arnish with the passage of time. When he is most vulnerable, he is most noble." (Knox 60).Antigone, meanwhile, has a certain dignity and nobility as well, but lacks the emotional punch of Oedipus because she doesn't care how her circumstances and decisions affect others. She would feel hatred toward even a loved one who tried to stop her (Sophocles/Jebb pars. 29-30):Ismene: A hopeless quest should not be made at all.Antigone: If thus thou speakest, thou wilt have hatred from me, and will justly be subject to the lasting hatred of the dead.Antigone has one line which irks me in particular. After being discovered while burying her brother's body for the second time, Antigone is confronted by Creon, who reasons that "A foe is never a friend--not even in death." To this, Antigone responds,"Tis not my nature to join in hating, but in loving." (Sophocles/Jebb pars. 116-117). This seems like an outright lie, something that a more tragic figure like Oedipus would never utter. Antigone certainly demonstrates her nature to hate, when she condemns her sister even as Ismene shows Antigone love (Sophocles/Jebb pars. 123-126):Ismene: But now that ill besets thee, I am not ashamed to sail the sea of trouble at thy side.Antigone: Whose was the deed, Hades and the dead are witnesses: a friend in word is not the friend that I love.Ismene: And what life is dear to me, bereft of thee?Antigone: Ask Creon; all they care is for him.Vickers says that Creon was "lawful" in decreeing that Polyneices not be buried, but this is the only issue that Creon is "right" about. He believes that Creon is "repugnant" to the reader, because Creon "gloats over the future fate of the corpse." (Vickers 528). I must disagree again. Creon was never repugnant to me personally. Had I been in his position, and a nephew of mine committed treason against my kingdom and killed my second nephew, I would have done much the same thing: let his corpse rot and be consumed by scavengers. ...
