Question

Fate versus free will is a dominant theme of Sophocles’s Antigone. Although Antigone makes a conscious choice to risk her life by burying her brother, Sophocles hints that her life is the result of a predetermined destiny shaped by her family’s past. Which line in this excerpt from Antigone reflects Antigone’s helplessness with regard to her fate and her family’s past?

Answer 1

The line from Antigone that shows Antigone's feelings of fate having control over her life is when she refers to the fulfillment of 'The weird of Oedipus, a world of woes,' implying that their family's curse predestines their suffering.

Step-by-step explanation:

The line from Sophocles's Antigone that reflects Antigone's helplessness with regard to her fate and her family's past is: "See'st thou how Zeus would in our lives fulfill The weird of Oedipus, a world of woes!" In this line, Antigone expresses a sense of inevitable doom and destiny that is linked to the curse of her father Oedipus. The use of the word "weird" here references fate or destiny, suggesting a predetermined path that she and her sister are compelled to follow. This theme of fate versus free will is a dominant one in the play, as Antigone feels drawn to her act of defiance by forces beyond her control, referencing the tragedy that has befallen her family.

Answer 2

I think that in these lines she admits her helplessness:

Alack, alack! Ye mock me. Is it meet Thus to insult me living, to my face?
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In there she compares her with slave of destiny :

O monstrous doom,Within a rock-built prison sepulchered,To fade and wither in a living tomb
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And there she represents how she belongs to her family and can't confront the fate her family has builded for her: In thy boldness over-rashMadly thou thy foot didst dash' Gainst high Justice' altar stair.Thou a father's guild dost bear.