Ellen Smith
Miramar College
31 October 2007
 
“Comparison/Contrast Outline:
Antigone & Hamlet”
Introduction and Thesis –
 
Hamlet and Antigone experience similar situations involving loss of a close family member and a loyalty to the deceased. Both challenge authority in some way, and both respect the wishes of the dead to rest in peace. It is in their approach to their issues that they are distinct. Antigone is portrayed as strong, defiant, and decisive. She knows what she needs to do and does it willfully without remorse and ready to accept the consequences. Hamlet is portrayed as indecisive and weak in his approach, unsure of what must be done but knowing he must act. He is not outspoken like Antigone but shares his thoughts in asides to himself or the audience. Ultimately, they both act on the issue at hand and both pay the price for their actions in their tragedy.

  I. Personality and approach to the main issue with tragic end for both
    A. Antigone
      1. Strong – Defiant to Creon
        i. Antigone when confronted by the guard
          I avow it; I make no denial
        ii. Antigone when asked by Creon if she knew his order
          I knew it: could I help it? It was public
      2. Decisive – Knows what she has to do and boldly does it
        i. Antigone to Ismene when seeking help with the burial
          Nay, be what thou wilt; but I will bury him: well for me to die in doing that.
      3. Direct – challenge authority
        i. Antigone to Ismene regarding the “right” in obeying the gods laws over mans
          But if thou wilt, be guilty of dishonouring laws which the gods have stablished in honour.
        ii. Antigone to Creon regarding her violating his law
          So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief; but if I had suffered my mother's son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me; for this, I am not grieved. And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.
    B. Hamlet
      1. Weak
      2. Indecisive – Uncertainty and reluctance
        i. Hamlet – talking to Horatio; going to pray after talking to his father’s ghost
          For every man has business and desire,
Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
Look you, I'll go pray. Act 1 – Scene 5
      3. Indirect –asides to himself
        i. indirect –
          [Aside] A little more than kin,
and less than kind.
[Claudius telling Hamlet to move on] –
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever. Act 1 – Scene 2
        ii. Hamlet and his mother
          a. Hamlet to his mother –
          I shall in all my best obey you, madam. Act 1 – Scene 2
          b. Hamlet about his mother –
          My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue. Act 1 – Scene 2
          c. Hamlet about his father’s ghost –
          King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again.
      4. Indirect – pretends to be mad; Ophelia –
          My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Act 2 – Scene 1
II. Situation similarities
    A. Loss
  1. Antigone
    a. Loss of her brothers; One left unburied and not resting in peace; Antigone to Ismene:
      But the hapless corpse of Polyneices-as rumour saith, it hath been published to the town that none shall entomb him or mourn, but leave unwept, unsepulchred, a welcome store for the birds, as they espy him, to feast on at will.
  2. Hamlet
    a. Loss of his father; Ghost unable to rest; Ghost to Hamlet:
      I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. Act 1 – Scene 5
        b. Hamlet swearing to help his father’s ghost
          Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
[They swear]
So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together. Act 1 – Scene 5
    B. Failure in the family

    1. Antigone
        a. Ismene’s refusal to help; alone to execute the burial task; Ismene to Antigone:
          i. I do them no dishonour; but to defy the State  – I have no strength for that.
        b. Antigone to Ismene after the refusal:
          i. Such be thy plea:-I, then, will go to heap the earth above the brother whom I love.
      2. Hamlet
        a. Mother married his uncle; alone to avenge his father’s death
        b. Ghost to Hamlet regarding his wife’s remarriage to his brother –
          Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce! – won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!  Act 1 Scene 5
    C. Driven to action
      1. Antigone
        a. Illegal burial and breach of man’s law but not moral law; Antigone to Ismene of honor in her actions and death:
          If thus thou speakest, thou wilt have hatred from me, and will justly be subject to the lasting hatred of the dead. But leave me, and the folly that is mine alone, to suffer this dread thing; for I shall not suffer aught so dreadful as an ignoble death.
      2. Hamlet
        a. Murder of his uncle to allow his father’s ghost to rest in peace
          i. Hamlet to Ghost:
          Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.  Act 1, Scene 5
          ii. Hamlet to Ghost:
          That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark. Act 1, Scene 5
          iii. Writing
          So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
I have sworn 't.
    D. The final price
      1. Antigone
        a. Antigone’s death – by her own hand while waiting to die in the cavern
          This search, at our despairing master's word, we went to make; and in the furthest part of the tomb we descried her hanging by the neck, slung by a thread-wrought halter of fine linen: while he was embracing her with arms thrown around her waist, bewailing the loss of his bride who is with the dead, and his father's deeds, and his own ill-starred love.
        b. Hamlet
          i. Hamlet’s death – by Laertes hand but with poison tipped sword by his uncle King Claudius –
          O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence. Act 5, Scene 2
Conclusion
 

The tragic stories of Hamlet and Antigone are not without their similarities. Both experience loss in their family, both experience injustice, and both are left alone to resolve the situation so their fallen family member can finally rest in peace. The characters are very different, with the bold and defiant actions of Antigone countered by the pensive and tortured decision-making of Hamlet. Nonetheless, their outcomes are the same with betrayal, tragedy, and death in common. Both become heroes and martyrs by taking the stand and paying the ultimate price with their lives. Their stories live on to entertain, engage, and warn others not to follow in their footsteps.

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