Antigone's Pathos and Catharsis

Antigone’s scene of pathos occurred when she was being sentenced to the cave and realized that she was going to die. She accepted her own fate and started to feel sorrow. She said, “So to my grave. my bridal-bower, my everlasting prison, I go, to join those many of my kinsmen who dwell in the mansions of Persephone, last and unhappiest before my time...what law of Heaven have I transgressed? What God can save me now? What help or hope have I , in whom devotion is deemed sacred” (Sophocles 150). Antigone compares her tomb to a bridal dower because she will not marry Haemon since she is in the cave and therefore will never be happy again. The catharsis experienced by the audience evokes pity for Antigone. Pathos appeals to the audience because it convinces them that what Antigone did was righteous but her punishment was unjust. It makes the audience feel emotionally connected to Antigone which causes them to want Creon to let Antigone go free. While Antigone’s scene of pathos was pitiful, so was Oedipus’ and Creon’s. Oedipus saw his dead wife/mother and became so DISTRAUGHT that he blinded himself with her brooches. Only until after he blinded himself, he was able to see everything he did wrong. Creon, after seeing all of his dead family members, went into exile.