The play writer
Sophocles once stated, “The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves”,
meaning some choices we make in life are the ones we will greatly regret such
as committing murder, or not having a very good background from a previous
town. In both the plays Antigone, and A Streetcar Named Desire the main
characters face the conflict being man verses society. Such conflicts lead to
downfall showing the inner being of the characters Antigone and Blanche. These
downfalls are frankly due to quite opposite reasons being that one is from
being a hero and the other is from attempting to be one.
In the play “Antigone”, Antigone technically faces the
problem of having to go against the king in order to provide a proper burial
for her unfortunately deceased brother. This problem is due to her brother
having gone against the kings will and now his body is to rot in public. King
Creon declared the body to be untouched and those who disturb it will be
punished by execution. Antigone knows of this but does not and will not think
of her actions due to being a brother. Sister of Antigone, Ismene states, “At
least do not speak of this act to anyone else; bury him in secret, I will be
silent too” (97-98). Occasions such as this one prove the tragic hero Antigone
is, specifically because she tells her sister to tell the city of what she has
done to prove a point. All civilians would never dare go against the kings ruling
and Antigone proudly did by wanting everyone to know and proudly admitting to
the king of what she had done by stating, “Yes, I confess; I will not deny my
deed.” (487). Knowing the consequences that would be faced, bringing her to the
downfall of her death. Antigone was very strong with her actions making her a
true hero to society and proved by facts.
Blanche, one of the main characters from the play, A
Streetcar Named Desire isn’t seen as a hero whatsoever. Blanche left her old
town and came into her sister Stellas household, but seemed to always be in a
problem while there due to discoveries of her past and present conflicts within
the family. After the death of her husband Blanche went down a dark path doing
things that would eventually haunt her. Husband of Stella, Stanley made
discoveries of her such as being known by most men and supposedly having an
encounter with a student while she was a teacher. These discoveries were
purposely made so that Stanley could get his sister in law out of his house.
All they would do was disagree with each other, and Blanche begins to downfall
just as she did before coming to Stella because of the man she wanted to be
with named Mitch. She had been fooling him with her age and who she was because
she was older than what he thought so she always wanted to be with him only
when it was dark. He knew he needed someone and she needed somebody to depend
on so she tried to fool him just like the men of her previous town. Mitch
states, “I called him a liar at first And then I checked on the story. First I
asked our supply-man who travels through Laure. And then I talked directly over
long-distance to this merchant”(124). Mitch did not believe of what Stanley
told him so he did his own research and found nothing good. All Blanche did was
bring problems into the household such as her past, arguments with Stanley, bad
comments of things such as where her sister is living, and accusations of
Stanley having raped her. All of this brings her down to the point when Stan
gets her a bus ticket back home and out of his house.
In consideration of who these two ladies are it is quite
obvious that they are opposite people with the actions they made. One thing in common
within both of them is that they have a downfall, but of very different causes.
Both Blanche and Antigone came from a very rough past being that both of
Antigone’s parents died and Blanche’s husband died. Factors that pertain to the
cause of their downfall can be that they have a distinguished way of thinking
compared to most others. With that being stated some examples to demonstrate
this different way of thinking is how Antigone wants all of society to know of
her actions of burying her brother to set an example and to prove to the king
that he cannot rule everything on his own. While Antigone is one to show
herself to make an example, Blanche is the kind of person to hide and not
expose her true self to others such as how she never went out with Mitch when
there was light out. Having a different mindset such as these two just bring
more attraction for devastation which is a downfall. I as the writer can
personally relate because ever since I was young I seemed to always be “that
guy”, I had my own way of thinking and did not and still do not have any
opinion of what people think of me because I set my own example. Being this way
led to me getting called names or not getting along with some people and it
sometimes brought me down.
As a summation to make a comparison these two characters
Antigone, and Blanche can be related to not exactly one modern day hero, but
hundreds of heroes being the firefighters who battled on 9/11. This may be an
out of the ordinary comparison but it is a good one. All of the men and woman
who unfortunately passed away set an example. They all had good lives and many
had families until the downfall of when they got called in on 9/11. Parallels
drawn between the firefighters and Antigone consist of being brave, and willing
to do anything to protect someone. On the other hand Blanche may not be
compared too well with firefighters but one thing in common with them is that
she has endured much in her life and continues to move forward.
As you have read, to conclude both Antigone from the play
Antigone and Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire tend to be quite opposite
but similar. Antigone can be perceived as one to prove a point and set an
example for what is right making her a tragic hero as opposed to Blanche who
tends to be more one to cause problems which is no form of being heroic making
her an anti-hero. Both characters are not bad people they are just somewhat
rebellious being against what they are told, but can be related to modern day
heroes I like to call firefighters.
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