Role of Women

Although Antigone is a self-assertive character that follows her morals, I would not call her a feminist. I agree that her courage is magnified by comparing her attitude with her sisters’; an expected role of a Thebean woman, however, courage is all it is. Never once in the play does she refer to her female capacity.

Her sister, Ismene, mentions that is hopeless going against men- “We are only women! We cannot fight against men, Antigone!” (Antigone 1.1.46) Antigone replies by saying she will bury her brother by herself, and if she is discovered, then she will die too with ambition. She does not respond by saying women can do anything men can, or how women are misjudged and looked down upon. Antigone says nothing about how equally capable both genders are. Instead she reminds Ismene that God’s rules are more important than the King’s laws.

She has respect, and her loyalty is to God, not the King Creon. When she does take him down, creating an epiphany and guilt among the people, it has nothing to do with feminism. Just because she has a solid character, which occasionally talks back to superior classes, does not mean she is a feminist as well. Just because she has strong beliefs and lets nothing get in the way of them, does not mean she has developed women’s rights and follows them with the same amount of zeal and commitment.

Antigone, does not win the sympathy of the chorus by simply being a female. She is determined, and prepared to accept her consequences because she is not ashamed of her crime; burying her brother’s ghost. “I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, it will not be the worst of deaths- death without honour.” (Antigone 1.1.80-81)

In some ways, Antigone has no special qualities; neither bravery, courage, nor fearlessness. It is the King Creon, and her sister Ismene who showed cowardly and stubborn behavior, with reflects Antigone in a good light. When everything you ever cared about disappears and boils down to a sacrifice, many people would do the same thing Antigone did. It’s called human righteousness.