A central theme of Antigone is the tension between individual action and fate. While free choices, such as Antigone’s decision to defy Creon’s edict, are significant, fate is responsible for many of the most critical and devastating events of the trilogy. By elevating the importance of fate, Sophocles suggests that characters cannot be fully responsible for their actions. It becomes difficult, for example, to blame Oedipus for marrying his mother given his ignorance.
Questions About Fate and Free Will
- Do some characters seem to control their fates more than others? If so, how do they do it?
- How does Oedipus’s fate impact the fates of other members of his family?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Antigone is not limited by fate, rather by the knowledge of her fate.