Antigone and Hobsons Choice Compared - 820 Words

While one may strive to fulfill what they see as the good life, it often comes at the cost of our interpersonal relationships, as demonstrated in Sophocles Antigone, and in Harold Brighouses Hobsons Choice. In Antigone, Kreon makes an attempt to uphold his beliefs and values to obtain what he views as the good life, and it costs him his family, while in Hobsons Choice, Henry Horatio Hobson attempted to maintain a certain standard of living so he could have a good life for himself, and it came at the cost of his daughters. In Antigone, Kreon is struggling to fight for the good life in the way that he sees fit. As the ruler of Thebes, he declares that the body of one of the two brothers who fought a civil war over Thebes, Polyneices, not be buried. In Kreons eyes, this edict was a necessary precaution in order to protect his city and his people. However, this decree came at a great cost to his interpersonal relationships. Originally, his niece, Antigone, was caught attempting to bury t he body of Polyneices, who was her brother, in order to give him the honor that he deserves in death. This greatly angers Kreon, he sees her actions as a direct opposition to him, and orders that she be sentenced to death. At this point, we see the collapse of his first relationship. Kreon is being forced to chose between upholding his values, or facing the consequences of sending Antigone to her death, and he chooses to fight for what he views as right. Moreover, once he decides thatShow MoreRelatedThe Cost of the Good Life for Women in Patriarchal Society1075 Words   |  4 Pagesseems to frequently triumph over its counterpart. This trend is refuted, however, by two distinctive women from Sophocles’ Antigone and Harold Brighouse’s play Hobson’s Choice. Although these works occur in separate time periods and in different societies, the struggles that both women encounter are similar. By being self-sufficient and rejecting self-preservation, Antigone and Magg ie epitomize the attributes that women in a male dominated society should uphold in order to attain the good life.