The Main Theme Of The Play Antigone

The main theme of the play Antigone is the conflict between Antigone and Creon pertaining to where power lies, divine law or the king’s law. Antigone believes that her dead brother is no longer under the authority of Creon but the Gods, so it is her duty to bury him. On the other hand, Creon claims that his law, to prohibit anyone from burying Polyneices, is legitimate because he is the king of Thebes, so he must protect the nation and condemn traitors. This essay uses Foucault's concept of power and Lacan's concept of the phallus to understand the conflict between divine law and the king’s law. Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, presents a framework to understand how Creon and the Gods exercise their power. Lacan's concept of the phallus as a symbol of power will be used to understand how the phallus plays out in Antigone. In the play, power is always balanced by resistance, and Creon and the Gods use the Foucault’s panopticon as a method to exercise their power. Creon and the Gods represent the phallus, the symbolic representation of power and Law/authority. Antigone’s resistance to the king’s laws undermines his no/name power; likewise, Creon’s resistance to the divine law undermines the Gods power.

In The History of Sexuality, Foucault studies the relationship of power, knowledge and sexuality. He argues that power is exercised through discourse. Discourse is a set of statements which determines a language for representing and talking about a topic; discourse creates the meanings that we use to understand the world. For Foucault, discourse refers to the rules of formation of statements which are accepted as scientifically true. Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language; where the language used to describe things prevents the process of describing what is true or false. He argues that discourse, knowledge production, is a social construction of truth and reality. Power is involved in what is considered to be true or false, therefore power produces knowledge. Foucault describes power as a being repressive and that it takes the form of law and demands obedience. However, where there is power there is also a balance of resistance. He adds that power is a 'multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organization' (Foucault, 92). Foucault is not referring to a set of institutions that ensure the obedience of citizens of a state, a system of domination in which there are rulers and ruled, or a mode of subjugation as a set of rules (Foucault, 92). According to Foucault, power is omnipresent; it comes from everywhere (Foucault, 93). In addition, power is an entity on its own as it does not rely on anyone and power exists in a relationship. He argues that there are no sources of power; power comes from below- there is no binary opposition between the ruled and ruler (Foucault, 94). Power is multidirectional, where there is power, there is always resistance; resistance is never exterior to power (Foucault, 95). There is a plurality of resistances which exist in power relations where one is always inside power. Lastly, Foucault argues that power is strategic in nature; it can be placed where it is needed. Therefore, discourse can be used as an instrument or effect of power and also a point of resistance. In Foucault's repressive hypothesis theory discourse of sexuality is a point of resistance against the repressive system. He argues that discourse produces and transmits power, but also exposes and undermines it (Foucault, 101). Foucault's main goal is to understand how power operates through discourses that construct knowledge.

Foucault criticizes two concepts makes his understanding of power clear: the Marxist concept of ideology and the Freudian concept of repression. He criticizes ideology because this concept always stands against something that is supposed to count as truth. Ideology always refers to a subject. In Marxism the base (modes of production) determines the superstructure (ideology). Therefore, the ideologies of a society are the ideas of the ruling class, the bourgeoisie. He critiques Freud’s concept of repression because this concept is only about the effect of power as repressive, which is power that prohibits. For Foucault, repression is a negative conception of power. He argues that power is productive; power produces things, forms knowledge, and produces discourse.

According to Foucault, the productivity of power increased after the 18th century in Europe as a new economy of power emerged. This was a new set of rules that governed sexuality, produced through the emergence of new relations of power and knowledge (Foucault, 24). For example, in The History of Sexuality, Foucault was concerned with the emerging discourses about children’s sexuality and homosexuality. In the 18th and 19th century, the emerging bourgeois society of Western Europe repressed child sexuality and homosexuality as abnormal and bad (Foucault, 38). Foucault rejects this view. For him, by constantly discussing and writing about child sexuality or homosexuality as abnormal; it in fact, created a child sexual identity and a homosexual identity. It is important to understand that up until the 19th century, homosexuality was considered to be an act that a person might engage in. Although it was condemned, homosexuality was not considered to be an identity. But the medical discourse created a homosexual identity. This opened the way for the creation of subjectivity around homosexuality. Later, in the second half of the 20th century, homosexual identity became the starting point for resistance, such as the gay rights movements. Foucault argues that, “The growth of perversions…is the real product of the encroachment of a type of power on bodies and their pleasures” (Foucault, 48). In other words, the increasing discourse of sexuality creates and formulates a truth about sex used for the purpose of managing and sexuality.

Foucault argues that power is productive, it produces the subject. For Lacan the pre-Oedipal stage is an important stage that breaks the unity of the mother-child relationship. Lacan's mirror stage is about self identification. In the mirror stage the child applies an image to itself. He states that in recognizing his own image “reveals both a libidinal dynamism that has hitherto remained problematic and an ontological structure of the human world that fits in with my reflections on paranoiac knowledge” (Lacan, 76). The mirror stage is identification to the child that produces a psychic response that creates the representation of “I”. The mirror stage creates the foundation for the formation of identity. Lacan argues that the child desires unity and oneness with its mother; but the phallus breaks the unity and oneness between the mother and child. He argues that the 'name of the father' and the 'no of the father' breaks the unity of the mother and child. The phallus is portrayed as authoritative and gives laws. The father is the phallic signifier that allows child to recognize their own separateness and individuality. The phallic signifier imposes a sense of self onto the child through 'no' and 'naming' which expose the child to language and cultural code. In effect, this is a double castration; the father severs the child from his mother and brings language and cultural codes upon its consciousness. For Lacan the phallus is a symbol of power; it is the power of authority and to make laws. The plot of Antigone is about who holds the phallus/power; the Gods or the King.

In the play, Antigone is a woman who wants to bury her brother Polyneices, but is prevented from doing so by the king's law. King Creon established a law that forbids the burial of Polyneices, who he considers a traitor of Thebes. Antigone disobeys the king's' law and buries her brother, and justifies her action on the basis of divine law, the right to respect the body of the dead. For Antigone, it is her right and duty to bury her brother’s body. Antigone's action of resistance to Creon's power is political and public; she wants the population of Thebes to be aware of her moral actions. She disobeys Creon's law to obey the law of the Gods. Creon claims that his law is legitimate because he is the king of Thebes, so he must protect the nation and condemn traitors. Both Creon and Antigone's arguments are legitimate; Antigone's argument is legitimate because it comes from the Gods and Creon's law is legitimate because he is king. They both invoke piety that the Gods are in their favour. There is a conflict between moral values; for the respect of the dead, and on the other hand, the honor to national loyalty and contempt for betrayal. This conflict begins when Antigone is arrested on the charge of burying Polyneices; Creon says, 'And yet you dared defy the law. / Antigone: It was not God's proclamation. That final Justice/ That rules the world below makes no such laws./ Your edict, King, was strong./ But all your strength is weakness itself against/ The immortal unrecorded laws of God' (Sophocles, line 356-60). For Antigone, her dead brother is no longer under the authority of Creon, but the Gods. Lacan would argue that Creon represents the phallus, the symbolic representation of power and Law/authority. Thought the 'no' and 'naming', the phallic signifier imposes a sense of self onto the child which exposes the child to language and cultural codes that reinforces the differentiation. Creon is more than just a king to Antigone; he is also her father figure since Oedipus has been exiled. He also exposes her to the language and cultural codes; he says, 'I swear I am no man and she the man/if she can win this and not pay for it” (Sophocles, 528-9). Creon is afraid that if he doesn’t punish Antigone, she will undermine his no/name power. Creon feels that if he lets Antigone disobey his law, the population of Thebes will not respect his authority.

The conflict between the power/phallus of the king and the God's is also seen between Creon and Teiresias the seer. Teiresias tells Creon that the Gods do not approve of the way he has treated Polyneices body. He says, 'Our hearths and altars/ Are stained with the corruption of dogs and carrion birds/ That glut themselves on the corpse of Oedipus' son' (Sophocles, 797-99).Teiresias warns Creon that the Gods will punish the city if Creon doesn’t correct his mistakes. Creon refuses to listen to Teiresias' warning and accuses him of making false prophecies for personal gain. Teiresias gives him the prophecy that one of his children will die and the city will be cursed, if he doesn’t free Antigone and bury Polyneices body. Creon cannot admit that he may be wrong and that there is a higher law than that of the king's law. He (honors) the laws of kings but doesn’t seem to acknowledge that the Gods have given him this position. His hubris leads to his tragedy. Throughout the play, the conflict between the king's law and divine law plays out. For Creon, keeping the phallus through having the authority to make laws is most important. While for Antigone, divine law is paramount. Antigone proudly defies the king's law and suffers at the hands of those laws. Creon, in his hubris, defies the divine laws and suffered at the hands of fate and the Gods. The conflict for power and the phallus in the play Antigone between the divine and the king’s law leads to tragedy in the end.

Foucault argues that discipline over the body is used to create docile people that power can be exercised on (Foucault, 139). An example that Foucault uses is the panopticon, a surveillance technique, for the observation of prisoners. The panopticon consists of a tower from which, the prisoners down on the ground could be watched at all times. According to Foucault, the idea of the panopticon is that, when a person knows that they are being watched, they become more docile and more useful to society. Therefore, discipline over the body is a more efficient instrument of power than repression. In the play, Creon and the Gods use the panopticon as a method to exercise their power. For the Gods, the panopticon is represented by the sun. In the beginning of the play the chorus describe the sun as: 'Now the long blade of the sun, lying/ Level east to west, touches with glory/ Thebes of the Seven Gates. Open, unlidded/ Eye of golden day!' (Sophocles, 85-88). The sun is described as a open eye that watches what happen beneath it and sees who breaks the divine laws. Creon breaks the divine law by ordering that nobody is allowed to bury Polyneices body. In short, Creon leaves Polyneices body unburied under the sun, God's eye, and suffers the consequences through the death of his son and wife. The God's maintain their power through punishing Creon with his tragic fate. Creon also uses the panopticon model as a means to exercise his power and authority. Creon’s eye is the Sentry; the Sentry observes what happens in Thebes and reports what he sees to Creon. After Antigone defies Creon’s law and buries Polyneices, the Sentry tells Creon, 'I saw her with my own eyes.../And then we looked, and there was Antigone!/...she brought more dust/ And sprinkled wine three times for her brother's ghost' (Sophocles, 320-42). The Sentry was a form of surveillance for Creon. Creon disciplines Antigone for breaking his law and to maintain his power by burying her alive in a cave.

In addition, Foucault argues that power is everywhere, it is multidirectional and used for strategic purposes. He argues that where there is power there is also a balance of resistance. This is clearly seen in Antigone. Thought the play Creon resists divine laws, by not allowing Polyneices body to be buried. Antigone resists Creon’s power by defying his laws and burying her brother’s body. Another example is the power of Creon and the Gods faced resistance from Polyneices when he 'broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and

the shrines of his fathers’ gods' (Sophocles, 165-67). Polyneices resists the king's and Gods power by returning to Thebes when exiled. In the play Antigone, power is always balanced by resistance.

In conclusion, the conflict for power/the phallus between the divine law and king’s law is portrayed throughout the play Antigone. Foucault's concept of power and Lacan's concept of the phallus is used to understand the conflict between divine law and the king’s law. Creon and the Gods represent the phallus, the symbolic representation of power and Law/authority. Antigone’s resistance to the king’s laws undermines his no/name power; likewise, Creon’s resistance to the divine law undermines the Gods power. In the play, power is always balanced by resistance, and Creon and the Gods use the Foucault’s panopticon as a method to exercise their power.