charant Empathy for Characters in Sophocles Antigone :: Antigone essays

Empathy for Characters in Sophocles Antigone Sophocles tragic play Antigone, written in 441 BC, is a theatrical piece of drama in which an auditory sense is compelled to empathize with its cites. When empathizing with characters in Antigone the audience can, in imaginative and cognitive ways, participate in the consciousness of a characters feelings, ideas as well as their situations. Antigone, Creon and Ismene all struggle with decisions that fill the laws of their city and the cosmic law of religion and moral judgement. Characters such as Haemon and Eurydice ultimately show the consequences of the decision formed by the two protagonists. Amongst the audience, empathy is created for both characters faced with agonizing decisions and characters inflicted with tormenting consequences. The levels of empathy mat up for individually character changes as the baloney develops and as different qualities are revealed about each character. The amount of empathy felt for a character eff ects not only the reading of that character but also the meaning of the play. The first scene of the play involves Antigone request her sister to go against the laws of the state to help her give the proper sepulcher rites to their brother Polynices. In the first scene there is an immediate hotshot of empathy felt towards Antigone as she express her feelings of misfortune to Ismene. My own flesh and squanderer - dear sister, dear Ismene, how many griefs our father Oedipus handed down Do you know one, I ask you, one grief that Zeus bequeath not perfect for the two of us... (p59) By introducing Antigone to the audience as the female child of the Oedipus the empathy felt toward the tragic hero Oedipus is somewhat inherited by Antigone. The audience reflects on the hardships that the incestuous family of Oedipus have already endured and realizes that the wretched fate of Oedipus is passive bringing grief in to Antigones life. This immediately gives the audience an insight in to Antiognes personalised feelings and gives the audience the opportunity to feel empathy for the pain that plagues her life simply because she was born(p) as the daughter of an ill-fated man. Because the audience has been put into a puzzle where they feel empathy for Antigone her character is read with a sympathetic understanding, allowing any of her actions to be considered rational in her situation. Despite the immediate empathy felt toward Antigone because of the connection amidst herself and Oedipus, the audience is obliged to feel empathy for Antigone because her two brothers at war against each other clashed and won the common prize of death (p66).