Her Own Way

        

In literature, the word agency means, “the freedom and capacity to live or act in a defined world.”  And so, when you look at the character of Antigone, to what extent does she have agency in the play?  In what ways have you seen her act on her own ability to live and survive in this particular world?

    When I look at the character of Antigone, I don’t believe that she has very much “agency” at all. While she doesn’t exactly have much respect for the laws that have been put into place by those governing her and her peers, the free will that she has granted herself doesn’t last her very long. Antigone believes that it is not as important to please those that are still on Earth, but that she should spend her days trying to do the will of those that she will spend eternity with in the heavens after this life has passed. However I don’t even believe that the government is the only thing that restrains her. In my opinion, I think that her free will has been heavily disrupted by her own family history.

    Antigone is one of the four children of Oepdipus, who killed his father and then married his mother, as that was his fate. Her brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, killed each other while fighting for what they believed in, which happened to be the protection of Thebes for Eteocles, and the destruction of it for Polyneices. And Ismene, her sister, just wants to live by the rules that have been put into place for her and try to live as normal a life as possible, regardless of her family lineage. She is also engaged to Haemon, whose father is Creon, ruler of Thebes. After her brothers brutally murder one another, Creon demands that no one bury Polyneices, for he committed treason against their home. This is where we really see how little Antigone cares for what others think of her and decides to live the way that she believes the Gods will respect most. When she buries Polyneices, regardless of how she may be punished, she knows in her heart that it is worth the price of her freedom, if that is what it is to cost her. She has more respect for her deceased brother than to let him rot in the woods and let the wildlife feast off of his flesh.

    She does what she needs to in order to survive in a way that she is content with. Even though Her sister doesn’t initially support her decision to bury Polyneices, she does it anyway. Antigone has been punished so much by events that she had no control over, such as her father murdering her grandfather, and she is merely trying to make her own fate and please the Gods, something that no one else in her family has really done. She is doing her best to maintain whatever little respect and honor her family has left. She even refuses to let Ismene lie to save herself, when it looks like all hope has been lost.

    Even though she eventually kills herself after being imprisoned, it is oddly comforting to know that she did it her own way. Antigone maintained her free will by not allowing anyone else’s choices to impact the way she lived her life. She lived her way, and she died her own way. She even got to be reunited with Haemon, as he took his own life upon finding her, but in a way, I believe that she got her own version of a happy ending, reunited with her beloved brothers and fiance. She lived to please the Gods, and all we can hope for is that she was treated better in life than she was in death.