What do you do when the law tells you one thing and your conscience tells you another? Students argue about this question all the time, usually about school rules. Sophocles built an entire play around it nearly 2,500 years ago, and Antigone still feels uncomfortably current.
This worksheet adapts the play’s central confrontation. Antigone, caught burying her brother against the king’s orders, stands in front of her uncle Creon. Neither will give an inch. In about a page of dialogue, students meet one of the great arguments in literature, and they have to decide who’s right.
Two people, one body, no compromise
The background is simple, and the worksheet sets it out before the scene begins. Two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other fighting over the throne of Thebes. Their uncle Creon becomes king. He orders a hero’s burial for Eteocles and leaves Polynices, who attacked the city, to rot in the open. Anyone who buries him will die.
To ancient Greeks, this was shocking. Leaving a body unburied meant the dead person’s spirit couldn’t rest, and burial was seen as a duty owed to the gods. Antigone throws earth over her brother’s body anyway. When the scene opens, she’s been caught.
What makes the conflict so strong is that both characters have a real argument. Creon isn’t a cartoon villain. A city just survived a civil war, and he believes the state can’t hold together if traitors are honored and royal orders are ignored. Antigone isn’t just being stubborn either. She’s appealing to a law she believes is older and higher than any king.
Reading the scene line by line
The dialogue is short, so almost every line carries weight. These five are worth slowing down for.
“I knew. Everyone knew. You made certain of that.” Antigone doesn’t make excuses. Three short sentences, and the last one is a jab: Creon announced the law loudly, so he can’t pretend she misunderstood it.
“Those laws are not for today or yesterday. They live forever.” Here’s her whole case. Creon’s order is recent and human. The gods’ laws are eternal. Students should notice that she’s not saying the law is unfair. She’s saying it doesn’t count.
“The hardest iron, tempered in the fire, is the first to crack and shatter.” Creon means this as a warning to Antigone. It ends up describing him.
“I was not born to share in hatred, but to share in love.” Probably the most quoted line in the play. Antigone refuses to let politics decide which brother she can love.
“As long as I live, no woman will rule me.” The scene’s real turning point. Creon’s reasoning shifts from the good of the city to his own pride. Once he says this, it’s hard to keep defending him.
The case for each side
Before students choose a side in Part D, it helps to lay out the strongest version of each argument. A two-column chart like this makes a good warm-up.
| Antigone is right because… | Creon is right because… |
|---|---|
| Burial was a sacred duty owed to the gods | Thebes has just survived a war and needs order |
| No ruler’s command can override divine law | Polynices led an army against his own city |
| The citizens agree with her but are afraid to speak | A king who lets his laws be broken loses authority |
| She acts out of love, not politics | He announced the law clearly, and she broke it knowingly |
Then ask the question that usually splits a class: does Creon’s last line change your answer? Many students who start out sympathetic to him lose patience when “the city needs order” turns into “no woman will rule me.”
The iron that cracks
The best literary moment in the scene is a piece of dramatic irony. Creon compares Antigone to tempered iron, hard and unbending, the kind that shatters. He’s sure he’s describing her.
The audience knows better. The summary at the end of the worksheet explains what happens next. Creon seals Antigone in a cave. The prophet Teiresias warns him the gods are angry, and only then does he give in. By the time he acts, it’s too late. His son and his wife both die, and he’s left alone. The unbending one, it turns out, was Creon himself.
This is a perfect example of how Greek tragedy works. The character speaks a truth he can’t see, and the audience watches him walk toward the disaster his own words predicted.
So who is the tragic hero?
People have argued about this for centuries, and the worksheet asks students to join in. The play is named after Antigone, and she’s the one who dies for her beliefs. But a classic tragic hero has a flaw, makes a fatal error, and comes to a painful recognition. Creon fits that pattern almost perfectly. Antigone never changes her mind. Creon does, and it destroys him.
The answer key models a response arguing for Creon, but it accepts well-supported answers for Antigone too. The strongest responses use both the scene and the summary, and they define what a tragic hero is before deciding who qualifies.
Inside the worksheet
- Part A, multiple choice: Creon’s reason for the order, Antigone’s main argument, the meaning of the iron metaphor, and Creon’s final reason for holding firm
- Part B, true or false: three statements, including one about whether Creon changes his mind in time
- Part C, elements of Greek tragedy: a short definition of tragedy and hubris, then questions on which character shows hubris and what two kinds of law are in conflict
- Part D, think and explain: the tragic hero debate, written as a full paragraph
The answer key includes sample responses for every written question.
Keep reading
Students who meet Greek literature here for the first time may enjoy going back a step to Odysseus and the Cyclops, our Grade 9 Odyssey worksheet. Odysseus and Creon make a great pair to compare: two leaders whose pride costs the people around them. For a story about family loyalty from a very different setting, read Chand Raat, set in a Karachi market on the night before Eid.
If you’re starting with this grade, our first Grade 10 reading comprehension worksheet is a good place to begin. You can also browse all of our Grade 10 worksheets.
Download the Antigone worksheet and answer key
The scene fits on a single page and reads well aloud. It works with two students taking the roles of Creon and Antigone while the class listens for who seems to be winning the argument.
For More grade 10 worksheets, Visit Grade 10 Reading Comprehension Worksheets.