Antigone

1. Antigone By Sophocles

2. Loyalty • What is loyalty? • How do you decide who to be loyal to? • Have you ever had to prove your loyalty? • Have you ever had to choose between two people when you felt loyal to them both? • Is it right to break rules or laws for loyalty? • How far would you go for loyalty?

3. Major Theme: Pride • There is no question that pride is a trait despised by the gods and punished without mercy. In Antigone, Sophocles describes the type of pride that allows men to create laws that substitute for divine principles. In other words, when Creon creates a law because he believes it is divine will, that is the ultimate display of punishable pride, for no man can ever create a law that is equal to or above divine right. As a result, when Tiresias comes with the news that Creon will suffer, Creon realizes that he has made a terrible mistake, and yet still refuses to admit it, bending to the prophet's message only because he wants to preserve his life, not because he knows he's gone too far. As a result, he must suffer the loss of his family.

4. Major Theme: Individual versus State; Conscience versus Law; Moral/Divine Law versus Human Law • Antigone and her values line up with the first entity in each pair, while Creon and his values line up with the second. Antigone continues to be a subversive and powerful play, and the inspiration for generations of rebels and dissidents. Antigone is a threat to the status quo; she invokes divine law as defense of her actions, but implicit in her position is faith in the discerning power of her individual conscience. She sacrifices her life out of devotion to principles higher than human law. Creon makes a mistake in sentencing her-and his mistake is condemned, in turn, by the gods-but his position is an understandable one. In the wake of war, and with his reign so new, Creon has to establish his authority as supreme. On the other hand, Creon's need to defeat Antigone seems at times to be extremely personal. At stake is not only the order of the state, but his pride and sense of himself as a king and, more fundamentally, a man.

5. Major Theme: Gender: the Position of Women • Antigone's gender has profound effects on the meaning of her actions. Creon himself says that the need to defeat her is all the more pressing because she is a woman. The freedom of Greek women was extremely limited; the rules and strictures placed on them were great even for the ancient world. Antigone's rebellion is especially threatening because it upsets gender roles and hierarchy. By refusing to be passive, she overturns one of the fundamental rules of her culture. Ismene is Antigone's foil because she is completely cowed by the rule of men and believes that women should be subservient to them. Men are stronger, she says, and therefore must be obeyed. It is this fundamental untruth that Sophocles' play seeks to correct, mainly through the punishment that the Gods inflict on Creon as a result of his obtuse, misogynistic thinking.

6. Major Theme: Inaction/Lack of Agency versus Action/Agency • When faced with injustice, Antigone and Ismene react quite differently - the former aggressively, progressively, and the latter more conservatively. Ismene is not so much afraid of injustice as she is frightened of her own demise - and she cannot bear to incur the wrath of men for fear of being condemned to the same fate as the rest of her family. After watching her father and brothers die, she believes that the best course of action is to lie low and obey. In the case of Ismene, it seems inaction is tied to fear. Thus, while Ismene is a figure characterized principally by doubt, Antigone is one who plunges ahead purely on self-belief and her firm convictions about right and wrong. Ultimately, then, because of these fundamental differences in philosophy, they cannot die together.

7. Major Theme: The Threat of Tyranny • Athenians, and particularly Thebans, were sensitive to the idea of tyranny and the fine line between a strong leader and a brutal tyrant. Creon is in many ways a sympathetic character, but he abuses his power subtly - mainly by decreeing man's law as a consequence of divine will. His faults do not necessarily stem from a lust for power, for he often has noble intentions. He is completely loyal to the state, but is subject to human weakness and poor judgment. Indeed, at the beginning of the play he frequently comments on his desire to do what's best for Thebes and gains the confidence of both Haemon and the Chorus of Elders, who say that they will follow him if that is his goal. And though he continues to reprise this theme, Creon is clearly more concerned with preserving certain values of law rather than the good of the city. When faced with a choice that would preserve 'tradition' or his own interpretation of the rule of law vs. a more progressive approach that clearly benefits Thebans, he chooses the former.

8. Background of the Play • Antigonewas actually the earliest of the plays Sophocles devoted to the Theban cycle of myths. It was first produced about 442 BCE. • Story of Oedipus and his family:When Laius, one of the Theban kings, asked Apollo, through his oracle at Delphi, whether he and his wife Jocasta would have a son, the oracle replied that they would, but that this son was destined to kill his father. After the child was born, Laius pierced his ankles, bound them together with a leather thong , and gave the baby to a herdsman to expose. Pitying the infant, the herdsman instead gave the baby to another shepherd, who took the child back to his native city, Corinth, and gave him to Polybusand Merope, the childless rulers of that city. The royal couple named him Oedipus (“swollen foot”) and raised him as their own son.

9. Background of the Play • When Oedipus was grown, some companions taunted him, saying he was a bastard, not the legitimate son of Polybus. Troubled, Oedipus traveled to Delphi to consult the oracle, which prophesied that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Odeipus left Delphi swearing never to return to Corinth, seeking in that way to avoid the awful fate predicted by the oracle. However, at a cross-roads where three roads came together, he met an entourage led by a haughty aristocrat who refused to make way for him. Enraged, he killed the older man and all his servants except for a lowly herdsman. Oedipus soon arrived at Thebes, which was suffering terribly from a Sphinx, a monstrous winged lion with the head of a woman who posed a riddle to all travelers and devoured them when they failed to solve it. When the Sphinx confronted Oedipus with her riddle—“What animal goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”—he solved it with the answer “Man, who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs in his prime, and walks with the aid of a stick when old.” Defeated, the Sphinx cast herself from the cliff. Having saved the city, Oedipus was proclaimed king to replace the slain Laius and married the queen, Jocasta. When the Theban herdsman finally made his way back to the city, he saw that the man who had killed his master was now king, so he asked to be assigned to an outlying pasture far from the city.

10. Background of the Play After many prosperous years during which four children were born to Oedipus and Jocasta, a terrible plague ravaged the population of Thebes. The Delphic oracle proclaimed that Thebes was harboring a pollution, the murderer of Laius, and the sickness would not leave until this pollution was cast from the land. Oedipus’ efforts to discover who this murderer was ultimately reveal that he was the land 's pollution; seeking to avoid his fate, he had unknowingly killed his real father, married his mother, and produced four children who were also his siblings. When the truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus takes her brooch and stabs his eyes until he can no longer see. Oedipus’ two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, accompanied him into exile, while his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices remained in Thebes, where Jocasta's brother Creon was ruling as regent. When the boys were grown, they agreed to rule Thebes alternately. Eteocles ruled first, but when his year was up he refused to relinquish the throne to Polyneices. Polyneices, who had married the daughter of the king of Argos, led the Argives and six other cities in an assault on Thebes. Thebes drove off the attackers, but in the course of the battle the two brothers killed each other. Their uncle Creon assumed the throne and decreed that Eteocles was to be buried with honors but his brother Polyneices was to be left unburied, to rot in the sun and be eaten by scavengers.

11. Ethos • Ethos is the Greek word for “character.” In order to convince people to agree with you, you need to establish that you are worth listening to. If your audience thinks you are trustworthy, knowledgeable, likeable, and respectable, they will tend to believe what you are saying. The impression you make on the reader is just as important as the information you present. • Example: “Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation or disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all. “ - Queen Elizabeth I (1588) from a speech meant to encourage her troops to fight against an invasion by the Spanish Armada

12. Pathos • Pathos means appealing to the audience’s emotions. If you can inspire an emotional connection with your audience, get them to feel what you feel, such as anger or pity, or get them to feel sympathetic to your cause, they are more likely to agree with your position. • Example: “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” - Patrick Henry (1775) from speech delivered to Second Virginia Convention

13. Logos • Logos means to persuade an audience by logic. This is where you present facts, evidence and reason to convince your audience. Citing authorities and showing that your argument is well-researched can lend your argument credibility. • Example: “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific…Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.” • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941) from “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation”