The Sentry's View On Antigone's Hardship

     The governing metaphor in the passage is the quote," And she cried out a sharp, piercing cry, like a bird come back to an empty nest, peering into its bed, and all the babies gone..." (Sophocles 80). This metaphor reveals much about Antigone's character because of the reaction of the bird, when it finds out she lost their baby birds, shows that Antigone lost someone precious in her life and has become a major life change in her generation and family system. The character of Antigone that is reveal here is the compassionate women who cares for her loved ones in which taken away from her which why the screeching, crying bird was a metaphor in the Sentry's point of view. The bird metaphor is also considered the governing metaphor of this passage because this action was what caused Anitgone's life to completely turn upside down since she has been now been a captive of the law under the power of Creon. This shows how significant the moment is to the development of the rest of the themes in Antigone especially for Creon's life. Also her character development is being acknowledged in this moment because just like the mother bird losing her babies, Anitgone felt the same way losing her brother and the rest of her family except for Ismene which in all perspectives of life is a hardship that can be very overwhelming. So since she has been convicted of burying Polynices without defense, Creon sent her to her tomb which in her thought was a way to kill herself instead of slowly dying and being shunned from the city so her only thought was to kill herself and from that moment, Creon's life broke apart like no other. Overall, the governing metaphor is," And she cried out a sharp, piercing cry, like a bird come back to an empty nest, peering into its bed, and all the babies gone..." (Sophocles 80). This metaphor, brought upon the Sentry, really was the turn-around for the rest of the book in Antigone.
-Ji Lim