Antigone

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Summary: ¿Antigone: The Downfall of a Dynasty¿
Review: "Antigone" is an epic tale of woe and heartache. Written by Sophocles more than 2000 years ago, it remains one of the most beloved of all ancient Greek tragedies. The third in a series of three plays, "Antigone" records the downfall of one royal family. The great playwright Sophocles who is second only to Shakespeare in his writing abilities turned heads with his controversial topics and unimaginable heroes and heroines.

Most of his plays had morals to them, and "Antigone" is no exception. The foundational principal of "Antigone" is pride, and the effects that it has on those around it. According to Sophocles, the very presence of pride can bring down a dynasty. Because of the pride of two people, Antigone's world crumbles at her feet.

Antigone comes from a family full of turmoil. Her father, Oedipus Rex, the king of Thebes, had been sent away from his family due to a prophecy that he would kill his father, and he did just what was prophesied. While traveling toward Thebes, he came across a band of men who attacked him, and he unknowingly killed his father. Then, when he arrived in Thebes, he married a newly widowed woman named Jocasta who is his mother and the mother of his children, Antigone and her brothers and sister.

After many years, Oedipus Rex was informed of what he had done, and he is so completely devastated that he plucks his eyes out and retreats into the wilderness. Josasta upon hearing the news of husband's identity kills herself. In the midst of his grief, Oedipus Rex places a curse on the lives of his two sons, Polynices and Eteocles. The curse being that they will both die by the other brother's hand, which is exactly how they die. The brothers wage war against each other over who will be the next king of Thebes, and they are both slain during the rebellion lead by Polynices who is the second in line for the throne.

With the death of both Eteocles and Polynices, Creon, the brother of Jocasta and the uncle of Antigone, seizes the throne and places an edict that no one can burry the body of the traitorous Polynices who lead the rebellion on Thebes. If anyone so much as touches his body, they will be killed. For this time period, not to be buried was a great offence to the person's soul, and considered the worst things ever to happen to a person. It is at this point in the trilogy that Antigone steps up to defend the honor of her family and her deceased bother.

In the middle of the night, Antigone sneaks off to burry her brother despite her uncle's unretractable law. When Creon discovers the missing body, he is furious and demands that the criminal be found and put to death. After much searching, Antigone is found guilty. In order to save the life of her sister, Ismene claims that she was the true culprit, but Creon takes no heed. He sentences Antigone to be jailed in a cave out side of town where her life will be in the hands of the gods. If they wish her it live, than they will keep her alive. By punishing Antigone in such a way, Creon attempted to remove her death from his couscous.

All of these proceedings and charges angered Creon's son, Haemon, who was betrothed to Antigone. Haemon along with other cancellers of Creon attempted to convince Creon to refrain from harsh judgment of Antigone. Haemon even proclaimed to Creon that he would be sorry if Antigone was harmed in any way for his love for her was sincerely deep, yet Creon heeded not his warning.

Creon proceeded with his plans of for Antigone's punishment, and doing so, angered the gods. Shortly after placing Antigone in her eternal imprisonment, Creon encounters a blind prophet named Tiresias who warns Creon of the gods' anger. He tells Creon that because of his crimes everything he holds dear will be lost to him.

In order to save both his kingdom and his loved ones, Creon buries Polynices' body with the honor that it deserves and attempted to release Antigone from her stone prison, but he is too late. Antigone full of misery hung herself from the ceiling of cavernous jail cell. Haemon who had come to her stone tomb with the hope of releasing his love from death found her death body hanging from the rafters. In his love-sickened grief, Haemon took his sword and ended his life at the feet of his lover.

On hearing the news of the death of her son, Eurydice, the wife of Creon and the mother of Haemon, kills herself as well. Creon who is so distressed with the death of his family members wishes he could take his life as well, but he knows that he cannot. He is destined to live out the rest of his life in misery and anguish due to his harsh and unforgiving treatment of Antigone.

I believe that Sophocles is clearly showing the downfalls of pride. He wants the reader to walk away with a humble spirit and a forgiving attitude. I personally felt humbled by this play. When I finished reading it, I felt a strong sense of gratefulness for loved ones that I hold dear. It made me want to tell them that I loved them, because you never know when death will come knocking at your door.

I recommend "Antigone" only if the reader is willing read the play many times over. It is not an easy read full of many words and phrases that had no meaning to me. But over all, "Antigone" was an excellent play full of principals that everyone needs to learn during their lifetime. My hope is that when it is read that we will all learn the truths taught by Sophocles. If everyone learned the destructiveness of pride, the world that we live in would be a better place.

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Summary: Will Creon relent before it's too late?
Review: "Antigone" (probably first performed about 442 B. C.) is another tragedy centered on the flaw of stubborn pride. It also presents the conflict between secular law and divine law. A stubborn King Creon of Thebes refuses to allow the equally stubborn Antigone to bury the body of her brother Polynices despite the entreaties of Creon's wife and son. Creon orders her death but she commits suicide, as does Creon's wife and son. The play has excellent characterizations. It has a very tragic tone and the suspense is exceptionally effective. But, make sure you get a good translation!

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Summary: Still very powerful.
Review: "Antigone" is that kind of literary work that invites opposing views. The state and the individual, the duties to family and country, the boundaries of legitimate government and the extent of personal choice, are all elements that find a voice in this play, an extraordinary gift of Western culture to the world. The young and stubborn Antigone finds herself breaking the law that her uncle, the old and stubborn Kreon, has enacted. This is Oedipus' family, so there must be bloodshed. The conflict develops out of the vengeful and, ultimately foolish law that Kreon has come up with, which denies burial rituals to one of Antigone's brothers (Polyneices) because he had sided with foreigners and made war against his city. Antigone claims that Justice (diké) tells her to care for her brother's body in spite of his treason. This is what Kreon, blind with hatred, cannot see. Just as Oedipus, and even worse, Kreon imagines conspiracies where there are none, and is convinced that the entire city is seething with traitors waiting for a signal to bring him down. With such a state of mind, he charges against Antigone, and she is very much her father's daughter: she will not bow before her uncle although the consequences are grave. Kreon represents the state, but a state whose laws are capricious at best, and simply bad and hurtful at worst. Antigone is not easy to love or like: she is bent on following a path that will lead to her death, welcoming such a release from the terrible burden of being who she is: daughter of her brother Oedipus and granddaughter of her mother Jocasta. But Antigone's own prickly character makes her struggle all the more admirable, since it is so dificcult to like her. It would have been relatively easy to create a soft, misunderstood heroine who dies for her convictions. Antigone is a strong woman who knows perfectly well what she is doing, but feels she has a duty to do it. She is harsh toward the timid Ismene, and unsparing of Kreon, the ruler who seems to be a far better warrior than a governor. I know there are readings of this play that see Kreon as representing "democracy" (he asks the chorus to lead him when they go after Antigone, attempting to prevent her death), while Antigone would represent the corrupt values of the reactionary aristocracy that puts family before civic duty. I think this is a serious misreading of a very important play: Kreon is no more democratic than Antigone; they are both immersed in a power play: she from an apparent position of weakness, although she is strong, and he from an apparent position of strength which he tries to reinforce with harsh measures and words toward those who dare violate his laws. Antigone is no "reactionary." Her father had been Tyranos (ruler without the negative connotations of tyrant) in Thebes, which is exactly the same position that Kreon holds now. If Antigone is an aristocrat, so is Kreon, Jocasta's brother. If Antigone only sees duty toward her family (she actually sees duty "mostly" towards her family), Kreon is deranged in power, believing that vast conspiracies are at work and that only he stands between order and utter chaos, a common feature of dictators great and petty. His law regarding the body of Polyneices violates the sphere of female duty (women were in charge of the rituals for the dead), and spills into the netherworld, ruling against a dead man who has paid with his life for his acts. This law also punishes Antigone and Ismene just for being family: they cannot even mourn Polyneices. Clearly this is not the working of "democracy" in our modern sense of the word, but neither it is the faulty, deeply troubled democracy of the Greek city-states. The chorus tells Kreon that he can enact such laws and condemn people to death because he is the ruler, but it does not tell him that he is right. To see Kreon as defender of democracy and Antigone as a reactionary woman who has no civic duty is to find obscure meanings where there are none. Sophocles is quite clear at the play's end regarding what was right and who was wrong. This is a political play, written and produced in a highly sophisticated and political society 2500 years ago. It is obvoius that "Antigone" has lost none of its power and ability to make us debate, ponder, and discuss laws, government, individuals, and those who rule over them.

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Summary: Ancient Greek family values
Review: "Antigone," the drama by Sophocles, has been published as part of the Dover Thrift Edition series. The Dover version is translated into English by George Young. An introductory note states that the play was first performed in the 440s BCE.

The introductory note also includes a brief summary of events leading up to the events of this play. "Antigone" concerns the family of Oedipus, former ruler of the city-state of Thebes. As "Antigone" opens, Thebes is ruled by Creon, the brother-in-law of Oedipus. Creon is at odds with his niece, Antigone, because he denies a proper burial to Antigone's brother Polynices. Antigone's intention to defy her uncle sets this tragedy in motion.

This is a powerful story about familial duty, social customs, gender roles, and the relationship between the individual and governmental authority. The issues in this play remain relevant today, and are powerfully argued by Sophocles' characters. At the heart of the play is this question: Is it right to disobey a law or edict that one feels is unjust?

But "Antigone" is not just a philosophical meditation; it's also the story of a very personal clash between two strong-willed members of a very troubled extended family. A bonus in the play is the appearance of the seer Tiresias: it is a small but potent role. Overall, this play is a solid example of why ancient Greek drama has stood the test of time.

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Summary: For those of you considering using Dover's Antigone in class
Review: Although the Dover Edition of Antigone is inexpensive, the translation is very archiac. I used this book last semester in the hopes of saving my students a few dollars, but we found the translation to be so difficult that the time spent in class "translating the translation" made the book less of a value than I had hoped. I recommend a more modern translation for those of you who are considering using this text in class.

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Summary: The Americanizing of Greek Tradgedy
Review: American educators frequently treat "Antigone" as one of the more accessable classics that can be easily digested and understood by their students. Usually this is because those pedagogues reduce Antigone to a simple matter of conflict between the individual and the state. Debates are arranged between students, and most of them sympathize with the individual, while a few justify the exigencies of the state. Although the individual (represented by Antigone) is at odds with the state (personified by Creon), to focus on that specific conflict is to fundamentally misunderstand the play.

Sophocles was not interested in who was in conflict with whom as much as he was interested in the nature of conflict itself. The showdown between Antigone and Creon is unavoidable because each is justified--even required--to perform the actions that ensue. In Ancient Greek society almost every facet of life fell under the domain of one or more of the gods. The gods of the family require Anigone to remove the body of her brother from its humiliating public exposure on the city walls. On the other hand, the gods of the state require Creon to punish traitors and to rigorously uphold the law. Each party is invested with a compelling moral duty and each is acting on behalf of a culturally sanctioned institution (family, state). In this sense, the conflict between Antigone and Creon isn't one between individual and state but between justifiable moral imperitives.

I can understand why educators, particularly in the U.S., focus on issues of individual and state in "Antigone". It's easy to grasp and it's as contemporary as arguments about abortion or the NRA. But I think students would gain a deeper understanding of the play and of their own lives if educators took it one step further and talked about the play's depiction of inevitable, mutually justifiable conflict. This is especially crucial in today's world where conflicts of the worse sort are perpetuated by each party's fundamental sense of legitimacy and justification.

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Summary: Shocking to see a woman place back in greece
Review: Anigone has shocking surprise, twists, and bumps. As a class we read this book and the tale of Anigone was just terible. I go to an all girls school and I was apauled on how the book killed Anigone and her sister.

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Summary: Fun Stuff
Review: Antigone Critique:
Reading Antigone had a positive approach for me because it has a lot of morals and principles in it. Which you can learn from and apply to you in everything you do. At first I thought that it was going to horrible, especially when you just start off because how they write it, is awkward at first. But when you start to examine and go deeper into what they may be trying to say then you can really learn and evaluate on what there point may be or what they may wanting to get across to you..
I believe that Sophocles' main purpose to write this play was because in his day having a woman even as the name of his play was a big thing, so the play did emphasize on the role and leadership that a woman held. And part of the issue in the book was that Antigone was going against the customs and normal behavior of a woman, which did not please Creon. Also I believe that maybe Sophocles was trying to get a message across to evaluate your priorities and to stand up for what you believe in. He also may be trying to prove that "Hubris" -which is pride- can cause you to be blind. The fact that maybe the gods did want the brother to be buried or that Antigone's motive could have been right in what she did which was to honor her brother.
I personally have learned that when you are disagreeing that you should try to put aside your pride and think of the reason or situation that the other person is in. To put your pride away and give it up to God, to totally surrender your will to Him and not rely on yourself to get the things YOU want done but to act in His will.
I would definitely recommend this book. I think that it has an awesome point to it and values in it, but you just have to try and look for them. It is a little hard to follow sometimes, but keep it up and maybe you'll enjoy it too.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Stuff
Review: Antigone Critique:
Reading Antigone had a positive approach for me because it has a lot of morals and principles in it. Which you can learn from and apply to you in everything you do. At first I thought that it was going to horrible, especially when you just start off because how they write it, is awkward at first. But when you start to examine and go deeper into what they may be trying to say then you can really learn and evaluate on what there point may be or what they may wanting to get across to you..
I believe that Sophocles' main purpose to write this play was because in his day having a woman even as the name of his play was a big thing, so the play did emphasize on the role and leadership that a woman held. And part of the issue in the book was that Antigone was going against the customs and normal behavior of a woman, which did not please Creon. Also I believe that maybe Sophocles was trying to get a message across to evaluate your priorities and to stand up for what you believe in. He also may be trying to prove that "Hubris" -which is pride- can cause you to be blind. The fact that maybe the gods did want the brother to be buried or that Antigone's motive could have been right in what she did which was to honor her brother.
I personally have learned that when you are disagreeing that you should try to put aside your pride and think of the reason or situation that the other person is in. To put your pride away and give it up to God, to totally surrender your will to Him and not rely on yourself to get the things YOU want done but to act in His will.
I would definitely recommend this book. I think that it has an awesome point to it and values in it, but you just have to try and look for them. It is a little hard to follow sometimes, but keep it up and maybe you'll enjoy it too.

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Summary: Intense- depicts internal struggles and desperate measures!
Review: Antigone is a terrific play. Antigone's determination and loyalty to her brother provides an exciting story line when her narrow-minded uncle sentences her to death for her actions. The ending is fascinating and gripping.