Femininity In Antigone

Whenever authority figures are opposed by someone they see as inferior to them, they usually feel obliged to preserve their power through displaying their dominance. Thus, when Creon, in Sophocles’ Antigone, is disobeyed by a woman, he feels the need to inflict punishment to not only her, but also the people connected to her. Throughout Scene II, although Creon is notified that Antigone was the caught trying to bury her brother, he seems to be doubtful of the possibility. Even when she is questioned and “den[ies] nothing,” he does not immediately punish her and asks her instead, whether or not “[she] heard [his] proclamation touching [the] matter” (208). His reluctance stems from the fact that earlier in the play, he emphasizes to his servers that they must
If Antigone was a man, she would have been punished immediately. But since she is not, he leaves her be until she speaks up because he still finds the entire situation confusing. Thus, from the start of her speech to the part where Antigone states that “if [she] had left [her] brother / Lying in death unburied, [she would] have suffered”, she is trying to preserve justice (208). Although she had the opportunity to avoid the penalty by lying, she refuses to sacrifice her integrity. However, her actions displays the standards that she holds herself to, it is his very trait that causes her to suffer for the remainder of the play. It is after she talks about why she committed when Creon regains himself and claims that she is “guilty of a double insolence” and arranges to have her as well as Ismene punished (209). This scene implies that while there is no punishment in obeying an authority figure, if an individual were to do something that infuriated them, their own lives and the people associated with them could be in danger. Even if what they are