Thesis Article #4:
"Antigone's Changed Punishment: Gynaecology as Penology in Sophocles' Antigone"
- Frances B. Singh(Australian Feminist Studies, 18 (40): 7-16. Retrieved Apr 28, 2008 from EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete)
Singh launches on a scholarly journey in an
effort to uncover the true reasons for an often puzzling aspect of
Antigone: why Antigone’s punishment was entombment and not
Creon's previously announced stoning. She refuses to accept the
common explanation that stoning would have not been as feasible due to
the public’s support of Antigone, which would make it nearly
impossible to gather enough people to actually carry out the
punishment. Instead, Singh focuses on a much deeper issue: the
stepping outside of the traditional female social role by Antigone.
First, the author emphasizes Creon’s need to silence
Antigone. Out of all people, a woman, who, according to Greek
culture, belonged in the home, had violated his edict. Changing
the punishment to entombment successfully silenced Antigone. In
discussing this prospect, Singh focuses on the traditional role that
women played in Greek culture and their main purpose, to produce
children, something Antigone did not do. During Antigone’s
time, there was much emphasis placed on the physical consequences of
not conceiving a child. It was commonly believed that a woman was
in best health when she was pregnant because her womb was
“stopped up”, thereby preventing the dreaded wandering womb
syndrome.
Singh eventually takes the radical
stance that Antigone’s tomb is representative of a womb,
“stopped up” by the stones blocking her in. Thus, the
punishment is a way of Antigone experiencing what she would not have a
part of, the traditional role of a woman, albeit in a different,
metaphorical sense. When Haemon sheds blood (something usually
only identified with women) at the end of the play and Creon opens the
“stopped up” tomb, the traditional role of women is
strongly challenged.