If Antigone is a tragic heroine, what is her tragic flaw? Does she have any particular hubris or excess of virtue that dooms her?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Patricia M. Lines’s “Antigone’s Flaw” (Humanitas, 12.1 [1999]) is a brilliant but accessible analysis of Antigone as a tragic heroine, which we have excerpted on page 1239 in the “Critics on Sophocles” section. We thought we knew the play well, but Lines’s perspective greatly enhanced our understanding of the complexity of Antigone’s moral position. She is such a powerfully persuasive figure on stage that the audience is apt to overlook her subtle tragic flaw. As Lines cogently argues, Antigone is, as the Greek would term it, autonomos, a law unto herself, and she acts at the expense of the rest of the polis. Any student planning to do a paper on Antigone should read this piece, excerpts from which follow:
The flaw of hubris is easy to spot in Oedipus, but Antigone’s brilliance is so dazzling that we overlook her flaw. After all, she has formulated a great and noble truth and maintains it with courage. She asserts God’s law over man’s law. Especially in our own time, where we formally recognize the superiority, within specified spheres, of individual right over the demands of overly broad laws, Antigone seems a genius beyond her time.
. . .
[I]t seems the chorus has identified Antigone’s flaw. She follows a truth that springs only from her self. . . . She will not consult with others. We could call it self-certainty or, perhaps even better, self-righteousness. It is a form of hubris.
At another point, the chorus tells Antigone she is autonomous. Literally, this means “a law unto yourself.” The English word autonomy does not convey quite the right meaning, as individual autonomy was a condition the Greeks viewed with discomfort and suspicion. The autonomous being is either beast or god, living only within the horizons of its own laws.