Question

What is the relationship between Antigone and Ismene? What are they discussing as this excerpt from the play opens? Cite textual evidence to demonstrate your understanding.

Answer 1

In Sophocle's "Antigone," Antigone and Ismene are sisters, daughters of the ill-fated Oedipus.

At the begining of the play the are discussing Creon's orders to not give Polynices, one of their two dead brothers, a propoer burial.

After Oedipus' death, it was agreed that both of his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, would take the throne from one year to the next. However, when Eteocles refused to give up the throne, Polynices joined forces with other foreign princes and attacked Tebes.

Both brothers were killed during the fight but, considering his actions as treason, Creon, as acting king, declared that only Polynices would be given a proper burial.

Textual evidence

ANTIGONE:

Listen, Ismene: Creon buried our brother Eteocles with military honors, gave him a soldier’s funeral, and it was right that he should; but Polyneices, they fought as bravely and died as miserably. They say that Creon has sworn no one shall burry him, no one mourn for him, but this body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure.

(Sophocles, Antigone, Prologue v.15-20)

Answer 2

The relationship between Antigone and Ismene is that they are sisters. Antigone is a very strong woman. She has her convictions and acts upon them. Ismene, on the other hand, is more complacent than her sister. She does not distinguish right from wrong. Antigone is more strong-willed, while Ismene is compliant.

Antigone and Ismene show us much about their characters through the contrast and conflict presented in the first scene. Each sister depicts as a different perspective on the subject at hand: the burial of their brother, which has been outlawed under the penalty of death. Although each conclusion can be rendered reasonable, this situation also reveals their flaws, and even more, the reasons for the development of these flaws.