Antigone Questionsyol

7/14/2019 Antigone Questionsyol

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/antigone-questionsyol 1/4

Steven Truong

November 9th

, 2011

Period 5: Hollingsworth

Antigone Questions Part I

1. To defend her position to break Creon’s law, Antigone claims that Polydieces is her brother-

giving her the duty to bury her beloved family member. Furthermore, it is divine law to bury the

dead in respect for the dead soul; not burying Polydieces would be a challenge to the authority

of the gods. However, Ismene responds that Antigone should not bury Polydieces because it

would be challenging Creon (the king) and also that Antigone is a female- as a female is to obey

laws created by the king, and man.

2. Deducting from the Prologue, Antigone is portrayed as a more adventurous and valiant being as

she is willing to risk her life to bury her brother, while Ismene is seen to be a timid and obedient

character since she abides by Creon’s law and is frightened to stand up against authority.

Sophocles seems to side more with Antigone due to her boldness as he titles the tragedy after

her. If Sophocles valued Ismene more for being obedient, then perhaps Ismene would be the

main character of the play and the tragedy would value Ismene’s submission to law more, rather

than sympathy for Antigone’s brave act of justice.

3. From the Parados, the audience learns about the war between Polynieces and Etocles that

would lead to the tragic story of Antigone. After, Oedipus’s exile, the throne was left to two of

Oedipus’s sons, Etocles and Polynieces. Both the sons would rule together, exchanging the

throne every year. However, Etocles refused to step down from the throne after his year of

reign- which caused Polynieces to assemble his army of princes and fight Etocles (Thebes) for his

right to the throne. In the end, both the brothers die as Creon becomes king; and only Etocles is

buried while Polynieces isn’t because Creon sees him as a traitor to Thebes after he attacked the

city. Antigone, being Polynieces’s sister, disapproves of Creon’s bias and takes action to bury her

brother- which would lead to her tragic ending.

4. In the Parados, Choragos compares Polynieces to a wild eagle, which portrays him as a strongcharacter and also symbolizes the support of Zeus since the eagle is the bird of Zeus. The

metaphor by Choragos gives depicts Polynieces as powerful and also a man fighting for justice-

as the eagle is also a symbol of justice and power (as used by many countries as a symbol). On

the other hand, the eagle, being a symbol of Zeus, also gives the audience an idea of how the

Zeus or the gods supported Polynieces for acting in justice to rightfully claim his throne after the

one year reign of Etocles.

5. The dramatic irony that is observed and felt in Scene I of the play is that Antigone’s action is

right and that Polynieces should be buried as Creon is wrong in his decision to disrespect the

dead body of Polynieces and also divine law. Creon is still blinded by his power and authority

that allows him to think that everything he does is right. However, as the plot of Antigone

develops, Antigone’s action to bury Polynieces will be sympathized for as Creon ultimatelysuccumbs to justice and decides to repeal his order.

6. From Scene I, Creon can be seen as a leader with both good and bad qualities, judging from his

reaction to Antigone’s action. Creon’s positive qualities are that he is a leader who rules

righteously and abides strictly to law. In Scene I, Creon’s authority is powerful, similar to

Oedipus, as his demands are met. Furthermore, Creon’s law to not bury Polynieces was a law he

created in his reasoning that Polynieces was a traitor to the city. However, Creon didn’t

understand Polynieces rationale to battle Etocles and shows that he is stubborn and also in



some ways, ruthless. Creon is stubborn as he doesn’t comprehend the fact that Etocles is the

true culprit of the war as he disobeyed a law, forcing Polynieces to take action. Also, Creon is

ruthless as he forbids anyone to show feeling or sympathize for Polynieces.

7. The Chorus expresses that law is what keeps society in order as law is what creates conflict in

Antigone. In Antigone, both divine law and state law are broken as Creon disobeys the law to

respect the dead by burying them while Antigone transcends Creon’s law of not burying

Polynieces. From the Chorus’s expression, law is depicted to be essential to society as breaking

the laws, as done by both Creon and Antigone, causes strife and conflict.

8. Antigone may be literally described to be headstrong and deaf to reason as her action seems to

be against law. However, with human perspective in her situation, Antigone is seen to be acting

in justice and valiantly taking action to obey divine law. On the other hand, Creon can also be

depicted to be headstrong and deaf to reason as he doesn’t understand and reason with

Antigone’s situation. As the story progresses, Antigone will gain sympathy from the audience

and the city of Thebes- proving that the assessment of her character is false.

9. Ismene changes her mind about her brother’s burial since she finally understands the situation

and sympathizes for Antigone’s attempt at justice. However, Antigone’s rejection of Ismene’s

support may be a bit harsh since Ismene did not fully understand the situation at first due to

fear. However, once dragged into the conflict against Creon, she recognizes that burying herbrother is justified and sides with Antigone- therefore, she should not be rejected by Antigone

for being slow to understand the situation.

10. According to Ode II, the human fault that is responsible to the curse of heaven is arrogance as

humans may neglect divine law. During the course of the play, both Creon and Ismene are seen

to be guilty of the law as they both go against burying Polynieces- as it is divine law to bury the

dead in order to respect their soul.

Antigone Questions Part II

1. At the beginning of Scene III, Creon states that Antigone will probably plead for “family ties” in

order to show how Antigone is a weak character and is unable to stick to her virtues. However,

Creon misreads Antigone’s character as Antigone is a strong and determined character as she is

willing to die in order to bury Polydieces. As a result, Creon’s interpretation of Antigone is false

as Antigone is seen to be a strong and praised character.

2. Creon refuses to change his mind because he is afraid that he will appear to be weak in front of

Thebes and also sticks to his belief that Polydieces is a traitor to Thebes and should not be

buried. However, Creon’s main reason to stick to his declaration is because he does not want to

submit to a woman (Antigone). Furthermore, Creon’s attitude towards women also influences

his decision about Antigone as he views women as weak- thus influencing his will to reject

Antigone’s action to bury her brother since he does not want to be seen as weak by submissing

to Antigone’s will.

3. Instead of sentencing her to death, Creon decides to isolate Antigone in the wilderness in astone vault and give her a “living death”. Furthermore, Creon voids the death of Ismene due to

her innocence in the situation. However, the method that Creon proposes does not absolve the

state of Antigone’s death because he still sentences Antigone to a sad and pitiful death as she

will have to die slowly and pitifully.

4. In Scene III, Creon accuses Haimon of selling out to love for his wife Antigone. The Chorus, being

on Creon’s side, also states that Haimon succumbs to his love for Antigone. However, this is



false as Haimon sympathizes for Antigone’s righteous action to bury her brother who had fought

in justice. As a result, Haimon is motivated by Antigone’s justice and not his love for her.

5. I believe that Antigone is not responsible for her own death since she had to have a motive to

take her own life. This motive of hers may be attributed to Creon’s negligence of burying her

brother and also sentencing her to a pitiful state of death. Therefore, Antigone’s death was

ultimately caused by Creon’s actions against her.

6. In Antigone’s last lines, she asks the gods to remember that she acted in justice for her brother,

claiming that she cannot have another brother (as she may have another husband or child)

which motivates her to take action and bury him, and also that she followed divine law. From

Antigone’s last lines, her motives can be seen to gain sympathy as she is sent away pitifully after

trying to act in justice. Furthermore, another motive of hers may be the fact that she wants

Creon to be punished for disobeying divine law and not burying Polynieces.

7. In Scene IV, Antigone gains sympathy after her situation is understood and comprehended.

From the beginning of the play, Antigone wanted to bury Polynieces for a good cause and for

justice, not to oppose Creon’s authority as a criminal. However, as the plot develops, Creon

gives Antigone a role of a criminal who is savage by going against his law. Despite, Creon’s

perspective on Antigone, Haimon, Teirisias, and Thebes all show sympathy for Antigone’s action-

thus making her more sympathetic as a character.8. The fate that Antigone shares with the other Greek mythical figures glorifies Antigone’s fate as

they also were trapped by fate even though they had good motives. Antigone’s fate with the

others’ emphasizes how fate is only destined and cannot be controlled, but does happen for a

reason. The destiny of Antigone would create a moral that divine law should be obeyed as there

are dire consequences that may occur from disobeying divine law.

9. Creon accuses Teiresias and other prophets as people with greed for power and wealth.

Furthermore, he goes on to state that prophecies are fake and a mere tool to gain power. After

Creon’s crude remarks about prophets, Teirisias predicts for Creon that he will lose someone of

his own blood as pay to his breaking of divine law and not burying Polynieces.

10. After the drama that occurs from Antigone’s banishment, the Messenger comesback to tell of

how Antigone and Haimon suicide. During Creon’s burial of Polynieces, the Messenger heard acry that would belong to Haimon raving over Antigone, leading to him killing himself beside

Antigone. Eurydice would overhear the message and curse Creon for disobeying divine law and

resort to killing herself due to the grief from her son’s death. Finally, Creon is left alone without

family and prays for death due to his grief from the events that occurred.

11. It is ironic that Teirisias is blind because he has the ability to “see” the future and knowledge.

Despite being blind, Teirisias can see what happens in the future and has great wisdom,

compared to a man who has vision (Creon) but does not have mental wisdom or vision.

12. Creon is not completely responsible for the tragic ending as the tragedy that occurs is actually

an offspring of the curse on the House of Oedipus. The curse on the house of Oedipus would

lead to the conflict between Polynieces and Etocles, which leads to Creon’s edict on not burying

Polynieces. Furthermore, Creon’s edict would cause Antigone to take action, thus leading to the

tragedy of the play. Therefore, in the big picture, the curse on the house of Oedipus is the main

fault for tragedy, whereas Creon is only a small fault for the tragedy.

13. In my opinion, Antigone is seen as an admirable character who tragically dies as an innocent

martyr in the end. Antigone’s action to oppose Creon’s law was an act of justice for her brother

Polynieces and also to obey divine laws. The act committed by Antigone should be praised as

she was valiant in supporting her brother. Furthermore, the gods would not have punished her

for her pride since her action was obeying the divine law set by the gods.



14. The role of the Chorus and Choragos is to contemplate the plot of the story and usually tries to

maintain stability throughout the plot. For example, the Chorus usually gets the last words of a

scene to make a comment of the situation. Furthermore, the Chorus sided with Creon in

Antigone as Creon was the “stronger side” in the conflict. However, in the end, the Chorus

would finally understand the plot and state how wisdom is needed to maintain stability and is

essential to order in society. On the other hand, the Choragos usually provides a deeper analysis

of the occurring situation in the play and appeals more to reason. All in all, the Chorus and

Choragos maintain the role of contemplating the plot.

Antigone Questionsyol

Documents

Transcript of Antigone Questionsyol