The Tragedy of Antigone: Death as Ideological Victory

The Tragedy of Antigone: Death as Ideological Victory

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone’s insistence to bury Polynices is not only a fight for the preservation of honor in death but is also a fight to challenge the gender roles imposed on women by Greek society. Antigone understands that her goal is simply to bury Polynices; so it is likely that she may not be conscious or concerned that she is challenging gender roles. Only from Kreon’s perspective and dialogue is the reader made aware of such a resistance against gender roles. Kreon’s mindset of maintaining authority of the law contrasts with Antigone’s belief that love has greater authority over the law. At the core of Antigone, love is the central cause of conflict because it contradicts the law. For example, Haimon dies out of love for Antigone, Ismene keeps Antigone’s secret out of love, and Antigone dies out of love for Polynices. The law is ultimately indiscriminant and unsympathetic of love; so Antigone’s fate is sealed. Considering how Antigone and Kreon both follow a moral code (love and legality respectively), they are almost equally just in thought and action. However, Kreon’s gender bias compromises his sense of justice. For Kreon, submission to Antigone would not only put the legitimacy of the law at stake, but also his manhood. In this sense, if Antigone were able to convince Kreon that she is legally justified to bury Polynices, Kreon still would not yield to Antigone simply because she is a woman. Although the role of women is not often explicitly stated in Antigone, readers can deduce the nature of their role in relation to the explicit statements made regarding the role of men. Understanding one gender role leads to an understanding of the other because their roles are binary opposites. Antigone defies the female gender role by assuming the role of men. As a woman, Antigone is supposed to be passive, deceptive, and without reason, but while assuming the role of a man, she is...