This essay was written by me in Social Studies as the final project some months ago. We were studying Greek civilization so I decided to pick Antigone as my topic simply because one can understand better a people through their litrature.
Antigone Essay
Historical background
Historical background
Antigone is an ancient Greek tragedy play written by Sophocles, one of the three tragedians in Ancient Greece that their plays have survived, in or before 441 BC. It is the third play of the three Theban plays written by Sophocles, even though it was the first one written. It was written during a time of imperialism; even after the first performance was done, Sophocles was “one of the ten generals to lead a military expedition against Samos”, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea. Even though it was written during a period of national favor for conquering, the play contains little political propaganda. It does, however, show the perils of an absolute ruler, or tyrant, in the character of Creon. Athenians would identify the folly of tyranny.
Plot summary
There are twelve characters in Antigone: Antigone, the main character, the heroine of the plot who is against her docile sister Ismene; Creon, Antigone’s uncle, epitome of the dangers of a tyrant; Ismene, Antigone’s sister, the good girl of the family, radiantly beautiful and docile, Antigone’s foil; Haemon, Antigone’s betrothed and son of Creon (yes, it means that Antigone has as fiance his cousin); Nurse, a traditional figure in Greek drama, she represents a maternal element; Chorus of Theban Elders, narrators and commentators of the plot, in Greek tragedy, the chorus was a group of between 12 and 50 players, who perform as death messengers, dancers, singers,commentators, or narrators of the actions of the play; Eurydice, Creon’s wife and Haemon's sister, her only function, according to the Chorus, “is to knit in her room until it is her time to die”; Tiresias, he is a cranky old person, and a blind prophet of Apollo, famous for his clairvoyance; Sentry or Watchman, brings the news that Polyneices was buried for Antigone, and he captures Antigone for breaking the King’s decree burying him; Page, he is Creon’s attendant, symbol of young innocence; First Messenger and Second Messenger, their role in the play is to inform the suicides of certain characters (some characters were not mentioned in this list because of their almost trifling roles in the play). It is worth highlighting that the characters vary according to the version of the play. For example, in the Harvard Classics’ version, the first translation into English, compared to the Jean Anouilh’s version, it does not appear Nurse, nor Page, instead of being the Chorus a group of people is only one person, there are two messengers, not only one, there are two guards, not three, the Sentry does not appear in Jean Anouilh’s version, and there’s a mute character together with the guards who is a boy that does not appear in Jean Anouilh’s version. There are a lot of differences between both plays, like the chronological order and there is no satire in Anouilh’s version, but in this essay it is only going to be analyzed Sophocles’ version (except for the list of characters). Clarifying, there were no negative critics about Anouilh’s version, he did those changes for several reasons, and it can be mentioned three of them: Anouilh wanted to give a “fuller and more varied picture of Antigone’s character,” he wanted to give more focus to the war because while he was writing his Antigone version, France was occupied by the Nazis, and the most important one is that he wanted to put his own creativity into Sophocles’ version.
In the beginning, there were two brothers “leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war”, and “they died fighting each other for the throne”. The tyrant Creon of Thebes has dictated that Eteocles shall be burial with honor and Polyneices shall not, and his corpse will be in public disgrace. “Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and Eteocles”. But in spite of Creon’s edict, Antigone wills to bury Polyneices' corpse. Ismene abnegates to help her, and she tries to convince her that it is a really bad idea what she wants to do, but she cannot stop Antigone.
A sentry informs Creon about someone who has gave to Polyneices’ corpse funeral rites and a symbolic burial, but no one saw who had committed it. Creon sends the Sentry to find the culpable, and after a brief absence he returns, with Antigone. Creon interrogates her, and without fear nor remorse she incredibly does not deny what she has done. She argues strongly with Creon about the morality of his edict. Creon gets angry, and thinking that Ismene could have known about Antigone's plan, he makes that she be present in the trial. Ismene lied and said that she did know about Antigone’s plan because she wills to die next to her sister, but finally Creon’s verdict is not the death. Creon sends the two sisters to be in prison for a temporary time.
Haemon enters to promise loyalty to his father, even though he is committed to Antigone. He initially wants to forsake Antigone, but when Haemon kindly tries to persuade his father to forgive Antigone, demanding that “under cover of darkness the city mourns for the girl”, the discussion aggravates and father and son are soon acrimoniously insulting each other. “When Creon threatens to execute Antigone in front of him, Haemon leaves, vowing never to see Creon again.”
Creon decides to forgive Ismene, but he wants to bury Antigone, our heroine, alive in a cave. She is taken out of her house, and now she is feeling regretful instead of defiant. She’s sorrowful about not having married and having to die for “following the laws of the gods.”
Tiresias warns Creon that Polyneices should be buried because the gods are angry, “refusing to accept any sacrifices or prayers from Thebes.” Creon gets angry and accuses him of being corrupt. Tiresias responds that due to Creon's mistakes, he will lose "a son of [his] own loins". Clarifying, Tiresias does not care that Antigone is condemned to death, he says that Creon’s mistake in that matter is keeping a living body underneath the earth is an improper act. All the Greeks will despise Creon, and the gods will not accept the sacrifices from Thebes. The leader of the Chorus of Theban Elders asks to bury Polyneices and free Antigone. Creon agrees, leaving with a entourage of men. A Messenger appears in the play telling the Leader of the Chorus of Theban Elders that Antigone has committed suicide. Eurydice asks the Messenger to tell her everything. Creon reaches at Antigone's cave, and the tyrant found Haemon crying over Antigone because she had hanged herself. After fruitlessly trying to stab Creon, Haemon stabs himself and dies. Eurydice listens to the Messenger’s information, and she disappears into the palace.
Creon takes Haemon's body. He understands that for his fault the prior unfortunate events have happened, and blames himself. The Second Messenger comes to tell Creon and the Chorus of Theban Elders that Eurydice has committed suicide too. Before Eurydice dies, she takes a last breath, and then she curses her husband. Being Creon is really mournful for his actions, the people from Thebes despise him, and Tiresias laughs at him. After Creon condemns himself, the Leader of the Chorus finishes the play by saying that “although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom, as a moral.”
A sentry informs Creon about someone who has gave to Polyneices’ corpse funeral rites and a symbolic burial, but no one saw who had committed it. Creon sends the Sentry to find the culpable, and after a brief absence he returns, with Antigone. Creon interrogates her, and without fear nor remorse she incredibly does not deny what she has done. She argues strongly with Creon about the morality of his edict. Creon gets angry, and thinking that Ismene could have known about Antigone's plan, he makes that she be present in the trial. Ismene lied and said that she did know about Antigone’s plan because she wills to die next to her sister, but finally Creon’s verdict is not the death. Creon sends the two sisters to be in prison for a temporary time.
Haemon enters to promise loyalty to his father, even though he is committed to Antigone. He initially wants to forsake Antigone, but when Haemon kindly tries to persuade his father to forgive Antigone, demanding that “under cover of darkness the city mourns for the girl”, the discussion aggravates and father and son are soon acrimoniously insulting each other. “When Creon threatens to execute Antigone in front of him, Haemon leaves, vowing never to see Creon again.”
Creon decides to forgive Ismene, but he wants to bury Antigone, our heroine, alive in a cave. She is taken out of her house, and now she is feeling regretful instead of defiant. She’s sorrowful about not having married and having to die for “following the laws of the gods.”
Tiresias warns Creon that Polyneices should be buried because the gods are angry, “refusing to accept any sacrifices or prayers from Thebes.” Creon gets angry and accuses him of being corrupt. Tiresias responds that due to Creon's mistakes, he will lose "a son of [his] own loins". Clarifying, Tiresias does not care that Antigone is condemned to death, he says that Creon’s mistake in that matter is keeping a living body underneath the earth is an improper act. All the Greeks will despise Creon, and the gods will not accept the sacrifices from Thebes. The leader of the Chorus of Theban Elders asks to bury Polyneices and free Antigone. Creon agrees, leaving with a entourage of men. A Messenger appears in the play telling the Leader of the Chorus of Theban Elders that Antigone has committed suicide. Eurydice asks the Messenger to tell her everything. Creon reaches at Antigone's cave, and the tyrant found Haemon crying over Antigone because she had hanged herself. After fruitlessly trying to stab Creon, Haemon stabs himself and dies. Eurydice listens to the Messenger’s information, and she disappears into the palace.
Creon takes Haemon's body. He understands that for his fault the prior unfortunate events have happened, and blames himself. The Second Messenger comes to tell Creon and the Chorus of Theban Elders that Eurydice has committed suicide too. Before Eurydice dies, she takes a last breath, and then she curses her husband. Being Creon is really mournful for his actions, the people from Thebes despise him, and Tiresias laughs at him. After Creon condemns himself, the Leader of the Chorus finishes the play by saying that “although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom, as a moral.”
There are five themes exposed by Sophocles in this play: civil disobedience, what is the natural law according to his religion and the legal institutions during that time in Greece, fidelity, representation of the gods, and love for family. According to Sophocles’ philosophy, it is right that a person rejects society’s laws if these ones prevent you from doing what is correct in accordance to moral and ethics principles, maybe from a religious perspective, or more from rational thought. Antigone says to his sister Ismene concerning to his bad critique to Creon’s edict of not burying Polyneices’ corpse, "He has no right to keep me from my own." With respect to the divine law and the legal institutions, Sophocles makes you think which law has more importance and is greater: the god’s or men’s, and one can see in the play that his personal opinion is to vote for the laws of the gods; even Sophocles ended the tragedy warning that human arrogance is punished by the gods. Antigone epitomizes what is fidelity with her determination to bury the mistreated Polyneices’ cadaver because she wants to return his honor, the one of her family, and the sacred laws of the gods. In Antigone there are few mentions to the gods, the only ones referenced are Hades, Zeus and Apollo, Sophocles tries to represent the tragic occurrences in the play as the fault of the human error, and not a god intervention; he portrays the gods as chthonic (“in, under, or beneath the earth”), because near the beginning of the frame there is a mention to "Justice who dwells with the gods beneath the earth", and Olympus is mentioned only twice, while there are a lot of references to the chthonic world. Love of Family is represented by Antigone’s desire of burying his brother Polyneices.
Why should one read it?
Even though it is difficile to read Sophocles’ master piece due to its complexity of language, it is a really engaging and interesting play, more for a person who enjoys reading classics and learning History. For someone from these modern times it would be interesting to know how the ancient Greeks were and how they perceive the things, like to venture to another humanity. For a person who is accustomed to read writings from these ages, to take a look to the ones coming from the antiquity like Antigone would give, in my opinion, a bigger panorama of the literature. After reading this classic it is guaranteed that one is going to learn more about archaic English and all those fancy terms that are going to enrich your vocabulary. As a work of satirical tragedy, it is recommended to read this play if one wants to know the origins of these two literary genres. Finally it can be said that you are going to have a nice time reading Antigone, either Sophocles’ version, Anouilh’s, or whichever, but you are going to have it, and you are going to be able to presume that you read one of the greatest works of literature in antiquity.
