Analyzing Theme and Archetype What archetype does Antigone represent?
What is the universal theme in this passage?
How does Antigone's archetype reveal the theme?
Antigone and Ismene heard with horror what Creon had
decided. To Ismene, shocking as it was, overwhelming
her with anguish for the pitiful dead body and the lonely,
homeless soul, it seemed, nevertheless, that nothing
could be done except to acquiesce. She and Antigone
were utterly alone. All Thebes was exulting that the man
who had brought war upon them should be thus terribly
punished. "We are women," she told her sister. "We must
obey. We have no strength to defy the State." "Choose
your own part," Antigone said. "I go to bury the brother I
love." "You are not strong enough," Ismene cried. "Why,
then when my strength fails," Antigone answered, "I will
give up." She left her sister; Ismene dared not follow her.
- "The Royal House of Thebes,"
Edith Hamilton