What Is Antigone A Tragic Hero

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What constitutes a tragic hero and what is there purpose in a story? Well, that is a question which has been asked by many and is one that can be easily answered. Tragic hero's make many appearances throughout both writing and the entertainment industry, one example of this is in the play Antigone. This is a play, written by Sophocles, which portrays the decisions of a women, that women is Antigone. She was cursed at birth, because of her father; that has created a string of bad luck which has followed her ever since. She faces the decision whether or not to go against rule and do what is right for her family, this decision is whether or not to bury her brother. Ultimately her decision to go against rule fails and she ends up dying, but her …show more content…
Tragic flaws are different depending on the hero, but they all lead to the downfall of the person who the characteristic belongs. Antigone, as portrayed throughout the play, is a very stubborn person; this is shown by her decision making. She choses to go against authority just to prove a point and to give her brother a proper burial. “Him I will bury. Death, so met, were honor; and for that capital crime of piety, loving and loved, I will lie by his side” (Beers 5), this shows how Antigone no matter what the consequences will do anything for her brother. She is hard headed and what she wants is what she will make happen. This flaw in turns leads to all of her decision making, persuading her to bury her brother; it is this action that subsequently leads to her downfall, and causes her to lose her …show more content…
Fate is when someone's life is planned out already and there is nothing that can be done to change what has already been planned. This is something that greatly affects tragic hero, it is what prevents them from realizing the error of their ways and changing their minds. Antigone was doomed since her birth; her father was cursed as a child and killed his father and married his mother. So, when she was born his curse was passed down to her leading her to already have a life which was planned out for her. “ “There didst thou touch upon my bitterest bale-a threefold table-my father;s piteous doom, doom of us all, scions of Labdacus. Woe for my mother’s bed! Woe for the ill-starred spouse, from her own womb! O what a father’s house was that from whence I drew my life forlorn” (Sophocles 47). This shows how no matter what Antigone could have possibly done, because of her father she was doomed from the
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