Antigone

     Antigone and Ismene represent two different personality types in Psychology. Antigone is the rash, passionate, “go-getter” personality, where Ismene is a more reserved and timid when facing danger. Antigone wants to bury Polynices, her brother, but when she asks Ismene, Ismene declines to help, referencing the fact that they are just women in a man’s world. Antigone is the type of person that brings change in the world, one of the people who challenge society in a defiant way that is designed to bring about an abrupt change. If Antigone had the means to be militant, I feel that she would bring force against Creon. Antigone bears resemblance to a Malcolm X, in her sheer defiance and the way that she speaks to Creon after her capture. She wants to be a martyr and receive credit for her actions. Ismene is ready to let things go if they seem hard to obtain. She says that she would like to bury Polynices but it would be too dangerous. Ismene is ready to accept society the way it is and live life as it comes. Antigone controls her environment, while Ismene is controlled by the environment. The peculiar development that came out of Antigone’s burial of Polynices was Ismene trying to share credit and take the same punishment as Antigone. Ismene is too passive to live on her own. Were Antigone to die, Ismene would be the sole survivor of her siblings, and she does not want to live with the pressure and loneliness that would accompany that. True to her personality, Ismene tries to take the easy way out and end her life so that she does not have to face her troubles.