What makes Sophocles's Antigone a paradigm of the very idea of tragedy Essay

What makes Sophocles's Antigone a paradigm of the very idea of tragedy - Essay Example Firstly, we should understand that the notion of tragedy concerns only a human being. This concept cannot be devoted to the natural phenomena. It can face various kinds of devastating disasters, but their consequences are evaluated as a tragic only in relation to their emergence in peoples lives. Tragedy always involves some conflicts in human relationships. It characterizes the irresolvable question, which always ends with the loss of some significant life values ​​for the participants of the conflict, or even the destruction of their personality. Every person is mortal. Moreover, any individual accepts it as a fact and does not consider it as a tragedy. Death is only one of the manifestations of life - the law of nature. Tragic conflicts arise when people fail in their truly human manifestations, asserting themselves as free and rational beings. The spiritual dimension of human life is the only arena in which the tragedy takes place. The works of Sophocles were based on the myths of ancient Greece. The play â€Å"Antigone† is often compared with the myth about Oedipus. The plot of the tragedy is not complicated. Its main character Antigone (the daughter of king Oedipus), despite the decree of Creon (the legitimate ruler of Thebes), performs funeral rites over the body of one of her fallen brothers Polynices, who led foreign troops to Thebes and betrayed the interests of his native city. As a result, Creon condemns Antigone to a painful punishment, commanding to immure her in one of the caves. Antigone refuses to accept such sentence and commits suicide. Antigones death entailed the suicide of her fiancà © Haemon (Creons son). His mother Eurydice could not stand the sorrow and dies as well. These misfortunes made Creon recognize his miserableness and humble before the gods. Sophocles developed the plot of the original myth, as it was necessary for the disclosure of the tragic actions. He did not paraphrase the