Question

What do these lines from Sophocles's Antigone tell us about Antigone's character? ANTIGONE: And yet good hope is mine that I shall find A welcome from my sire, a welcome too, From thee, my mother, and my brother dear; From with these hands, I laved and decked your limbs In death, and poured libations on your grave. And last, my Polyneices, unto thee I paid due rites, and this my recompense! Yet am I justified in wisdom's eyes. For even had it been some child of mine, Or husband mouldering in death's decay, I had not wrought this deed despite the State. She places her family above everything else. She's proud of her family's name and history. She fondly remembers burying her loved ones. She wants a noble death as her family members had. She's sad that she'll never have a husband or child. NextReset

Answer 1

Let's eliminate some answers first. In this passage, Antigone is not proud of her family's name or history; she does not mention heroic deeds of her family, nor does she refer to her family's fame. She also does not mention the impossibility of having a child or husband (even though in this scene she is closed in the grave). No mention is made of the way her family members died and thus we cannot guess whether they had a noble one or not. She also does not put her family above anything else; she explicitly states that she would not do this for her own child or husband but that she would respect the state.
In this excerpt, Antigone remembers how she buried her loved ones, but it is in a loving way, knowing that she is going to meet them soon since she is facing the death penalty.