Two Themes in Antigone and how they relate to other tragedies:
1. Hubris: Antigone has an idea in her head that she must die to avenge her brother's death. She later reveals that even she does not know why she wants to die. Antigone's unwillingness to change her position and her desire to stand her ground ultimately cause her own death and great pain for her family and those who love her.
-Medea has a theme similar to this. She takes her wounded pride too far-she feels that to get back at her husband, she has to hit him where it really will hurt him-by killing their sons. Her hubris prevents her from realizing the damage it will cause to her own life.
2. The power of illusions: Illusions lead a person to believe something strongly, but once that illusion is disputed, the belief still stays strong. Even though Antigone's belief about her brother has been dispelled, she stil has the steadfast belief that she ahs to stand up for this thing. She refuses to move past this idea that she has of dying because it is an illusion that she has had for a long time that dying is the right thing to do.
-Similarly, in Medea, she has a persistent Idea that killing her sons is the best way to damage her husband's life. But ebven after she deals with an internal struggle over whether killing them is the best way, her desire to get revenge upon Jason gets the best of her. Her illusion that revenge will make her feel better prevents her from seeing the truth-that killing the boys and living with the guilt will ruin her own life forever.
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