In relating the tragedy, Antigone, Sophocles passes across messages which can be deduced from the

play. The theme will be examined one after the other in detail.

When considered closely, another theme that can be realised from the play is that of the way fate and
destiny comes to pass faster and easier. The shortness of the time and the chronological plot supports
this. We can even touch on the plot structure in the remaining two of the three Theban plays. When the
tragedy started in Oedipus Rex, Antigone and Creon's lives were going smoothly. But calculating the
time of the unfolding of the events in both Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, it should not have
happened over a period of a week. Therefore, in a period of one week, Creon and Antigone's lives
changed drastically. This is in contrasts with the fates of other people which takes time to be fulfilled.
This shows that one thought, act or word can change the path on which any character in a play goes. In
relation to the plot structure, the easiness with which the pronouncement on the gods was fulfilled
makes one wonder. It was as easy as disobeying an order, getting arrested and then being sentenced to
death. For Creon, it was as easy as giving an order and sentencing Antigone to death. One begins to
wonder if that is how the life of something, in so short a time, can go from grass to grace.

The intentional nature of the gods is also demystified in the play. The gods proclaimed something about
Oedipus and it came to pass. Even Creon becoming the king is attributed to the gods. If the gods are the
sole custodian of the fate and destiny of everybody in the society, then whatever they do to human
beings are intentional. Although there is no visible being to hold a brief for the gods, all the happenings
in the play are attributed to them. One thing which supports this fact is that the gods could have
elongated the Creon's destiny or that of Antigone.