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What are some important symbols in Sophocles' Antigone?
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In Sophocles' Antigone, significant symbols include Antigone's stone tomb and Queen Eurydice's knitting. The tomb represents Antigone's loyalty to her family and spiritual values over earthly laws, highlighting Creon's flawed judgment and defiance of divine laws. Eurydice's knitting, a domestic symbol, becomes a tool of aggression in her suicide, symbolizing the consequences of Creon's actions and the punishment of masculine power by feminine duty and love.
Antigone's stone tomb
The tomb to which Antigone is condemned symbolizes her ultimate loyalty. She does not care about her uncle's laws—Antigone is loyal to her dead brothers. The tomb could also be seen as symbolic of Antigone's forsaking worldly laws and cares (marriage, for instance) in order to remain true to a more spiritual world, where honor and loyalty are of more importance.
Queen Eurydice's knitting
Eurydice knits in her chamber until she kills herself with her needle. Traditionally, knitting is a feminine domestic chore, yet Eurydice turns this activity into something aggressive and fatal. She deprives her husband, Creon, of his last remaining link to love and companionship with her suicide. She is angry because his actions led to the deaths of their two sons.
This also links her with Antigone, whose "feminine" love and sense of duty condemn her to death.The feminine is essentially punishing...
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the bad actions of the masculine ego and need for power gone out of control.
One important symbol in Sophocles’ Antigone is the stone tomb to which Creon condemns her. His decree ordered a punishment of death by stoning if any one buried Polynices’. When Creon learned that Antigone had buried her brother, he changed the sentenced to being buried alive in a stone tomb. The tomb symbolizes that Antigone’s loyalties are not with the present king and kingdom, but with the dead—her father, mother, and brothers. The stone tomb also symbolizes Creon’s poor judgment. As Tiresias the soothsayer points out, Creon is committing a terrible sin against Zeus in burying a human being alive. Creon has now committed a double sin first in refusing to bury Polynice’s body and now in burying Antigone alive. The stone tomb, rather than death by stoning symbolizes that Creon is trying to invert the order of nature in defying the gods and putting his laws above the laws of the gods.
What imagery and symbolism are found in Sophocles' Antigone?
In strophe 2 of the first episode of Paul Roche's translation of Antigone, the Chorus describes the death of Polyneices with vivid imagery: he "fell in a flaming arc / His brandished torch all quenched."
Creon decrees that because Polyneices has attacked Thebes, he shall not be afforded the burial rites that are Argive custom. Instead, he is to be "left all ghastly where he fell / a corpse for dogs to maul."
When the sentry reports to Creon that he had witnessed Antigone burying her brother's body, he tells Creon that he had "brushed the earth from off the body / to make it bare again (it was all soft and clammy)" and that when Antigone saw what he had done, she cursed him.
Because Creon is more interested in law and order than justice, he uses symbolism to describe how he governs and how he will bring Antigone back into line: " . . . I have seen high-mettled horses curbed / by a little scrap of bit." He is certain of his power and authority over her. Antigone, however, invokes the symbolic power of higher, unwritten law, telling Creon that his "mortal edicts" do not usurp "the laws of heaven." And because she does not actually inter Polyneices, but rather sprinkles soil over his corpse, his burial is purely symbolic.
More imagery than symbolism can be found
in Antigone, but there is some of both.
Imagery refers to any words that form a mental
picture in the readers' heads. It especially refers to sensory
language that can be used to describe "actions, persons, objects, and
ideas" ("Guide to Literary Terms," eNotes). We especially see imagery being
used when describing death in Antigone. For example, Antigone paints a
very vivid description of her brother's corpse being dishonored when she
describes it as a "sweet find for birds to feast upon" (30). The reference to
the birds feasting is a sensory image referring to taste that conjures up a
vivid image of the deceased being mangled by hungry birds. We also see Ismene
using imagery when she describes their parents' deaths, especially in the lines
describing their father "smiting both his eyes with his very own hands"
(52-53). The reference to the senses of sight and touch helps us to see the
pain that Oedipus caused himself by scratching out his eyes.
Symbolism is any words, places, or objects
that an author uses to convey meaning beyond what is literally
meant. One instance of symbolism is seen in the reference to
stone. Creon has decreed that anyone who buries Polynices will
be stoned to death; also, Antigone is sentenced to be buried alive in a stone
cave used as a tomb. Stone has historically been understood to symbolize
strength, stability, endurance ("The Symbolism of Stone"). Therefore it is
ironic that stone is being used so often in reference to Antigone's family.
Antigone's family is anything but strong, stable, and enduring. Instead, they
have been cursed by the gods and are all dying. Therefore, in this story, stone
is being used to ironically symbolize the family's
weakness and close ties to death.
Another instance of symbolism can be seen in reference to
burial. Proper burial symbolizes honor and
respect. But, again, ironically, Antigone's family is anything but
honored and respected. Therefore, again, burial not only
symbolizes the family's ties to death but
also symbolizes how they have been cursed and dishonored by
fate and the gods.
What are some examples of symbolism in Antigone?
One of the more complex symbols in this brilliant play is that of Antigone being entombed alive in a prison to wait her death through slow starvation. This of course on the one hand symbolises Antigone's loyalties and where they lie. She has chosen to live--and die--among the dead, and through the decision she makes to defy Creon's rule she clearly shows that, to a certain extent, the dead are more important to her than the living, such as her sister and fiance. Note what she says as she is taken to her tomb:
O tomb, my bridal-bed--my house, my prison
cut in the hollow rock, my everlasting watch!
I'll soon be there, soon embrace my own,
the great growing family of our dead...
Note how she speaks of her imminent demise with almost happiness and gladness. She would much rather live with her dead brothers and father than with the living.
However, at the same time, the tomb also is used as a powerful symbol of Creon's megalomania and his power. He buries Antigone alive in a tomb so that he can escape guilt, yet it is Tiresias who points out that by leaving a rotting body in daylight he is committing a great sin against the gods. It shows therefore how Creon is determined to assert his own power, even when it challenges and offends the gods.