Sophocles's Plays

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how, because of their interconnected plots, the two dramas share much in common in terms of themes and characterization. It looks at the role of Creon; the plot of justice and crime; the character, Tiresias; and other secondary characters.

From the Paper:

"In some ways, Creon and Oedipus both act as criminals and prosecutors. Creon commits a crime against divine justice first by forbidding the proper burial of Polynices and then by harshly persecuting Antigone for wanting to bury her brother in the proper manner. One of the central messages of Antigone is therefore that divine justice trumps mundane law. Oedipus breaks a divine law not necessarily by killing his father and marrying his mother, acts he committed without knowing, but by refusing to acknowledge the truth to the detriment of himself and those around him. In the end, justice is served by the gods through the death of his wife and the continuation of the plague. The final word of Oedipus the King, therefore, has more to do with the detriments of pride than with the supremacy of divine justice."

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