Antigone: A Tragic Hero

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 12th gradeA-, September 1995

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Heroes come in many forms. Some such as immense in size and strength as Hercules, some in the form of people that are shunned upon, such as Harriet Tubman, and some that are only valorous heroes to some, such as Kurt Cobain. These heroes have many characteristics that make people flock to their side and follow them without a thought of hesitation. In Sophocles' Antigone the hero is a women that believes in her heart far stronger than that of her leader's rule. This brings up many characteristics that are shown within her that are also seen in other heroes. One being that she is up against an impossible enemy, one who does not fit well into society's mold, and is destroyed by her own pride. For these characteristics Antigone is given the title of an epic Heroin.

Antigone is one of the lucky townsfolk to be born of a royal house, yet is unlucky to be born in the House that she is born into.

As Antigone defies Creon's law, she is cast into a pool of danger between what she believes is right and what the state's law decrees is right. As Antigone is charged with the burying of her brother, an action which the King has declared unlawful, she holds like stone to her undying gratitude for her deceased brother. She holds to this thought because of the fact that she believes that her, who died fighting against the state, must be interred with the same honor as her brother who died defending the state. She believes that this will help lift the curse plagued on the household. The curse in which there father tried to hold at bay and failed. Her sister Ismene warned Antigone by exclaiming 'Sister please, please! remember how our father die:...