Antigone Journal 4

The theme that a tragic flaw of a character ends in harm if not controlled occurs in both Antigone and Oedipus the King. Antigone’s tragic flaw is her defiance to her uncle in order to bring justice to her deceased brother by burying his body. This tragic flaw differs from Oedipus’ flaw which is to find truth about the murderer of the previous king and the facts about his family. Antigone continually defies her uncle in order to satisfy her fate of burying her brother. She is relentless in this task and continues to try to succeed after she finds out she will die if she proceeds and even after her uncle gives her a chance to walk away. Oedipus also gets a chance to walk away, because the oracle says he will not tell him the information regarding his family because it is not enjoyable. Oedipus ignores the warning and pesters the oracle until the information is told. The endings both end with them getting harmed, Antigone committing suicide and Oedipus stabbing his eyes out, because neither controlled their tragic flaw so it proceeded to cause them harm.

Family cannot overcome ever situation is a theme present in Antigone and Oedipus. Even though Antigone is Creon’s uncle, he refuses to give her a special treatment with the law to avoid killing her. Creon gives her to opportunity to stop her defiance, but she continues, forcing him to condemn her to avoid the citizens of Thebes becoming dismayed with him for abusing his powers as king to protect certain people, even if it is a family member. Oedipus searches desperately for the truth about his parents. He loves his wife dearly, but after realizing it was his mother and that he unknowingly killed his own father, Oedipus is unable to overcome this situation, even though he was happy before, and stabs his eyes out in a crude attempt to un-see his actions. In both Antigone and Oedipus, family is unable to stay together to overcome all situations.