as well as upholding his law and punishing the offender, he is cruel and dismissive towards his son. It is easier for us, the audience, to identify with Ismene, Eurydice or Haemon. Ismene, a foil for Antigone and her exact opposite, is arguably less determined and daring than her sister; but she is also much closer to an everyday person, aware of her limitations and hesitant to challenge authority and the laws imposed by a ruler. Antigone may be admirable for her bravery and resolution, but she is also extraordinarily distant to ordinary human beings. Although she presents herself as a weak woman and speaks of all the typical female experiences she will be missing with her untimely death, she functions more like a symbol - some say she is almost genderless. Ismene, however, appears to be more human, displaying a more conventional kind of femininity, which renders her pitiful but also more relatable as a character.

In a similar way, we feel more pity and sympathy for Haemon than we do for the two protagonists. His attachment to her is evident in a rare tragic instance of a young man being in love, but it is hardly reciprocated. Antigone's fixation on honouring Polyneices leaves little room for the development of any other relationship. Haemon fights, unsuccessfully, with his father in an attempt to save his betrothed and, when this fails due to Creon's refusal to repeal his decision, his response is rash and emotional. This is a young man in love, who is denied his chance to be with his beloved and, on seeing her dead decides to take his own life out of grief. In contrast with Antigone, whose suicide is consistent with her characterisation throughout the play and is directly related to her immovable value system, Haemon's suicide is full of pathos and his motivation feels more easily understandable in terms of personal relationships and youthful desperation. His death functions as the trigger for Eurydice's suicide, the culmination of Creon's catastrophic decisions and Antigone's unyielding position. Her appearance on stage is limited to one scene, with her uttering one single question to the Messenger before departing in silence, ominously, after the death of her son is confirmed, never to reappear on stage.

Antigone and Creon are caught in an impossible circle of stubbornness, miscommunication and destruction. Together, they manage to cause utter grief and ruin for their family caught in a conflict of ever-increasing intensity as they pull further and further apart. Antigone's death and Creon's remorse cause pity and reveal the utter futility of their conflict at the end of the tragedy; but the fate of the other characters, the innocent bystanders entangled in this mighty clash of wills, beg for our sympathy and compassion as much as the protagonists, if not more.

1. Which character from the play do you sympathise with the most and why?

2. 'Creon and Antigone are more similar than different to one another'. To what extent do you agree with this claim?

3. To what extent must tragedy always depend on conflict?

Conflict and Contrast in Sophocles' Antigone by Dr. Tom Mackenzie

Perhaps more than any other Greek tragedy, Sophocles' Antigone has captured the interests of philosophers, ranging from Aristotle (fourth century BC) to Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and beyond. Most famously, the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) saw the tragedy as depicting, at its core, a conflict between the abstract principles of the household (the oikos) and the state (the polis), embodied in the characters of Antigone and Creon respectively. When we come to watch the play, it is not hard to see why this interpretation has proven immensely influential. On a purely formal level, the two characters dominate the action more than any of the others. It is their decisions - Creon's to impose the sanction against burying Polyneices, and Antigone's to bury him nonetheless - that cause the events of the narrative. Antigone is the eponymous heroine whose initial speech opens the play, whilst Creon receives more lines than any other character and is the exclusive focus of our attention after Antigone's departure in the latter part of the tragedy. The two characters thus bookend the action onstage, a structuring device that seems to illustrate the contrast between them. It is sometimes claimed that Greek tragedy typically focusses on a single character, but if that is the case, then Antigone is an exception to this tendency, for Creon and Antigone appear to be of equal concern.

Many aspects of the play can be taken to suggest that the two characters are indeed representative of certain contrasting principles. Perhaps the most obvious contrast is that between male and female: Ismene initially opposes Antigone's act of defiance partly on the grounds that they are women, and so 'cannot fight against men'. Creon further emphasizes the gender division in claiming that Antigone will be 'the man' and not him, if she is to challenge his authority with impunity. Several other statements of his also betray this anxiety. Antigone's defiance of her uncle, her closest living male relative, markedly transcends the normal behaviour expected of women in fifth-century Athens, a notoriously patriarchal society with severe restrictions on the freedom of women. The contrast in genders also evokes wider political and cosmic polarities: women's influence was supposed to be restricted to the oikos, whilst Athenian politics was exclusively a male activity: the welfare of the city was thought to be the responsibility of free males alone. Antigone's act is one of loyalty towards a close relative, a member of her oikos - but it is seen by Creon as an act against the interests of the state. His edict was pronounced in order to protect Thebes, and he explicitly criticises anyone who 'values a loved one greater than his city', a statement which inevitably recalls Antigone's defiance. Indeed, part of this initial speech was quoted by the fourth-century Athenian orator Demosthenes as a positive, patriotic sentiment, a fact which may suggest that Creon, at least at this point in the play, could be taken to embody civic values.

Yet Antigone herself does not see the conflict as one between the oikos and the polis so much as one between the man-made laws of the city, and the unwritten, permanent laws of the the gods. It is to these unwritten laws that she appeals in justifying her actions against Creon's proclamations. The Greek word for 'laws', nomoi, has a broader scope than the English term conveys - it can be translated as 'conventions' or 'customs' and can cover the religious duties such as burial of the dead. There is nothing metaphorical about such 'unwritten' nomoi: Aristotle even quotes Antigone in recommending lawyers to appeal to unwritten laws when the written laws are against them. For Antigone, there is a conflict between these unwritten laws, and those pronounced by Creon.

Accordingly, the two characters have different conceptions of justice and the just. The Greek word for justice, dikē, and its related adjectives, occur frequently throughout the play. Both Creon and his opponents, Antigone and Haimon, appeal to dikē to support their decisions. Creon seems to identify justice with the will of the ruling party, whilst for Antigone and Haimon, it is a super-human concept that is independent of the arbitrary decisions of any mortal ruler. This dispute reflects contemporary debates surrounding the nature of justice: Plato, writing in the first half of the fourth century BC, depicts the fifth-century thinker Socrates as arguing that justice is natural and objective, against opponents who argue that justice is simply the will of the more powerful. In Sophocles' play, there is little doubt that Creon's conception of justice is proven inadequate. That the downfall of his family and his personal suffering come as a direct result of his actions is assumed by all remaining characters at the end of the play. His folly reveals a central predicament in Sophoclean drama and in Greek theology: there is a divine, cosmic system of justice, but it is one that is usually impossible for mortals to understand until it is too late. The motif of 'learning too late' is commonplace in Greek tragedy, and Creon conforms to this literary convention, as the chorus' statements at the end of the play make clear. Only a select few mortals - notably the blind prophet Teiresias - can have a privileged, albeit still limited, understanding of this system before the catastrophes unfold.

'Justice', or rather dikē, in this sense of 'divine order' was taken by some early Greek philosophers as a governing principle, not only of ethical behaviour, but also of the rules of physics. Anaximander (early 6th century BC) saw the universe as composed fundamentally from opposite qualities - such as the hot and the cold, the dry and the wet - that give each other 'justice and reparation' for injustices committed, as a result of which some balance is maintained in the universe. Similarly, Heraclitus (late 6th century BC) saw 'justice' as keeping the Sun within its established limits. Viewed in this context, we can see Creon's actions as violations of this cosmic order: the deceased Polyneices ought to be buried, but Creon prevents that from happening; conversely, he orders Antigone to be entombed whilst still alive. After his punishment, he himself becomes, in the words of the messenger, a 'living corpse'. The balance is thus settled for Creon's blurring of the distinction between the living and the dead by refusing Polyneices' burial.

This enactment of cosmic 'justice' might be taken to support the notion that Creon and Antigone embody contrary principles. Yet their actions can also be explained by recognisably human motivations: Antigone no longer fears death, and even expresses suicidal thoughts, because of the immense suffering that she has experienced in the form of her family's tribulations; Creon is a new ruler who is paranoid that his rule is not accepted - he refuses to back down as he fears it will undermine his authority. The characters appeal to general principles, which place their specific conflict in a wider cosmic context - it is perhaps this feature which has aroused such philosophical interest in the play - but they are not reducible to those principles alone. Creon is a flawed and inconsistent ruler, and Antigone's ultimately self-destructive act is detrimental to her household, for it prevents her from continuing the family line. The play thus presents conflicts of principle and of character, but offers no easy resolutions: Antigone's desire for Polyneices' burial may be vindicated by the course of the narrative, but the gods still allow her to perish. In developing the imagined consequences of these conflicts of both character and principle, Sophocles unsettlingly exemplifies one of the virtues that Aristotle identified in the plots of great tragedies: that the course of events seems inevitable, but only in retrospect.

Questions and activities:

1. Should you be more loyal towards your family or towards your country? Come up with reasons in support of both sides of the argument - how do your reasons compare with what is said by Antigone and Creon?

2. If we do not agree with traditional Greek beliefs about the the gods and justice, how does that affect our appreciation of the play?

3. Given that she knows that this action will lead to her death, is Antigone right to bury Polyneices? Explain your answer with reference to the text.

4. I've learned through my pain (Creon): What exactly has Creon learned? Does the play make this clear and does it matter?

Suggested Reading and Further Resources

An enormous amount has been written on Greek tragedy in general, and on Sophocles' Antigone  in particular. The following may be recommended as accessible introductions to the play and the genre:

• Brown, A.,  Sophocles' Antigone (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1987) - an edition of the Greek text with translation and commentary.
• Cairns, D.,  Sophocles: Antigone (London: Bloomsbury, 2016) - a recent introduction to the play.
• Griffith, M., Sophocles: Antigone (Cambridge: CUP, 1999) - an edition and commentary of the Greek text, with an introduction that is accessible to the Greekless reader.
• Hall, E., Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun (Oxford: OUP, 2010) - a recent introduction to the genre, with specific discussion of Antigone on pp. 305-9.
• Scodel, R. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy  (Cambridge: CUP, 2010) - another recent introduction to the genre, with specific discussion of Antigone  on pp. 106-119.

The above works may be consulted for more advanced bibliography. 

• Short clips of professor Felix Budelmann (Oxford University) discussing Sophoclean drama, and Antigone in particular, are available  here .

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of Sophocles’ Antigone

Analysis of Sophocles’ Antigone

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 29, 2020 • ( 0 )

Within this single drama—in great part, a harsh critique of Athenian society and the Greek city-state in general—Sophocles tells of the eternal struggle between the state and the individual, human and natural law, and the enormous gulf between what we attempt here on earth and what fate has in store for us all. In this magnificent dramatic work, almost incidentally so, we find nearly every reason why we are now what we are.

—Victor D. Hanson and John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom

With Antigone Sophocles forcibly demonstrates that the power of tragedy derives not from the conflict between right and wrong but from the confrontation between right and right. As the play opens the succession battle between the sons of Oedipus—Polynices and Eteocles—over control of Thebes has resulted in both of their deaths. Their uncle Creon, who has now assumed the throne, asserts his authority to end a destructive civil war and decrees that only Eteocles, the city’s defender, should receive honorable burial. Polynices, who has led a foreign army against Thebes, is branded a traitor. His corpse is to be left on the battlefield “to be chewed up by birds and dogs and violated,” with death the penalty for anyone who attempts to bury him and supply the rites necessary for the dead to reach the underworld. Antigone, Polynices’ sister, is determined to defy Creon’s order, setting in motion a tragic collision between opposed laws and duties: between natural and divine commands that dictate the burial of the dead and the secular edicts of a ruler determined to restore civic order, between family allegiance and private conscience and public duty and the rule of law that restricts personal liberty for the common good. Like the proverbial immovable object meeting an irresistible force, Antigone arranges the impact of seemingly irreconcilable conceptions of rights and responsibilities, producing one of drama’s enduring illuminations of human nature and the human condition.

Antigone is one of Sophocles’ greatest achievements and one of the most influential dramas ever staged. “Between 1790 and 1905,” critic George Steiner reports, “it was widely held by European poets, philosophers, [and] scholars that Sophocles’ Antigone was not only the fi nest of Greek tragedies, but a work of art nearer to perfection than any other produced by the human spirit.” Its theme of the opposition between the individual and authority has resonated through the centuries, with numerous playwrights, most notably Jean Anouilh, Bertolt Brecht, and Athol Fugard grafting contemporary concerns and values onto the moral and political dramatic framework that Sophocles established. The play has elicited paradoxical responses reflecting changing cultural and moral imperatives. Antigone, who has been described as “the first heroine of Western drama,” has been interpreted both as a heroic martyr to conscience and as a willfully stubborn fanatic who causes her own death and that of two other innocent people, forsaking her duty to the living on behalf of the dead. Creon has similarly divided critics between censure and sympathy. Despite the play’s title, some have suggested that the tragedy is Creon’s, not Antigone’s, and it is his abuse of authority and his violations of personal, family, and divine obligations that center the drama’s tragedy. The brilliance of Sophocles’ play rests in the complexity of motive and the competing absolute claims that the drama displays. As novelist George Eliot observed,

It is a very superficial criticism which interprets the character of Creon as that of hypocritical tyrant, and regards Antigone as a blameless victim. Coarse contrasts like this are not the materials handled by great dramatists. The exquisite art of Sophocles is shown in the touches by which he makes us feel that Creon, as well as Antigone, is contending for what he believes to be the right, while both are also conscious that, in following out one principle, they are laying themselves open to just blame for transgressing another.

Eliot would call the play’s focus the “antagonism of valid principles,” demonstrating a point of universal significance that “Wherever the strength of a man’s intellect, or moral sense, or affection brings him into opposition with the rules which society has sanctioned, there is renewed conflict between Antigone and Creon; such a man must not only dare to be right, he must also dare to be wrong—to shake faith, to wound friendship, perhaps, to hem in his own powers.” Sophocles’ Antigone is less a play about the pathetic end of a victim of tyranny or the corruption of authority than about the inevitable cost and con-sequence between competing imperatives that define the human condition. From opposite and opposed positions, both Antigone and Creon ultimately meet at the shared suffering each has caused. They have destroyed each other and themselves by who they are and what they believe. They are both right and wrong in a world that lacks moral certainty and simple choices. The Chorus summarizes what Antigone will vividly enact: “The powerful words of the proud are paid in full with mighty blows of fate, and at long last those blows will teach us wisdom.”

As the play opens Antigone declares her intention to her sister Ismene to defy Creon’s impious and inhumane order and enlists her sister’s aid to bury their brother. Ismene responds that as women they must not oppose the will of men or the authority of the city and invite death. Ismene’s timidity and deference underscores Antigone’s courage and defiance. Antigone asserts a greater allegiance to blood kinship and divine law declaring that the burial is a “holy crime,” justified even by death. Ismene responds by calling her sister “a lover of the impossible,” an accurate description of the tragic hero, who, according to scholar Bernard Knox, is Sophocles’ most important contribution to drama: “Sophocles presents us for the first time with what we recognize as a ‘tragic hero’: one who, unsupported by the gods and in the face of human opposition, makes a decision which springs from the deepest layer of his individual nature, his physis , and then blindly, ferociously, heroically maintains that decision even to the point of self-destruction.” Antigone exactly conforms to Knox’s description, choosing her conception of duty over sensible self-preservation and gender-prescribed submission to male authority, turning on her sister and all who oppose her. Certain in her decision and self-sufficient, Antigone rejects both her sister’s practical advice and kinship. Ironically Antigone denies to her sister, when Ismene resists her will, the same blood kinship that claims Antigone’s supreme allegiance in burying her brother. For Antigone the demands of the dead overpower duty to the living, and she does not hesitate in claiming both to know and act for the divine will. As critic Gilbert Norwood observes, “It is Antigone’s splendid though perverse valor which creates the drama.”

Before the apprehended Antigone, who has been taken in the act of scattering dust on her brother’s corpse, lamenting, and pouring libations, is brought before Creon and the dramatic crux of the play, the Chorus of The-ban elders delivers what has been called the fi nest song in all Greek tragedy, the so-called Ode to Man, that begins “Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.” This magnificent celebration of human power over nature and resourcefulness in reason and invention ends with a stark recognition of humanity’s ultimate helplessness—“Only against Death shall he call for aid in vain.” Death will test the resolve and principles of both Antigone and Creon, while, as critic Edouard Schuré asserts, “It brings before us the most extraordinary psychological evolution that has ever been represented on stage.”

When Antigone is brought in judgment before Creon, obstinacy meets its match. Both stand on principle, but both reveal the human source of their actions. Creon betrays himself as a paranoid autocrat; Antigone as an individual whose powerful hatred outstrips her capacity for love. She defiantly and proudly admits that she is guilty of disobeying Creon’s decree and that he has no power to override divine law. Nor does Antigone concede any mitigation of her personal obligation in the competing claims of a niece, a sister, or a citizen. Creon is maddened by what he perceives to be Antigone’s insolence in justifying her crime by diminishing his authority, provoking him to ignore all moderating claims of family, natural, or divine extenuation. When Ismene is brought in as a co-conspirator, she accepts her share of guilt in solidarity with her sister, but again Antigone spurns her, calling her “a friend who loves in words,” denying Ismene’s selfless act of loyalty and sympathy with a cold dismissal and self-sufficiency, stating, “Never share my dying, / don’t lay claim to what you never touched.” However, Ismene raises the ante for both Antigone and Creon by asking her uncle whether by condemning Antigone he will kill his own son’s betrothed. Creon remains adamant, and his judgment on Antigone and Ismene, along with his subsequent argument with his son, Haemon, reveals that Creon’s principles are self-centered, contradictory, and compromised by his own pride, fears, and anxieties. Antigone’s challenge to his authority, coming from a woman, is demeaning. If she goes free in defiance of his authority, Creon declares, “I am not the man, she is.” To the urging of Haemon that Creon should show mercy, tempering his judgment to the will of Theban opinion that sympathizes with Antigone, Creon asserts that he cares nothing for the will of the town, whose welfare Creon’s original edict against Polynices was meant to serve. Creon, moreover, resents being schooled in expediency by his son. Inflamed by his son’s advocacy on behalf of Antigone, Creon brands Haemon a “woman’s slave,” and after vacillating between stoning Antigone and executing her and her sister in front of Haemon, Creon rules that Antigone alone is to perish by being buried alive. Having begun the drama with a decree that a dead man should remain unburied, Creon reverses himself, ironically, by ordering the premature burial of a living woman.

Antigone, being led to her entombment, is shown stripped of her former confidence and defiance, searching for the justification that can steel her acceptance of the fate that her actions have caused. Contemplating her living descent into the underworld and the death that awaits her, Antigone regrets dying without marriage and children. Gone is her reliance on divine and natural law to justify her act as she equivocates to find the emotional source to sustain her. A husband and children could be replaced, she rationalizes, but since her mother and father are dead, no brother can ever replace Polynices. Antigone’s tortured logic here, so different from the former woman of principle, has been rejected by some editors as spurious. Others have judged this emotionally wrought speech essential for humanizing Antigone, revealing her capacity to suffer and her painful search for some consolation.

The drama concludes with the emphasis shifted back to Creon and the consequences of his judgment. The blind prophet Teiresias comes to warn Creon that Polynices’ unburied body has offended the gods and that Creon is responsible for the sickness that has descended on Thebes. Creon has kept from Hades one who belongs there and is sending to Hades another who does not. The gods confirm the rightness of Antigone’s action, but justice evades the working out of the drama’s climax. The release of Antigone comes too late; she has hung herself. Haemon commits suicide, and Eurydice, Creon’s wife, kills herself after cursing Creon for the death of their son. Having denied the obligation of family, Creon loses his own. Creon’s rule, marked by ignoring or transgressing cosmic and family law, is shown as ultimately inadequate and destructive. Creon is made to realize that he has been rash and foolish, that “Whatever I have touched has come to nothing.” Both Creon and Antigone have been pushed to terrifying ends in which what truly matters to both are made starkly clear. Antigone’s moral imperatives have been affirmed but also their immense cost in suffering has been exposed. Antigone explores a fundamental rift between public and private worlds. The central opposition in the play between Antigone and Creon, between duty to self and duty to state, dramatizes critical antimonies in the human condition. Sophocles’ genius is his resistance of easy and consoling simplifications to resolve the oppositions. Both sides are ultimately tested; both reveal the potential for greatness and destruction.

24 lectures on Greek Tragedy by Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver.

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by Sophocles

Antigone study guide.

The specific circumstances surrounding the origin of Greek drama were a puzzle even in the 4th century BC. Greek drama seems to have its roots in religious celebrations that incorporated song and dance. By the 6th century BC, Athenians had transformed a rural celebration of Dionysis into an urban festival with dancing choruses that competed for prizes. An anonymous poet came up with the idea of having the chorus interact with a masked actor. Later, Aeschylus transformed the art by using two masked actors, each playing different parts throughout the piece, essentially inventing Greek drama as we know it. With two actors and a chorus, complex plots and conflicts could be staged as never before, and the poets who competed in the festival were no longer writing elaborate hymns, but true plays. Athens was the only Greek city-state where this art form evolved; the comedies, tragedies, and dramas handed down to us from the period, although labeled generically as "Greek," are in fact all Athenian works.

After the defeat of the Persians in a decisive campaign (480-479 BC), Athens emerged as the superpower of the independent Greek city-states, and during this time the drama festival, or the Dionysia, became a spectacular event. The Dionysia lasted four to five days, and the city took the celebrations seriously. Prisoners were released on bail, and most public business was suspended. Roughly 10,000 free male citizens, along with their slaves and dependents, watched plays in an enormous outdoor theater that could seat 17,000 spectators. On each of three days, the Athenians were treated to three tragedies and a satyr play (a light comedy on a mythic theme) written by one of three pre-selected tragedians, as well as one comedy by a comedic playwright. The trilogies did not have to be extended dramas dealing with the same story, although often they were. At the end of the festival, the tragedians were awarded first, second, and third prize by the judges of Dionysis.

Although Antigone is grouped together with Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus as a trilogy (sometimes called The Theban Plays or The Oedipus Trilogy ), the three works were actually not written as a trilogy at all. It would therefore be totally erroneous to say that Antigone presents some kind of "final word" on the themes of the trilogy. In fact, although Antigone deals with the events that happen chronologically last in the myth, the play was produced in 441 BC - some 14 or 15 years before Oedipus the King , and a full 36 years before Oedipus at Colonus . Sophocles was clearly fascinated by the Oedipus myth, but inconsistencies in the events of the three plays seem to indicate that he wrote each play as a separate treatment of the story.

For modern readers, the Chorus may be the most alien element of the play. Greek drama was not meant to be what we would consider "naturalistic." It was a highly stylized art form: actors wore masks, and the performances incorporated song and dance. The Chorus delivers much of the exposition and expounds poetically on themes, but it is still meant to represent a group of characters. In the case of Antigone , the Chorus is constituted by the Theban elders, old and powerful citizens of the city who watch and comment on the action. It interacts with the actors, and in Antigone the Chorus intercedes at a crucial point near the end of the play.

Consistent with the norms of Greek drama, Antigone is not divided into acts or scenes. The action flows uninterrupted from beginning to end. However, time elapses in non-naturalistic fashion: at certain points, from reports of what has happened offstage, it is clear that a great amount of time is meant to have passed even though only a few minutes have passed for the audience. In general, as noted by Aristotle, the action of most Greek tragedies is confined to a 24-hour period.

In his influential Poetics , Aristotle sets guidelines for the form of tragedy using Oedipus the King as his ideal model. Tragedy is usually concerned with a person of great stature, a king or nobleman, who falls because of hubris, or pride. There are unities of time, place, and, most importantly, action. Action may be thought of simply as motive or "movement of spirit": in Oedipus the King the action for most of the play is "find Laius' killer and stop the plague in Thebes." The action in Antigone is "preserve rightness and order in Thebes." Antigone is a strange case because the "movement-of-spirit" arguably comes from two directions: Antigone and Creon are both championing what is right, but they define rightness through different sets of values. Key elements include the moments of reversal and recognition, although not every tragedy has these moments. Reversal means a great and unexpected turn in events when the action veers around and becomes its opposite. Antigone experiences no reversal, but Creon does: at the Chorus' prodding, he finally backs down and listens to the advice he has been given, turning against the preservation of the kind of order he cherishes. Recognition means that a character gains sudden and transformative understanding of himself and the events he has experienced, moving from ignorance to knowledge. In Antigone , Creon finally recognizes that he has been misguided and that his actions have led to the death of his wife and son. Ideally, according to Aristotle, the reversal and the recognition hit at the same instant, as they do in Oedipus the King . While the Poetics are indispensable for the student of Greek drama - and, indeed, drama in general - Aristotle's theories should not be a straitjacket. Aristotle's guidelines make it difficult to appreciate the genius of Euripides, and by the standards of the Poetics , the great tragedies of Shakespeare would be failures. Aristotle is writing from a particular time and place, and he is also speaking from a very specific artistic sensibility. He may be the first word on Greek tragedy, but he is not the last.

In this ClassicNote, the quotations and the line numbers given with the citations match the lines in the David Grene translation; the reader is encouraged to look at different translations of Antigone to get a feel for the striking difference that a translator can make.

Antigone Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Antigone is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does the play begin?What impact does this technique or beginning have on the audience?

In her very first speech, Antigone only briefly alludes to her and her sister's circumstances, but a Greek audience would have quickly filled in the gaps created by this 'in media res' device (meaning that Sophocles begins the story 'in the middle...

demonstration of pre feminist ethics in sophocles antigone

Antigone's gender has profound effects on the meaning of her actions. Creon himself says that the need to defeat her is all the more pressing because she is a woman. The freedom of Greek women was extremely limited; the rules and strictures placed...

Whose rights should assume priority - Creon's to legislate and punish, or Antigone's to bury her brother? Is there any way to resolve the competing claims of Creon and Antigone?

I like Antigone. Some critics see Antigone as too self-righteous, even alienating, but others claim her as a seminal feminist, determined to do what is right even in defiance of patriarchal law. Indeed, Antigone captured the public imagination...

Study Guide for Antigone

Antigone study guide contains a biography of Sophocles, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Antigone
• Antigone Summary
• Character List
• Lines 001-241 Summary and Analysis

Essays for Antigone

Antigone essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Antigone by Sophocles.

• Influence of Antigone on A Doll's House
• The Use of Light and Dark Images in Antigone
• Batman and Creon: Denied the Glory?
• Relativist Justice in Antigone
• Hubris in Antigone and Oedipus

Lesson Plan for Antigone

• About the Author
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Antigone
• Relationship to Other Books
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Antigone Bibliography

E-Text of Antigone

Antigone e-text contains the full text of Antigone by Sophocles.

Wikipedia Entries for Antigone

• Introduction

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Antigone — An Analysis of Power, Authority and Truth in Antigone, a Play by Sophocles

An Analysis of Power, Authority and Truth in Antigone, a Play by Sophocles

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Essays on Antigone

Antigone is a tragedy of the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, staged in 442 BC, while Antigone essay follows the events set in Thebes, ancient Egypt. Antigone essays depict how after Antigone’s brothers Eteocles and Polynices were killed by each other in war, King Creon rose to power and detected that Polyneices should not be buried as killer and traitor. Essays on Antigone analyze her actions as she disagreed because religion dictated that every person must be buried, otherwise their soul won't find peace. Essays show how she attempted to bury Polyneices and was walled up alive. She was the fiancée of Creon’s son, who killed himself out of grief, and his mother followed him. And so Creon lost his family because he defied divine law. Peruse Antigone essay samples below for details of this story. Our essay samples also include its complete analysis.

Authored before or in 441 BC at a time of national enthusiasm, exposing the dangers of absolute ruler also referred as a tyrant. In the play setting, this played by Creon, a king whom people could hardly give their opinion about him. Despite regretting his actions as the play ends,...

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Sophocle’s Antigone is a play of expansive and lasting well known appeal. However, it is ironical that most of the play’s admirers have hardly arrived at a concurrence regarding its interpretation. This paper seeks to discuss one character in the play, Creon, who becomes the new king of Thebes following...

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Sophocles play depicts a conflict between moral and political laws Sophocles play depicts a conflict that exists even in the day today. Essentially, this conflict is in regard to moral laws and political laws that are manmade. The characters in the play Antigone clash because of these laws since each of...

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In a social order, every man including those in power is limited to some boundaries beyond which one cannot cross without consequences. Antigone by Sophocles presents a society on the verge of self-destruction through sickness as a result of the transgressions of a king. The King of Thebes, Creon violates the...

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They tell Creon has vowed that no one shall bury him, that no one shall weep for him, but that his corpse shall lie in the fields,.... for carrion birds to dig while they hunt for food.” Creon, the king, has ceremoniously buried one of Antigone's brothers while refusing to...

Sophocles' tragedy "Antigone" Sophocles' tragedy "Antigone" was composed in or around 441 BC (Honig). The play is set in Thebes, where two heirs, Eteocles and Polynices, contend for Oedipus' kinship throne. Eteocles starts the war by sitting on the throne against Oedipus' orders. Both of them are killed on the battlefields....

Antigone and Othello: A Critical Analysis of Love Antigone is a tragedy play written around 442 BCE by Sophocles about the burial of Antigone's brother Polynices against the rule of Crone and the country, as well as the tragic effects of her act of civil disdain. Othello is a tragedy play...

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Tragedy in Sophocles’ “Antigone” Essay

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Through Antigone play, Sophocles explores the ideas, motives, aspirations, utterances dispositions, and actions of different characters, thus allowing audiences to come to terms with the various characters. All the characters seem to be motivated by the desire to achieve some commendable objective. Based on the play’s events, it is thus not easy to definitively assign any character the label of ‘tragic hero’. In the traditional sense, a ‘tragic hero’ is a character who falls from grace to shame owing to the character’s inherent flaw of judgment. This character is influential. Their disgrace thus has a significant effect on their compatriots. The play’s 2 central characters, namely Creon and Antigone, are influential based on their respective social statuses. Antigone is a princess under is Creon’s foster daughter. Likewise, Creon is the ruler of Thebes. The 2 characters’ fall from grace thus greatly affects Theban people. Reverting to the issue of who between the 2 is a tragic hero, it is important to note that the reason for the duo’s demise has some moral and practical backing. The conventional definition of a ‘tragic hero’ thus fails to accurately apply to either Creon or Antigone.

The preceding realization brings us to another concept, namely, Hegel’s definition of tragedy. This philosopher notes that tragic collisions are the central elements within tragedies. Hegel adds that these collisions do not arise owing to various characters’ evil or good actions. Instead, Hegel’s holds that tragic collisions arise from characters’ clash over different opinions. It is important to note that each of these varied opinions has a tinge of goodness in it. Hegel’s ideology accurately applies to the case of Creon and Antigone. These characters have some valid points for backing their ideas. Further, the 2 characters clash over their divergent viewpoints.

To illustrate, after arresting Antigone, Creon informs the girl that the former seeks to uphold law and order in Thebes, hence his decision to refuse Polynices a decent burial. This treatment of Polynices – who is a brother to Antigone – is the genesis of Creon’s disagreement with the young girl. The ruler then explains that his actions are consistent with the policies of the Theban governing system. Such a confession by Creon shows that his actions satisfy the rules set out by Hegel. To expound, Creon’s edict against burying Polynices has both a bright as well as a dark side (Sophocles, Fagles, and Bernard 76). Regarding the bright side, by issuing and implementing this decree, Creon is attempting to preserve order in Thebes. With an order, peace, and prosperity will follow. This is a commendable intention that abides by Hegel’s theory of tragic collisions.

On the other hand, Creon’s edict has vestiges of unpleasant elements, thus abiding by the theory proposed by Hegel. For instance, Creon demonstrates partiality through his discriminative decree. Such bias is evident through the ruler’s seeming disregard of the fact that Polynices is as guilty as Eteocles. It is thus improper to deem either brother as better than the other. Eteocles instigated the conflict by refusing to hand over the leadership mantle to Polynices. Oedipus – the 2 character’s father – instructed the sons to rule in turns, an order that Eteocles quashes. Polynices’ fault occurs when he attempts to forcefully wrestle power from his brother rather than follow peaceful means. Further, both brothers attempted to overthrow Oedipus. Despite this glaring truth, Creon orders for Eteocles to be correctly buried, with Polynices’ corpse being left to rot in the fields. This is a biased approach that exposes Creon’s dark side. For fairness to prevail, Creon should have accorded equal treatment to the 2 brothers’ bodies. Such partiality on the part of Creon proves that he satisfies the rules for tragic collisions set out by Hegel.

Further, Creon listens to and even appreciates the motives making Antigone bury the body of Polynices – her brother. Creon’s show of understanding for Antigone’s motivations plays out in the play when Antigone points out that the king’s directives are unjust. This awareness pushes Creon to implore Antigone to pity the ruler. In addition, Haemon – Creon’s son – warns the father that the ruler’s decree is causing disquiet in Thebes. Despite being privy to such clear reasons for Antigone’s actions, Creon goes ahead to order for her interment. This is an erroneous action on the part of Creon. Through such an action, Creon demonstrates that he has characteristics that make him satisfy the guidelines set out by Hegel.

On her part, Antigone makes certain actions that identify her as someone who satisfies the rules of tragic collision set out by Hegel. Some of Antigone’s actions are correct while others are flawed. For example, by choosing to stand up against the injustice being meted out on her dead brother, Antigone does an honourable action. She is aware that the administration is unjustly punishing ­ Polynices – one of the deceased brothers. The gallant girl thus resolves to set things straight with the administration. She clandestinely buries the corpse. In addition, she tells off Creon when the latter tries to persuade her to abandon her defiant position. Considering that Antigone’s actions resonate with those of the larger Theban society, her actions are justified. She thus satisfies the guidelines for tragic collisions stipulated by Hegel.

On the contrary, Antigone does several acts that are erroneous, thus delineation herself as a person who satisfies Hegel’s rules of the tragic collision. To illustrate, she gives up her love for Haemon, thereby causing the latter much heartache. At one point, Antigone is quoted as categorically informing Haemon that she will not be able to love him. This statement may explain Haemon’s troubled status and his eventual tragic suicide. For the aforementioned reasons, Antigone satisfies the requirements stipulated by Hegel about tragic collisions.

To summarize, Sophocles Antigone play has no definite tragic hero. Rather, the play has 2 characters, namely, Antigone and Creon, who exhibit both positive and negative behaviour. Such behaviour makes the 2 people clash. Hegel’s idea of tragic collision thus comes to the fore, replacing the notion of a tragic hero. Through their divergent opinions, Creon and Antigone clash throughout the play. These clashes highlight both Antigone and Creon’s strong and weak points. Regarding the negative behaviour, Creon disregards justice, thus unjustly ordering Polynices’ bodies to be allowed to rot in the fields. Creon however accords Eteocles, who is as guilty as Polynices, a fitting burial. On the positive side, Creon aspires to uphold order and law in Thebes, thus facilitating peace and prosperity. It is thus clear that Creon has both negative and positive aspirations that cause his clash with Antigone. Likewise, Antigone depicts several pleasant behaviours, for instance, she boldly opposes Creon’s partiality concerning the treatment given to the corpses of Eteocles and Polynices. On the contrary, Antigone allows her desires to push her away from Haemon – her lover. The preceding traits designate Antigone as a character who satisfies Hegel’s ideology of tragic collision.

Sophocles, Fagles, Robert and Knox, and Bernard MacGregor Walker. The Three Theban Plays. New York: Penguin, 1984. Print.

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• “Antigone” by Sophocles Is a Play Without a Hero
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• Chicago (A-D)
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IvyPanda. (2022, July 11). Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone". https://ivypanda.com/essays/tragedy-in-sophocles-antigone/

"Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone"." IvyPanda , 11 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/tragedy-in-sophocles-antigone/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone"'. 11 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone"." July 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tragedy-in-sophocles-antigone/.

1. IvyPanda . "Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone"." July 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tragedy-in-sophocles-antigone/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Tragedy in Sophocles' "Antigone"." July 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tragedy-in-sophocles-antigone/.

How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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