"make straight your own path to destiny."
this is a bold statement by one Antigone. In these first 400 lines or so, the most consistent picture we see of Antigone is one of intense familial loyalty. Albeit her family, being far from a model of success as one, doesnt deserve that loyalty from her. Nonetheless, antigone develops a rash judgement to risk her life to bury her already disceased brother. In this time and age, the authority of women is pretty much nothing, so any action taken by a women will be looked upon much differently then if a male did the act. The voice of reason spoken into Antigone's seeming madness comes from her sister, the only family that she has left. This is where i belive greif has clouded antigone's better judgement. In her passion, she disregards the fact that she should probably try to salvage the only family remaining to her and not sign her own death warrant. But even after her sister ismene's many admonishments and warnings, this is what Antigone says to her, "make straight your own path to destiny." Destiny is the interesting word her, besides this statement sounding like it is straight from Obama's speech at Grant Park, it carries significance if we note the religous status of the times. The Gods and their relationship with the mortals was much like a dog and his master. If the dog disobeys, he may get a warning. Does it again and there is punishment. People were kept in fear of the Gods and took actions of nature or stupidity in this case to be messages directly from the Gods. In her statement ..."your own path to destiny.", antigone seems to suggest that possibly their entire family are doomed to similar fates of death, thus she would pefer to go out doing right by her brother. Thus all in all, from my prespective, Antigone's actions are rash and hasty. But i also take into account her emotional state and the times. So in a way it is understandable but not beleivable; such tragedy compiled all at once seems to be a thing of the theatre more prominently during those times.
