In the play Antigone by Sophacles, the roles of women are portrayed so that they are inferior to men and they obey whatever the men say. The way that the women in the story talk shows how they have been oppressed by men and are supposed to follow a certain code. These ideas that women must be kept inferior with no power are wrong and cruel. "Ismene. Antigone, you are mad! What could I possibly do?/ Antigone. You must decide whether you will help me or not./ Ismene. I do not understand you. Help you in what?/ Antigone. Ismene, I am going to bury him. Will you come?/ Ismene. Bury him! You have just said the new law forbids it./ Antigone. He is my brother. And he is your brother, too./ Ismene. But think of the danger! Think what Creon will do!/ Antigone. Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way" (Prologue, Lines 26-35). This quote from the text shows how Ismene is the typical woman living in Ancient Greece. She tells Antigone that there is no way that she can help her bury their brother because not only is it against the law for anyone to bury their brother but because they are women the crime would be that much worse. This mentality must have been drilled into her head by men for her whole life. Antigone really represents the woman that the men in Ancient Greece were afraid of by deciding to not listen to Creon and just doing what she believes is right no matter what the law or society tries to guide her to do. They didn't want the women to usurp their power and were unsure if they could do this because women were unfamiliar to them. The two different views of the two women in this quote shows how these ideas of women being inferior to men are bad because it shows how Ismene is afraid and it obviously affects her everyday life. Also these sexist ideas make it harder for women to do something they believe in, Ismene may have thought that her brother deserved a proper burial but was too afraid to do anything because of the society's rules for women.
