Character Analysis of Antigone.

     Strength; it's a character trait that you and I consider to be admirable and sometimes we are even envious of the people that we consider to be strong.  But not all strength is good.  And sometimes the people that we percieve to be the stongest are often, in truth, the weakest.  In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, the main character, Antigone is depicted as strong and even powerful, but her strength ultimately becomes her greatest weakness.
     At first it seems as though Antigones' bravery will be her best asset.  In lines 462 to 465 Antigone shows just how brave she really is as she challenges Creons laws' by saying that "I never would [have thought that] your pronouncements had such strength that, [you] being mortal, they could override the unwritten, ever-lasting [commands] of the gods."  The fact that Antigone talked to Creon in such a disobedient way is so courageous that it borders on the edge of foolish.  It takes an unbelievable amount of courage andbravery for Antigone to bury her brother Polynices, even though she is fully aware of the consequences that she will be facing. 
     The decision to bury her brother is an act of foolishness for the very same reason; Antigone knew that if she buried her brother her own burial would be quick to follow.  In line 223 Creon makes the statement that "no man is [foolish enough] to lust for death."  But when Antigone goes rushing off into the face of danger and death by burying Polynices she must have wanted to die.  If she had not then she surely would have found a more descreet way to honour her brother.  And as Creon says any man who lusts for death is surely a fool.
    Strength itself has many faces.  Physical strength, bravery, determination, dinity, and standing up for what you believe in are just a few examples.  Perhaps one of Atigones greatest downfalls was her pride.  When the guard dragged her in front of Creon and accused her of burying her brother it would have been east to contradict the guards story because it was all heresay.  But in line 452 Antigone makes it clear that she is the one who buried polynices as she says "I assert that I did it; I [will not] deny it."  Antigone was proud of the fact that she loved her brother enough to face Creons' wrath.  She was proud of her bravery.  And she was proud that she had disobeyed Creon.  but maybe she was a little too proud.  Maybe Antigones' pride wasn't pride at all, but arrogance.
    There is no question about whether or not Antigone is strong, that is a given.  She bravely burys her brother and faces the consequences of her actions, but Antigone's fatal flaw is that underneath all that brawn she left little room for the brain.  Yes Antigone may have been brave and courageous and deermined but she also died unneccassarily.  Antigones' strength,in the end, became her greatest weakness.