A review by pacifickat
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a solid retelling of the tragic myth of Antigone. I enjoyed the sci-fi setting, even as I found the use of the ancient Greek names a bit clunky at first. This also made the story less of a gentle nod to the original text, and more of a direct adaptation simply wearing futuristic skin.

1. I like the way Roth fleshes out so many of the characters in such a short story, using POV chapters and dialogue between them to give insight into their motivations, creating empathy even when the characters make objectively questionable choices:

Ismene, the more gentle, positive, and careful sister, but not without strength of heart:

"[Antigone's] life seemed to be weighed down by dread, [...] as if the more attachments she formed the more she would wither away. But that wasn't how it had to work. I had as many obligations as she, and half her misery." -Ismene

An argument between sisters:

Ismene: "It's not cowardice to run from an inferno rather than spit water at it. [...] It's survival.'
Antigone: "What good is survival if you trade yourself away in the process?"

2. A commentary on patriarchy:

So many characters are trying to "manage" each other rather than truly communicating and fostering healthy relationships. Euridice is clearly the most skilled at subtle manipulation in order to wield power within a patriarchal society where her husband holds absolute sway. This situates her in an interesting place between complicity with maintaining (and benefitting from) the status quo, and cleverly finding ways around her powerless station by impacting her husband's moods and decisions: 

"Ismene was a gentle girl, incapable of the kind of vitriol that readily spilled from the mouth of her sister. And Euridice had wished to placate her after her sister's violent reaction to the sight of the bodies. She claimed Ismene would be easier to manage if she was not inflamed to rage like her sister. I resented having to manage them at all [...]. Euridice laid a hand over my own, 'You will do what's right,' she said to me. 'I know it. I'll go to the hearing if you want me to.' [...] As she was so skilled in doing, she turned the talk elsewhere, to the garden, to her friends' chatter, to the gossip of the household staff, to anything but what mattered, and I was glad of it." -Kreon

"Haemon was tall and broad, his skin sun-warmed and his face carved from stone. He looked like he had been designed specifically for Kreon to love him, and perhaps that was exactly what had happened. Maybe Haemon's entire being had been Euridice accepting her husband's limitations, as she did, and easing his way for him." -Antigone

3. Haemon as a positive male figure in a patriarchal society, yet with the potential of turning into a mirror of his tyrannical father. This is a central problem with gender hierarchies, they count on the goodness of the powerful because the subjugated lack voice or access to recourse in situations of abuse:

"'We are all hostages here,' he said. 'Held at knifepoint by our own planet, but we can make the best of what we're given, you and I [...].' Haemon had never lied to me, had he? But there was always a first time. One day soon he would have more power over me than anyone, and it took a singular man not to misuse power. How singular was Haemon?" -Antigone

4. Antigone as a feminist icon:

"I knew my value, I knew my strengths. [...] My absence was to their detriment. But the womb that gave my life its ebbs and flows made my body sacred to the state, and therefore particularly subject to its might. My mother called this nonsense. She said that protecting a thing was just an excuse to control it. [...] My mother had been able to make a place for herself in a world that refused to give her one because she was simply too brilliant to ignore. Because of her genius, she was allowed to occupy spaces that no other woman could. It was the great disappointment of my life that I was not excellent enough to do the same. I was to be protected. [...] All that protection had been for not." -Antigone

"She had explained it to me [...]. I had cried because I knew that something would change, something I had not then been able to articulate. That the world would treat me as a woman then, instead of as a sexless and genderless being of endless potential. I would become subject to a household, guarded by men. She had wiped my eyes and told me that plenty of power was still within my grasp, but I would have to learn to wield it, and wielding it was an art." -Antigone

5. Strength without mercy, when unchecked, becomes tyranny, no matter the motivation for becoming such:

"This city is my household. I am the head of it. It is a house of people constantly on the edge of starvation, who begin to deteriorate from the moment they are born. If I intend to protect them, I do not have the luxury of indulging defiance. Defiance leads to instability, and instability leads to extinction. I have built a strong wall around this house. It is not made of stone, it is made of rules that mitigate damage, and it has been the great work of my life. What do you think would happen if I allowed a crack in my wall?" -Kreon

6. The central crux of the story, a public argument between Antigone and Kreon, hinges on a defense of legal precedent and the hierarchy of law. It was particularly interesting to have this scene delivered from Kreon's point of view rather than from Antigone's perspective:

"'There was plenty about your edict I did not understand.' she replied.

'Do elaborate. Was it the definition of interference with the body?'

'No, your intent was quite clear to me,' she said. 'You wish to exclude my brother's Ichor from the Archive, the only retroactive punishment available to you.'

I scowled at her. 'What then did you find so confusing?'

'I suppose,' she said, 'It was the hierarchy of law.

'I beg your pardon?'

'To my knowledge we have never excluded anyone from the Archive,' she said. 'Not thieves, not murderers, and not even the rioters that rose up in the wake of a free election gone awry ten years ago. We even permit those conceived as my siblings and I were to store their Ichor. [...] And so I suppose what confused me was that the merciful approach we have taken toward our wayward citizens prior to this point was suddenly not permitted for my brother.'

I breathed deep, through my nose. I could not lose control now. 'I should think the explanation for that is obvious,' I said. 'A thief, a murderer, and even a rioter are not the same as an assassin who acts against the highest level of authority. Such an act is worthy of a stronger punishment, it threatens the very foundation of our society, and our society is our survival. [...]'

'My point,' she said, harder now in voice as well as expression, 'is that one man, high commander or no, doesn't have the right or the power to declare cruelty to be morality just because something has affected him personally. There is a word for the man who tries. Do you know what it is, Kreon?' She raised her voice so it rang through the square. 'Tyrant!'

'Some of us understand the necessity of duty over personal attachment, and that is why I cannot spare you, dear niece, after hearing you admit to your crimes as well as your obvious awareness of them, brazenly and in the public square. You cannot be given special treatment simply because of my familial attachment to you. You must suffer the same consequences as every other citizen of this city.'"

7. This is a
tragedy, after all:


"I didn't want to be married, but I thought I would get married. I thought Ismene would put flowers in my hair, and I would wear my mother's dress, and I would have a wedding night and wake up and decide whether I felt any different. I didn't want children either, but I thought I would have them, thought I would walk through the Archive and find someone who looked like my mother, and make the best of the thing I didn't want. I thought I would find the moments I loved among the moments I didn't. I thought I would have time." -Antigone

It could also be argued
in this telling that the tragic character is actually Kreon himself. He is the one with the truly tragic flaw, unyielding and unwilling to see how his own merciless decree will turn into ruin. He doesn't see the twist of fate about to befall him due to his hubris -- that his own son, his own house, would fall, due to the cruelty he wields in the name of order and survival.


All in all, I enjoyed this retelling. It felt like Roth honored the original play while using it as a launching pad for commentary on very modern issues still plaguing us today. 3.75 Stars
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