Pub #1- Moral Law v. Written Law

There are several themes portrayed throughout the Greek play, Antigone, written by Sophocles. While these themes can be seen through the main characters, like Antigone and Creon, they are initiated and are also portrayed through some of the minor characters in this work. Teiresias, Haemon, and Ismene all had pivotal roles in the development of the plot, as well as of the main characters. Without them, some conflicts may not have been as evident. Themes like fate vs. free will, gender inequality, and moral vs. written law were portrayed much clearer with the help of these characters.

Teiresias and Haemon aided in, more or less, the same theme. These two men were the first and last people to get inside Creon’s head and to change his mind about his behavior towards Antigone’s decision to bury Polyneices. Haemon, his son, struck the first crack in his confidence. He stated to his father, “Your face is terrible to a simple citizen; it frightens him from words you dislike to hear. But what I can hear, in the dark, are things like these: the city mourns for this girl; they think she is dying most wrongly and most undeservedly of all womenkind, for the most glorious acts” (Haemon, 741-746.) This caused Creon to start to think about how he is stuck in two difficult positions after sentencing Antigone to die for her actions. He saw that he was between being respected by his subjects, and sparing the life of a family member. After Haemon told him how his people truly viewed him after the events that had so quickly happened, he began to slightly doubt if he was making the right decision or not, but could not very well change it and preserve his image as a tough ruler at the same time. Towards the end of the play, Teiresias helped Creon see his fate and what his actions cost him and his family. He said, “…a corpse for a corpse, for you have thrust one that belongs above below the earth, and bitterly dishonored a living soul by lodging her in the grave; while one that belonged indeed to the underworld gods you have kept on this earth without due share of rites burial” (Teiresias, 1124-1130.) This was when Creon truly realized the error of his ways and how his actions had caused the most negative results that could not be undone. Both characters helped Creon to see how him demanding to be respected for a position that he didn’t earn only proved lethal in the end.

Ismene played a pivotal role in contrasting Antigone’s actions. Ismene represented how women were inferior during this time and how they especially were expected to follow the laws put forth by the powerful men. When she stated, “You ought to realize we are only women, not meant in nature to fight against men” (Ismene, 70-71), she was telling Antigone something she already knew about their position during their time period. Ismene also differed from Antigone in the way that she followed the written law, instead of the moral law that her sister followed. Antigone went with what she knew was the right thing to do, even though that meant having to face her own death if she was caught. She stood by her brother instead of a law she deemed to be wrong. Ismene chose to follow the law put forth by Creon because she wasn’t as strong-willed as Antigone to rebel against it. Because she was more soft-spoken and timid than Antigone, she did not have the ability to stand up against something she would later come to see was wrong. When Antigone was being sentenced to death, Ismene tried to take some of the blame because after the act was done, she was able to see that Antigone was right to stand up for what she felt was best for their brother.

These three characters were essential to introducing and developing each theme in the play. The main characters gave good arguments alone, but when contrasted with the viewpoints of these minor characters, they became even stronger. Both Ismene and Haemon also changed their viewpoints over the course of their time in the play. At first Haemon was speaking only good things to his father about his leadership, and then went on to question his decision to kill Antigone. Similarly, Ismene first was against Antigone’s decision to bury Polyneices and kept quiet about her knowledge of the plan until the very end when she tried to take some of the blame and die with Antigone. Both of these changes aided in the plot development and helped the reader have sympathy for them and how they too didn’t truly know how to react to any of the recent horrible events that took place in Thebes.