Antigone: Summary and Themes of Tragedy.

Daughter and sister of her father, Oedipus, Antigone's life was doomed from the start. Antigone accompanied her father into exile but returned to Thebes after his death. Oedipus left the throne of Thebes to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, Antigone's brothers. The two came into conflict over who should rule, and after Eteocles succeeded in establishing himself in power, Polynices led the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes to unseat his brother. In the course …

…an emotional release and purification known as catharsis. Antigone is based around the theme that pain and suffering is caused when an individual, adamantly defying the commands of divine will or other authority, or refusing to accept destiny and serendipity, instead obeys some inner compulsion that leads to agonizing revelation and, ultimately, to a mysterious vindication of that person's behavior and life. For Creon, his defiance of divine law, his major flaw, lost him everything.