Hi Friends,
Sorry this blog post is mostly about me disagreeing with things.. 🙂
First of all, I admit I looked at a few blog posts before starting mine and I noticed a few people talking about female empowerment in Antigone. I disagree with this, because although Antigone did refuse to conform to Kreon’s laws, the bigger point in this play is Kreon and his superiority over everyone, including Antigone. She does completely step out of the female role to defend her brother and his rights, but she’s still exiled for disobeying which shows that man still has the higher role.
The other statement I disagreed with was the one mentioned in our lecture today that Antigone and Kreon were in the same boat, neither of them right or wrong. In my opinion, Antigone is the protagonist in this play. Like Kreon, she’s fighting for what she thinks is right. She thinks that Polyneices deserves to buried and treated with the same holiness that Eteokles is treated with, while Kreon thinks that Polyneices’ treachery makes him unfit to be buried. It’s a simple difference of opinions and each of them is valid. The only aspect that sets them apart is that Antigone is opposing the law out of pure respect for her brother, while Kreon fights out of stubbornness. He doesn’t want Antigone, a woman and a minority, to appear smarter than him, the ruler.He repeats over and over in the play that he doesn’t want to give and be beaten..he’s treating it more as a game than anything.
I did air cadets for a few years (embarrassing) and at least half of our squadron was made up of Kreons (insecure kids who tried to enforce ridiculous regulations while they could, because outside of their titles they had no power and they were derps)
And that’s about all I can think of for now
BYE!
-Olivia 🙂
Hi Olivia–I didn’t get a chance to comment last week, so I’m doing so now!
I thought you brought up excellent points here and in your presentation; Antigone does not win out, indeed, at least as an individual. But in a way one might say that what she stands for (assuming one can say she stands for anything, given Butler’s reading!) somewhat wins out, in that Kreon realizes he is wrong and ends up losing everything?
Kreon is definitely stubborn. He makes a ruling and then refuses to listen to any advice against it, accusing everyone who disagrees with him of being bribed (or senile, in the case of the leader of the chorus!). I’m trying to decide if I think Antigone is stubborn in any way. She holds to what she believes, no matter what, refusing to listen to Ismene’s advice, so in a way we might say they both hold to what they believe in. Kreon could be said to be holding to principle: one might say that he has at least some reason to deny Polyneices a proper burial, given the situation, and he does need to appear as a strong ruler to help rebuild the state after a war. So maybe one could say that they both hold strongly to what they believe in, so are both “stubborn” in similar ways? This is genuinely a question; I’m not sure what I think yet.
And I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know what air cadets is!
I forgot to answer this! This completely goes against my essay, but at the time I would probably say that yes both are stubborn, but I see Antigone being stubborn for good intentions as opposed to just saving face. I guess I shouldn’t have just said he fights out of stubbornness since both of them are doing that, but rather he’s stubbornly fighting for wrong intentions (like not wanting Antigone to have power over him and not be seen as a “woman”) whereas Antigone is (perceived to be) fighting for selfless intentions.
Air Cadets is a program for kids 12-19 where you learn leadership, aviation, drill, survival and a lot of other life skills. It’s kind of like scouts, but with an aviation aspect to it. 🙂