Antigone's Agony

Antigone is faced with the struggle of choosing to honor her brother's life or to preserve her own life. Furthermore, Antigone was in her sad situation because she was a woman, and as a woman she was unable to inherit her father's throne after her brothers' deaths. She was subject to uncle's rule because although she was of noble birth she was unable to rule because of her sex. In the end of the tragedy she hung herself and her fiancé, her uncle's son, killed himself to spite his father and honor his bride to be (Sophocles). The most pressing issue that parallels modern life in this play is the issue of sexism.

Sexism is present in today's society as much as it is in this play. In one study, people were surveyed about which issues they felt were most important among parents in America. Over 75% of people felt that African American issues should be discussed in more detail and other issues also received high consideration, 50% or better but women's issues received less than 25% (Patterson).

Women only began to gain equal rights to inherit or own property in our own country following the demand of equal rights beginning in 1850 at the First Women's Convention (Amringe). Part of this demand was for women to have equal rights to property; women desired equal rights to own, inherit, and bequeath money or property. Antigone never gains that right she dies as a prisoner in a stone tomb of her uncle's vicious design (Sophocles). However it is sad to note that women living over 1800 years after her play is written still haven't gained that right. The reasons given for women to be unable to have these rights are varied from men feeling women were too delicate to handle the stresses of social responsibilities of those varieties to the fear that women were of inferior intelligence to men and unable to make important financial (or many other) important decisions (Amringe).

In Antigone's play she is forced to choose between her own life and honoring the memory of her brother's life because her uncle feels that one of her brother's was evil while the other was rightful in the killing as he was the rightful heir (Sophocles). Women for many years were subject to the mercy of an authoritarian male after the death of her husband or father. Men were able to assign his children to the care of other relatives and leave his wife completely without contact with the children or rights to any money or property as little as 150 years ago in this very country (Amringe). It is shocking to think of that from my 21^st century mind set but there it is. A play written nearly 2000 years previous voices the complexities and limitations of the female sex that continues today in some countries.

The rights of women at the time of the play and the rights of American women 150 years ago are paralleled in the play Antigone by Sophocles. Antigone is unable to inherit her father or brothers' right to the throne because of her sex, as a result her uncle is responsible for the fate of her deceased brothers' remains and the lives of both herself and sister. In times as recent as 1850 C.E. women were treated as simply as property with about as many rights in the United States, a husband could choose to leave his wife and children without any source of living in his last will if he wished, though they were completely dependent on him in his life. Antigone is then faced with the choice of following her heart of what she knows to be the honorable final rights her brother deserves and forfeit her own life in return, or suffer the knowledge she left her brother to remain in eternal dishonor (by her religious views). Again, in times as recent as the last century women in our own country were fighting for the right to be treated equally by their male counterparts, this included the ability to leave money or property to her surviving children. Finally Antigone is imprisoned in a stone tomb by her uncle which eventually leads to her death and the death of her cousin who was meant to be her husband because she admitted to burying her brother against her uncle's wishes resulting in her punishment. This aspect of the story is mirrored by the constant fight and struggle men fought to deny women equal rights throughout the 20^th century. The parallels of Antigone's story and the Women's Rights Movement of the United States give a powerful message that equality for everyone is an issue everyone should care about.

Amringe, H.H. Van. "Argument on Women's Rights." Worchester Women's Rights Project-Archive. 22 February 2008 .

Patterson, Thomas E. We The People. 7th Edition. McGraw Hill, 2007.

Sophocles. Antigone. 22 February 2008 .