Antigone (Director's Playbook Edition, Annotated) recap

After civil war in Thebes, the new king, Creon, orders that Eteocles be honored but that his brother Polynices be left unburied as a traitor. Their sister Antigone obeys religious and family duty instead, performs burial rites, and openly accepts responsibility when caught. Creon rejects the pleas of Ismene, his son Haemon, and the Theban elders, sentencing Antigone to be sealed alive in a rocky tomb. The prophet Tiresias warns that the gods reject Creon's treatment of the dead and that his own household will pay for it. Creon finally yields, buries Polynices, and goes to free Antigone, but she has already hanged herself. Haemon dies by suicide beside her, and his mother Eurydice kills herself after hearing the news. Creon survives to recognize that his inflexible assertion of authority has destroyed his family.

The brothers Eteocles and Polynices have killed one another while fighting over Thebes. Creon, the new king, grants Eteocles an honorable burial but decrees that Polynices must remain exposed as an enemy of the city. Antigone tells Ismene that she will defy the order and give their brother the rites owed to the dead. A guard later reports that someone has covered the body, and Antigone is caught when she returns. She admits what she did and argues that Creon's command cannot overrule divine law. Ismene offers to share her fate, but Antigone refuses to let her claim a deed she would not join. Creon condemns Antigone despite her engagement to his son. Haemon warns his father that Thebes sympathizes with her and urges flexibility, but their discussion becomes a bitter rupture. Antigone is sealed in a tomb. The prophet Tiresias then reports signs that the gods reject the city's sacrifices because Polynices is unburied and Antigone has been entombed alive. Creon reluctantly reverses himself, but too late: Antigone has hanged herself; Haemon dies by suicide after confronting his father; and Eurydice, hearing of Haemon's death, also kills herself. Creon remains alive to acknowledge that his pride and refusal to listen brought the catastrophe upon his own house.

Tiresias warns that the gods hold Creon responsible for leaving Polynices unburied and confining Antigone alive. Shaken at last, Creon arranges the burial and goes to release Antigone, but his reversal comes too late. Antigone has hanged herself in the tomb. Haemon, grieving beside her, attacks his father and then kills himself. When Eurydice hears that her son is dead, she also takes her own life, cursing Creon as responsible. Creon returns carrying Haemon's body and learns of his wife's death. His decree has not secured his family or the city; it has left him alive, stripped of wife and son, and conscious that his own obstinacy caused the ruin. The elders close on the lesson that proud judgment without reverence brings punishment and that wisdom is learned through suffering.