Sophocles’ Antigone: Moral Dilemmas And Reconstruction Of Female Identity

Sophocles’ Antigone is not only a literary classic of enduring fascination but a tragedy of a female character with remarkable symbolic meanings.Antigone is more than a woman with extreme courage.Her utterances and deeds broke through the constraints of women at that time.Despite the cost of her life,Antigone deeply impresses the audience with a brave step to the reconstruction of female identity.In order to profoundly comprehend Antigone’s utterances and deeds and their significance for the reconstruction of female identity,the thesis mainly brings Mick Short’s analytical mode of dramatic discourse into the analysis of the discourse of Antigone,and explores how Antigone’s utterances and deeds resolve moral dilemmas and reconstruct female identity from the perspective of discursive construction of gender identity.With the help of Short’s analytical mode of dramatic discourse,the thesis attempts to analyze the dramatic discourse structures,speech acts and presuppositions in Antigone,and interpret three moral dilemmas indicated by Antigone’s interactions with different characters: decree vs.kinship,shame vs.honor,conformity vs.individuality.These moral dilemmas are difficult choices for not just Antigone but her as a woman.Her discourse implies not only her hard situation in making personal choices,but also the moral conflicts of her time.Her discourse triggers and develops the story,and presents her strenuous path to moving on.Antigone’s resolving or handling of the moral dilemmas is not only a life-and-death exploration but a heroic contribution to the reconstruction of female identity.Antigone is not only a legendary woman in ancient Greece,but a heroine engaging in the reconstruction of female identity.In this sense,Sophocles’ Antigone should be treasured as one of the greatest tragedies and “a concrete living totality”(Bakhtin,1984: 103)which inspires us to explore the discursive reconstruction of female identity and its significance.