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Antigone

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I read Sophocles Antigone for graduate Humanities class. It is an essential reading to understand Greek Tragedy. It is also a foundation stone of literature in studying Western Civilization.

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus in 3-cycle play, faces capital punishment for burying her brother who rebelled against Thebes. Obeying instincts of loyalty of love and the divine law, she defies Creon, the King and her uncle. Creon says laws of states outweigh all other laws, and family loyalty, when he finally relents it's too late.

Over the centuries there has been a great deal made about the conflicts played out in the play, law of state vs. law of goods, personal vs. state duties. Loves knowledge vs. state knowledge. Greek understanding of tragedy- Aristotle lays down understanding of Greek tragedy. He based it on Sophocles. Tragedy- most important thing for tragedy is plot, it is all essential. Tragedy defined as- is imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with incidents arousing pity and fear ant to the audience it accomplishes catharsis of such emotions. Every tragedy must have six parts that determine its quality. 1. plot 2. character 3. diction 4. fault 5. spectacle and 6. melody.

According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history or poetry; it is one of the highest expressive forms because it dramatizes what may happen. History is a narrative that tells you what has happened tragedy shows what is possible. History deals with particulars, tragedy deals with the universal. Tragedy creates a cause and effect chain and shows how the world operates. It frames human experience in universal discourse, tragedy is central in this effort. Tragedy arouses pity and fear in audience because we can envision ourselves caught in this cause and effect chain. Plot most important feature, the arrangement of incidents, the way incidents, and action is structured. Tragedies outcome depends on the outcome of these cause and effect changes not on being character driven. Plot must be whole, beginning middle and end. Beginning must have a motivation that starts the cause and effect chain of events must be a center or climax that is caused by earlier incidents. There must be an end some kind of closure caused by earlier events in tragedy. This is all part of the complication of the tragedy all must be connected. You can't have a dues ex machnia in a superior tragedy.

In tragedy, the hero or heroine walks knowingly towards the fate that is written and can't be changed. Unity of action plot must be structurally self-contained, each action leading invariably to the next without outside intervention. The worst kinds of plots are episodic, like a Jerry Seinfeld sitcom, can't be something about nothing, must have unity of action. Magnitude, quantatively meaning length, and quality of action, it must be serious. Must be of universal significance, depth, and richness. Character- most important feature is the fatal flaw. Motivations of characters are important but character is there to support the plot. Character must be a prosperous renowned personage. Change of fortune from good to bad will really matter and bring fear and pity to the audience. In ideal tragedy, the hero will mistakenly bring about his own downfall. Because they make a mistake, because knowledge of our selves is always partial, we can't have complete knowledge of ourselves. Hall quotes Descartes in the article, "The limited error prone perspective of the individual. Subject is always imperfect and human and these limitations include our ability to know in any reliable way ourselves." The fact that we as subjects, as agents can never fully know ourselves means that we are always prone to error, error is the essence of the tragic hero, tragedy is the essential drama of human subjectivity.

What is Hegel's understanding of concept of tragedy? He revises Aristotelian principals and logic. Immensely influential German philosopher, he writes about; tragedy in the Aesthete 1820-29, he proposes, "the suffering of the tragic hero are merely the means of reconciling the opposing moral clients." According to Hegel's account of Greek tragedy, the conflict isn't between good and evil, but between competing goods, all is good. Between two entirely ethical worlds that clash and can't come together. Both characters have an ethical vision or belief that they have to follow it is there one-sidedness of their vision that clashes with the one-sidedness of the other character. Both sides of contradiction are justified. Conflict of irreconcilable justifiable ethical worlds, ethical visions. Just as his dialectic must lead to an ultimate synthesis, so to must tragedy lead to a synthesis. This is dramatized in the death of the tragic actor, which becomes the synthesis. Hegel says; "the characters are too good to live." They are too good to live in this world. What is interesting is that Hegel so wants to correct moral imbalances his emphasis is on moral balances.

Greek tragedy is great reading for people interested in aesthetics, history, psychology, and philosophy.

I bought this book for my 10th grade English students to read. The language is understandable, but offers some challenging words to use for vocabulary purposes. The sidebar information is informative and helpful. The introductory information about the play itself, Greek mythology and Greek tragedy gives the students good background information. The book explains what a "classic" is and why classics are important. Finally, it gives the students what themes and conflicts to look for.

As a teacher, I would recommend this book.

This play asks timeless moral questions. We had a 2 hour discussion on it, and left wanting to say more. This translation was much clearer and less wordy than some of the others the group had with them.

I ordered this book for an English class. It was disappointing to me to find it a very different translation than everyone else. While reading the book, The text seemed oversimplified.
The transaction was smooth and the book arrived without flaw.

I like this product. It was as same as he discribed. So thank you very much for your good service.

Antigone is the girl who will rise up alone and die young. Haemon, Antigone's dashing fiancé, chats with Ismene, her beautiful sister. Even though it was expected that was to marry Ismene, he actually proposes to Antigone at a ball. Obeying instincts of loyalty of love and the divine law, she defies Creon, the King and her uncle. Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene's father, had two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. Upon Oedipus' death, it was agreed that each would take the throne from one year to the next. After the first year, however, Eteocles, the elder, refused to step down. Polynices and six foreign princes marched on Thebes. All were defeated. The brothers killed each other in a duel, making Creon king. Creon ordered Eteocles buried in honor and left Polynices to rot on the pain of death.
This tragedy explains how one person can affect everyone else. It was prophesied that Antigone was to have a death by her own actions.

The third of Sophocles' Theban plays chronologically and the first written, Antigone is his second greatest world literature contribution, second only to Oedipus the King itself. Like that work, its greatness has reigned for nearly 2,500 years, and it is still a model of what tragedy should be; deftly plotted and perfectly executed, it has a sympathetic protagonist, a crushing climax, sublime poetry, and a wealth of meaningful themes. Though less famous than Oedipus the King and not quite as great, it is so tantalizingly close that it remains an immortal masterpiece. It is essential for everyone.

As in Oedipus the King, the title character may be the aspect that has always spoken most strongly. Though not a tragic hero in Oedipus' strict sense, Antigone has fundamentally human thoughts and feelings that make her supremely relatable; we feel with and for her because we see ourselves in her. She may be extremely high strung, and her actions and emotions may be highly wrought, but she is an extreme case of what the dark, often contradictory emotions at humanity's heart can lead to if followed to the logical conclusion. Whatever her faults, she is far more sinned against than sinning, and the depiction of her doomed love and tragic end are profoundly moving; few portrayals are more pathos-drenched. However ostensibly different from us, she has the indisputable human core necessary for a truly moving character. Whether or not we agree with her, we sympathize strongly, and her determination and resilience are truly admirable.

We must not overlook the significance of a female protagonist in an ancient Greek work. Greek society was truly a man's world; women were oppressed to an extent that has long been unthinkable in the Western world. They were not considered unequal so much as hardly thought of at all; indeed, they seem not to have been allowed at dramatic performances - a true irony here. Antigone has thus unsurprisingly been the focus of much feminist criticism. Calling it proto-feminist would be too much, but having a female protagonist - much less a sympathetic one - was indeed notable. Though lacking Greek male heroes' attributes, she is a far cry from the wily but essentially frivolous goddesses and women in Homer and elsewhere, to say nothing of helpless damsels like Helen. The play vividly showed that, however insignificant women were, their wishes could not simply be ignored - and that tragic consequences may result if they are. It was not until far later - perhaps the mid or late Victorian era - that literature had another heroine of comparable strength.

Yet she is not the only interesting character; indeed, strictly speaking, Creon is the true tragic hero. Much like Oedipus, he has tragic flaws - arrogance, narrow-mindedness, impulsiveness - that lead to his downfall. It is hard not to hate him at first, especially considering the story's background, but at least as hard not to be moved by the truly pathetic picture of the broken man he is at the end. He may have deserved punishment, but few would say he deserved the catastrophe he got, which is one of the most vivid and deeply stirring illustrations of how a rash act done quickly with little thought can lead to fatal conclusions. As important as Antigone is to the play's core emotion and thought-provoking aspect, Creon is also essential.

The story itself is key as well. The original audience knew the background well, and it has continued to be so famous that most will know a lot before reading, but Sophocles portrays it with such skillful mastery that it affected Athenians with mesmerizing power and continues to do so. Only Oedipus the King even rivals it for plot tightness and perfect execution; no one has ever made better use of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, and the breathtaking climaxes have rarely even been approached. The story is put together with almost mathematical precision, and the close is simply devastating. The totality of bitterly ironic events is so crushingly malevolent that it shows the absolute worst that can happen to people. For this reason among many others, the play remains a consummate tragedy.

The work's lasting value may be due primarily to its extraordinary dramatization of numerous weighty themes. All Greek tragedies were broadly philosophical in a way later plays - to say nothing of current ones - rarely are, but this is a prime example. Women's issues aside, it deals with important subjects like family relations, questions of political succession, private vs. public loyalty, pride vs. humility, etc. That Sophocles was able to do all this in a work of less than fifteen hundred lines - about one third of Hamlet - is a testament both to his genius and to ancient Greek art's essential concision.

There are few works for which reviews are more superfluous; the real question is what translation to get. Robert Fagles' is undoubtedly the best for current readers. It is not that prior ones are inaccurate, but inevitable language changes have made them ever less readable; some may think them more stately, but they lack Fagles' flow and readability. All one need do is compare his rendering of the famous closing speech to prior ones; his is so much more immediate yet also more poetic. Dedicated Greekless readers will of course want several, but neophytes should start with Fagles, the only version most will ever need.

Translation aside, the question of what edition to get is also important. The play is well worth reading on its own, but many versions pair it with Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles' other two Theban plays. The former is even greater than Antigone, and the latter has substantial merit, meaning the trilogy is ideally bought complete. Standalones are hard to justify unless one wants a deluxe edition with Greek text, extensive criticism, or some other bonus, but the important thing is of course to read the play in some form.

Antigone is part of the Thebes trilogy by Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. While written some 2500 years ago these Greek tragedies have meaning for us today, especially Antigone. The basic story is clear: The king of Thebes, Creon, orders the body of Antigone's brother, Polyneices, to be left unburied to be eaten by animals because he rebelled against the king. Cleon then decrees a law that anyone who seeks to bury Polyneices will be put to death. Antigone defies this law with tragic results for all.

The message here, that there is a higher duty than civil law, is one that Americans could well pay attention to today. Throughout the history of the country the United States has enacted laws and engaged in immoral practices ranging from stealing the land from the natives, enslaving people from Africa and later passing segregation laws to restrict their freedom and engaging in wars of dubious moral validity--with Mexico, Spain, Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike Antigone, Americans have, for the most part, gone along with these actions, A few, Henry David Thoreau in On Civil Disobedience for example, have stood with Sophocles in arguing for a higher moral order.

Just as in Antigone, America is facing a tragic crisis as economic failure follows on economic failure. Some lessons can only be learned the hard way.

This short play demonstrates in vivid, dramatic form, how immoral laws and actions of governments can disrupt and destroy a society.