| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 英國語文學研究所 === 87 === Antigone, according to Marxist feminism, admits the truth that the oppression of women results from a gender / biology system, a marriage system, male violence, and false consciousness in Sophocles' Antigone. In Antigone-Ismene's scene, Ismene will not help her to bury their brother Polyneices because she must submit to Creon's order. Submission is described as Ismene's femininity and aggression as Creon's masculinity. In a gender / biology system, masculinity and femininity are constructed by male-ruling ideology. A series of negative female values are imposed by men. Femininity equates with submission and irrationality, but masculinity with aggression and rationality. Creon's exposing the dead is rational; but, Antigone's burying her brother Polyneices is irrational. As Creon's aggression means that man is the creator of state, so does Ismene's submission that woman is the subordinate of man's order.
Antigone does not accept marriage because she hopes that her reproduction will not be a tool for the transfer of Haemon's future throne. The relationship between husband and wife is not equal. Husband is the oppressing and wife the oppressed. In Third Choral Ode, the Chorus praise the greatness of love. Marriage, as to men, is a peaceful harbor. Men has kept women convinced that mothering is their job. In accordance with Marxist feminism, marriage is based not on love but on property. In marriage, women's reproduction serves as a vehicle for the transmission of a father's private to children. The relationship between Mother and Child is isolated. Speaking of motherhood, men encourage women to be mothers. Antigone refuses to be the tool for the heritage of Haemon's future throne. The princess seems to be the dominant woman. But, wife means having no Self and must be obedient to man's order. There is no personal freedom for her if she gets married.
Creon's punishment on Antigone-burial alive-is a violence to prohibit women from going into the public sphere. Burial is a public activity. Women are associated with the private sphere and men with the public one. If women have been limited in the private sphere, they are the captives in a man-made institution. Antigone's burial for her brother Polyneices calls for women's equal rights to enter the public sphere. Male violence devalues women as subordinate. The Chorus and Teiresias are the representatives of the public sphere. Although they admit the fidelity and piety of Antigone's burial for Polyneices, they blame Antigone for her having offended against the state's law. Burial is held by men, not by women. Women must keep themselves in the private sphere, not try to go into the public one.
At the beginning of the play, Antigone acknowledges that she and Ismene, destined to be the princesses, have no equal right with Creon, the king. The princess seems superior to the common people. But, if she does not obey the king's order, she will be punished like the common people. Therefore, her "superior" is false consciousness. At the end of the play, Eurydice, the queen, protests against Creon's authority through her death. On the surface, the queen has an equal stance with the king. As a matter of fact, she is inferior to him. False consciousness is that men the oppressing deceive women the oppressed into thinking they have equal rights with men and are able to act as men. True consciousness is based upon sex class and reproduction. Sex class means that when women recognize themselves as a class and work together, then they will have an equal stance with men. To respect reproduction is to respect the ties of blood, the maternal lineage. Antigone's brotherly love for Polyneices belongs to reverence for those of the same womb. Eurydice grieves over her dead son Haemon. To lose Haemon is to lose her maternal lineage, her reproduction. True consciousness allows women to perceive reality with their eyes, not with those of the man-ruling class. Antigone's acceptance for burial alive, Ismene's willing to share with Creon's punishment on Antigone, and Eurydice's protesting against Creon through suicide mean that in order to acquire true consciousness, they must get rid of false consciousness through sex class and reproduction. They, however, are not in fear of man the oppressing class any more because death is a resource of rebirth
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