Essay on The Missing Dialogue In Antigone

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The Missing Dialogue in Antigone

After reading Antigone, one might feel that there is lacking a dialogue

between Antigone and Haimon before their deaths. Sophocles does not include any

direct communication between the two lovers during this drama. The reader might

assume that such a conversation could have taken place but was not included by

Sophocles; however, it is my belief that if a conversation occurred between

Antigone and Haimon prior to their deaths, Sophocles would have made it a part

of his drama. Since Antigone is a work of fiction, we cannot assume anything

which we are not told. We must take the situation to be exactly as Sophocles

portrays it to us. This leaves the reader to determine the importance of

Antigone and Haimon not speaking together alone before their deaths. When we

look at the nature of the drama, we see that the point Sophocles is trying to

make is a political one. The absence of Antigone and Haimon speaking alone

together adds to this political atmosphere and does not inject the play with a

question of romantic love and/or loyalty. Family bonds and loyalty are the

crucial issues instead.

The central question of this play is a political one. What should have

more power within a society, the divine laws of the gods or the laws of the land

and the mortal rulers? Antigone is a representation of the divine laws of the

gods, and she remains steadfast to her beliefs that the wishes of the gods

should overpower the wishes of the king. Creon, on the other hand, is the

representation of the laws of the land and the mortal ruler of society. He, too,

remains steadfast (until the end of the play when he realizes the divine laws

are stronger) in upholding his laws and trying to overpower the laws of the gods.

This political scenario would be somewhat minimized had Antigone and Haimon

been faced with speaking to each other. A question of romantic loyalty would

have been introduced, and it might have ruined the political point Sophocles was

making. When it comes to life and death, we usually try to protect the ones we

love and defend them by any means possible regardless of their guilt or

innocence. Although we know that Haimon does defend the actions of Antigone, he

does so outside of her presence. We do not see Haimon telling Antigone that he

will help her in any way he can. Nor do we see Antigone pleading for his

support for her actions. This absent conversation yields more weight to the

stance taken by Haimon against Creon. We know that his attempt to convince his

father of his wrongdoing is sincere, rational, and purely intellectual. It is

not his feelings of love for Antigone which lead him to support her actions or

uphold her innocence. He is not pleading for the "love of his life," but rather

he is trying to make Creon aware of his faults in a purely intellectual manner.

Although Haimon does kill himself due to the loss of Antigone, his love

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