Sophocles portrays the concept of death in Antigone as both a sacred and dreaded fate which embodies the conflict between godly law and human law, exploring the consequences of death depending on its treatment.
In the play Antigone, Sophocles portrays death as something beyond the limits of human control. Antigone, as a tragedy is inevitably concerned with death. Although more than this death as a catalyst to the plays theme of death presented from two sides, one political and opposingly as something personal and sacred. The titular character Antigone treats the burial after the death of her brother Polynices as something morally owed, shown through her insistence on his burial after his body is left unburied on the battlefield. This is in direct opposition to Creon’s orders to leave the body on the battlefield. As Creon views the burial as a disobedience to the state. In this conflict between the two characters, Sophocles presents death as both something believed to be divine and as something controllable by law. However, in the play, death is also shown to not only be the ending to one life, but to change the life of the still living through grief and guilt. Sophocles portrays death in Antigone through showing the conflict between the desire for control over it and divine law, and the ultimate undeniability of what the loss of life does not only to the person who dies, but to the people who remain alive.
Sophocles’ Antigone, set in Ancient Greece explores a reality where burial rites were an essential part of ensuring a soul’s transition to the afterlife. Therefore, to deny a burial was to condemn the dead to an unnatural passing and directly violate the divine law. Through this context of the play, Sophocles presents death as something sacred and enforceable instead of a tool used to gain political power or control. This is evident through Creon’s treatment of Polyneices’ body following his death in the battle of Thebes. Naming him as a traitor, Creon demands that his body be left ‘unwept and unburied’. The repetition of ‘un’ not only strips Polynices of the ritualistic nature of a proper burial but of humanity as it recognises no mourning for the loss of the soul and therefore no recognition of a life lived. Through the deliberate use of his language, Sophocles uses the corpse as a political tool and a symbol for Creon, therefore suggesting that his public authority relies on the manipulation of honour of death. For an audience at this time, Creon’s denial would create a strong sense of dread as it not only symbolises Creon’s view on death, but a larger theme of violating divine laws. Through this, Creon represents an exaggerated pride in himself, whereas the character Antigone represents a moral integrity, demonstrating the belief that all, despite their actions are worthy of a sacred burial. Antigone being so willing to defy Creon’s law despite repercussions demonstrate the hierarchy of the divine law over the human law and explores the limitations of Creon’s beliefs. Through the conflicting views of Creon and Antigone, Sophocles portrays death as something used as an attempt to gain control over the living, but ultimately the refusal to honour death.
Sophocles portrays death in Antigone as more than an eding of life. Death is protrayed as a political symbol and a attemped weapon for control, specifically at the hands of Creon. In the play, Sophocles blurs the line between death and life by confining Antigone in a tomb. A tomb, origionally used to honour death had turned it into a cage for the the living. Through doing so Sophocles suggests that death is not only a physical ending but a tool for political authority. Antigone which not only blurs the line between life and death but explores the inevitable death she will come to face. Sophocles uses the separation of the characters to further construct the idea that because there is physical distance between Creon and Antigone, Creon is not responsible for her death. However, because of Antigone is deliberatly deprived of food and water at the order of Creon, her death is ultimately a politically imposed fate and unavoidable. Antigone’s death will be a result of Creon’s actions. His action is an attempt to manipulate mortality while not being directly responsible for her life. By putting her in a position of inevitable death, Sophocles ensures that Antigone stands somewhere between being fully living and fully dead, meaning that Creon is still manipulating death without being completely guilty at her eventual end. The entrapment inside the tomb symbolises the inevitability of her death, as to the outside, Antigone can be seen as dead even if she is technically not. Therefore, Sophocles conveys the concept of death not purely as a physical act but as an idea of inevitability at the hands of power. Although Creon never admits his direct part in the deaths of Antigone and later the deaths of Haemon or Eurydice, they are all repercussions of Creon’s greed and perpetual desire for authority that make these deaths unavoidable. Hence, Sophocles explores the responsibility a person can hold for death when greed overwhelms them, despite the distance they may try to create.
Sophocles finally explores death as a consequence of pride. He portrays death in Antigone as more than an eding of life. Death is protrayed as something with the power of inflicting guilt, pain, and ultimatly shaping much of what we know human resposibility is and the intertwined nature of love and loss and death as having the power to inflict guilt and pain and ultimately shift one’s perspective on life. This is explored as the deaths of both Antigone and Haemon expose the consequences of Creon’s pride. Antigone’s death, although partially a consequence of Creon’s command, was done with a sense of autonomy. Ultimately, she chooses to die at her own hands, giving in to the divine law rather than a human one. Therefore, her death acts as an act of rebellion against Creon’s authority. However, because of the love between Haemon and Antigone, her death leads to his eventual suicide. This shows how Creon’s actions lead to the suffering of the person directly affected, but also people damaged by her death, such as Haemon. Haemon’s death shows the devastation that a death can cause to a family, all at the hands of Creon, and it marks the collapse of Creon’s reign, not only as a political figure but as a father. Because of the chain reaction of suffering Antigone’s death caused, Eurydice, unable to deal with the grief of her son’s death, dies too, leaving Creon ruined only because of his own actions. Through the immense grief experienced by the characters, caused by one death at the hands of Creon, Sophocles suggests death is not only an end, but a tragedy that has the power to dismantle authority and human law such as Creon’s.
In Antigone, Sophocles portrays the concept of death as something more powerful than just the end of a life. It is presented as a divine force, and out of the hands of human law. Through the treatment of Polyneices’ body after his death, Antigone’s entrapment in the tomb and the devastation following the deaths of Antigone and Haemon, Sophocles explores how death is powerful yet is never a tool to be used in the hands of human authority. Instead of death providing Creon with more power, his attempt at deadly punishment only leaves him with immense suffering and guilt and causes destruction. Through this, Antigone presents death as powerful and destructive. It is a force that should be respected and not controlled, otherwise, the outcome will not be gaining authority but will result in tragedy.
Leni Broomberg Writings 