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Sophocles's tragic play Antigone, written in 441 BC, is a theatrical piece of drama in which an audience is compelled to empathize with its character's. When empathizing with characters in Antigone the audience can, in imaginative and cognitive ways, participate in the understanding of a character's feelings, ideas as well as their situations. Antigone, Creon and Ismene all struggle with decisions that concern the laws of their city and the cosmic law of religion and moral judgement. Characters such as Harmon 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 felt for each character changes as the story develops and as different qualities are revealed about each character.
The amount of empathy felt for a character effects not only the reading of that character but also the meaning of the play. The first scene of the play involves Antigone asking her sister to go against the laws of the state to help her give the proper burial rites to their brother Polynices. In the first scene there is an immediate sense of empathy felt towards Antigone as she express her feelings of misfortune to Ismene. 'My own flesh and blood - dear sister, dear Ismene, how many griefs our father Oedipus handed down! Do you know one, I ask you, one grief that Zeus will not perfect for the two of us (p 59) By introducing Antigone to the audience as the daughter 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 still bringing grief in to Antigone's life. This immediately gives the audience an insight into Antigone's personal feelings and gives the audience the opportunity to feel empathy for the pain that plagues her life simply because she was born as the daughter of an ill-fated man.
Because the audience has been put into a position 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 between 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 (p 66). Oedipus' fate had already left Antigone 'motherless and fatherless' but now she was left 'brother less' as well. By informing the audience that Antigone's brothers had died, anyone as an audience member who has lost a loved one can sympathize with the grief of death and could then empathize and understand how awful it would be to lose two brothers at once in such a horrendous manner.
The audience has now been positioned to view Antigone with pity and share her heartache, in doing this the audience is brought closer to Antigone's character and they are likely to feel compassion for her and agree with any of her actions further on in the text. Antigone's decision to defy the state and mourn her brother creates a feeling empathy in itself. Antigone is faced to struggle with moral judgement. She knows that she faces the punishment of death if she breaks the law made by Creon that forbids Polynices his burial rites, but she knows that her brother deserves to be laid to rest. When Ismene declines the offer to help Antigone she becomes determined to defy the state believing that the gods will honor her actions. 'Do as you like, dishonor the laws The gods hold in honor. ' (p 63) Antigone is faced with a decision that can only have an ill consequence and this is how the empathy is created. If she follows the cosmic order of nature she will restore harmony in the death of her brother but will face her own death as a consequence.
If she follows the law of Creon she would be upsetting the cosmic order and would have to live her life knowing she denied the law of the gods. The audience can offer Antigone empathy as they understand that the important decision she is making will have a negative affect over her, regardless of which choice she makes, it will ultimately lead to the destruction of her life. This empathy positions the reader to admire Antigone for her courage and bravery, and it glorifies her character. The ultimate empathy felt for the character of Antigone is that felt toward her inhumane and undeserved death sentence. She is being sent to her bridal volt by the man who would have been her father-in-law and is her uncle. Sophocles puts emphasis on Antigone's life ending prematurely and her innocence being untimely slaughtered.
As Antigone, (described by the chorus as the 'doomed bride') is escorted away to her bridal volt by Creon's guards, she expresses how devastating the loss of her life is. 'And now he leads me off, a captive in his hands, with no part in the bridal-song, the bridal-bed, denied all joy of marriage, raising children-' (p 106) By emphasizing that Antigone hasn't even begun to live a 'full life' with a husband and children, Sophocles is inviting the audience to empathize with Antigone's feelings of being denied so many joyful experience of life, because she followed the law of the Gods. Once the audience feels the empathy for Antigone's situation they read her character as being 'hard done by'; they feel her execution was dealt unfairly and her character should be glorified for her actions rather than punished for them. Because the audience has gained empathy for Antigone through out the play, her character is read as a tragic hero in the play. Therefor those who oppose her immediately lose some sort of respects from the audience. The law ruling that no one shall even mourn Polynices, passed by Creon, is discussed in disapproval in the first scene by Antigone.
Although the audience has been positioned to share Antigone's opinion there is an element of empathy felt for the situation Creon is in. Polynices is Creon's nephew but Polynices acted as a traitor to the city that Creon rules. Simply to be faced with such a decision creates empathy towards Creon. Before Antigone was faced with her struggle between state laws and cosmic laws, Creon faced the same sort of moral issues. Creon justifies the difficult decision he made; 'Exactly when did you last see...
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Research essay sample on Empathy For Characters In Antigone
