“Antigone” by Sophocles

Argument prompt #1

The tragedy, as a literary genre, was closely related to the social events for the Greeks. The ancient authors used their specific structure and form of literature in order to reflect the lives in their societies. Aristotle played an important role in working out of the definition of the concept of tragedy, defining its structure, form and the major characteristic features. He assumed that tragedy is an imitation  “una mimesis– a courageous action by a character occupying a higher position viewers: reyes, worthies, héroes; and their actions produce the compassion of the spectator.” (Aristotle 1971). In his famous work Poetics Aristotle devoted a lot of attention to discussion of the three most problematic to him authors – Euripides, Asehylus and Sophocles. Sophocles was the author of more than one hundred twenty literary works, including seven tragedies with light satirical favor. He made great contributions into development of the genre of tragedy, namely he is known for his introduction of the third actor and his bright dialogues. His great ability to focus upon psychological peculiarities allowed creating a lot of outstanding heroes for his tragedies. Antigone is one of the most famous tragedies, produced by Sophocles, and it is a part of his trilogy of plays, taking place in Thebes. Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus are the other two parts of the trilogy and all the plays are related to the events before or after the time of reign of King Oedipus. As well as in many other Greek tragedies all the events are united into one day. The tragic hero of Antigone is also a classical example for the Greek tragedy, he is neither absolutely good nor bad and becomes a victim of a tragic flow. There are two tragic heroes in the play, fitting these characteristics – Antigone and Creon. The tragedy was performed by a troupe of actors during one of the two Great Dionysian Festivals, taking place annually. These festivals played important role in the cultural life and tradition of ancient Greece and always attracted great public attention. Antigone by Sophocles meets all the recommendations for the poetic elements, given by Aristotle in his book Poetics, as the play has the adequate extension and maintains consistency; at the same time Antigone is a vivid reflection of the Greek polis and the social order of people, living there.

Antigone, as well as other tragedies, is the reflection of the social tensions of the Greek society. Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus – the ruler of Thebes and Jocasta. People in Greece had to adhere to strict traditions, related to the duty to bury the dead people, as they believed that otherwise their souls would continue to wander without finding rest and not able to reach Hades. Antigone is the one, who takes the decision to go against the laws and to rebel. Aristotle defined literature as the art of imitating the worlds and reproduction of the elements from reality. Literature includes a lot of various genres and modes, objects and means for creating this imitation. There is a difference between comedies and tragedies, as comedies imitate daily activities, whereas tragedies imitate sadness and happiness in life. Aristotle assumed that tragedy is thus an imitation of comprehensive and courageous behaviors. Antigone is the perfect example of a tragedy with a beginning and its end, with action unites, descriptions of time and space, matching perfectly the descriptions of a tragedy, presented in Aristotle’s Poetics. “The play is written and spoken in aelaborate language, rico, watch out, rhetorical, ornamental, which it tends to harmony, the rhythm and singing.” (Euben 1990). For the overall meaning not the story, rather the advances of the characters’ actions are important. There is no external narrator and the audience is impressed by the characters of Antigone and Hemon, who force compassion, and by the character of Creon, astonishing with his strength.

Aristotle underlined that a successful literary work has to be properly organized and its structure is of great meaning. A tragedy is supposed to have a profound impact upon the audience and thus Aristotle offered several options for creating the ends of the literary piece. A character could develop his action and obtain personal recognition before doing or the character could perform the action and only then get the personal recognition for this action, a character performs the action with personal recognition and is going to stop personal recognition and not to perform the action. In case of Antigone the character of Creon decided to follow the order and obtain his personal recognition with the help of the consequences of this action. Aristotle supported this approach, when there is personal recognition of the facts and the consequent surprise for the audience. The complexity of the structure of Antigone is related to the actions, which initiate pity and fear. Aristotle explained that the pleasure for the audience roots exactly from these two elements. There is an evident realization of the concept of mimesis, described by Aristotle in his Poetics. Piety in Antigone could be traced, when the tragic event takes place in connection to one of the family members – uncle Creon and his niece Antigone. Also Aristotle underlined the preference of a probably impossibility to the improbable possibility.

In his Poetics Aristotle writes that Sophocles could be considered an innovator in tragedy. Sophocles introduced the third actor and was called “tritagonist” for this. In addition the author managed to create such plot and build the dialogues in such a way that the relationship between the characters became much more sophisticated. He did not support the practice of Aeschylean approach of producing triologies on the events, connected to each other. Instead he wrote plays with self-contained plot, which gave him certain advantages, for example the actions in the plays were complete, and it was possible to handle the plot with adequate speed. Sophocles preferred to focus upon the innate character of his heroin, making it initiate the major tragic action. In some plays by Sophocles, as well as in Antigone, the main character died before the end of the play, causing additional tension in the whole action. This does not mean that there is no strong connection between the concluding part of the story and the events, which preceded. It could be proved with concrete examples from the play, when Haemon and Eurydice die as the result of Antigone’s death and this makes the final tragic event have greater impact upon the audience. The author of the play does not really distance from his self-contained world, which he creates within his tragedy. There is a well-known to the audience myth and the outline of the story is taken from it. Organizing the plot of Antigone, the author took the materials from the legends about Oedipus, who used to be the King of Thebes. The structure of most Greek tragedies usually included five main parts: the prologue, the Parodos, the five episodes, the five stasima and epilogue or the Exodus. Sophocles follows this classical structure for his tragedy, however with slight deviations. The Prologos is actually a kind of fore-word for the play and this part precedes the first appearance of the Chorus. Usually this part is made up of a dialogue or monologue in order to introduce the subject matter of the play and describe the concrete situation, when all the events of the play started. Starting from the first Greek tragedies the role of the Chorus was to function as exposition. Sophocles changed this method in his Antigone and Antigone was chosen to inform about her decision to bury Polynices in the conversation with her sister – Ismene. The Parodos, which is the second element of tragedy’s structure, is related to the song or even some parts of dance, which take place, when the Chorus appears on the stage for the first time. The opening song of the Chorus in Antigone has only expository function. As soon as the two initial parts of the plot are over, the five main episodes come. Usually these five scenes involve one or more of the three major actors, who take the major and minor roles and perform them together with the Chorus. The moment, when an actor came out to the scene and announced something important for the plot to the Chorus was called “Epeisodian”. The episodes consisted of usual passages, narrative speeches and dramatic dialogues, of incidental songs and utterances from the Chorus. When each episode is over, there is a stasimon – a song, performed by the Chorus. In Antigone for example the first episode is the announcement of Creon about his decision not to bury Polynices. Then the watchman arrives in order to inform Creon that somebody had already buried Polynices. Creaon’s reaction to the news is a part of the stasima  – expressions of emotions, which arose on the basis of the preceding episodes. These expressions perform the role of interludes between the episodes. The first stasimon in Antigone is performed after the first episode and this is a the song, praising the human race and the state. The second episode present Antigone seized by the watchman for Creon’s punishment. This is the climax of the tragedy. The third episode is the confrontation between Creon and his son Haemon, this debate is the second serious conflict of the play. The third episode is devoted to the theme of love and during the fourth episode the audience learns about the tragic fate of mythical Greek figures. The final episode of Antigone is focused upon Tiresias and his warning for Creon against irritating the gods. This episode is peripetia of the tragedy, as Creon realizes that he is not able to change his fate: “Oh! it is hard. But I am forced to this/ Against myself. I cannot fight with Destiny.” (Sophocles 1984). Thus the whole structure of the tragedy and its plot correspond to the classical Greek rules of tragedy.

Argument prompt # 2

The tragedy Antigone reveals a lot of information about the Greek polis and the way of living there. There were a lot of debates and political struggles, various forces aimed at obtaining political power. Religion played an important role in the society and formation of the culture. Traditions were highly prioritized in Greek polis societies. Such details of those societies, as attitude towards women and positions of men and women in the society in general are discussed in this play. Women in Greek polis did not suffer from mistreatment of any form of abuse, but at the same time they were deprived of the equal rights with men in their society. This peculiarity of Greek polis is vividly shown in Antigone, when Creon states that he is insulted by the fact of Haemon’s attempt to protect Antigone, who is a woman: “I’ll hear no chatter from a woman’s plaything.” (Sophocles 1984). Women in Greek polis were supposed to remain at home and take care of the children. This is repeated several times by Antigone’s sister, who tried to convince the main heroin to stop fighting for her position. Women were excluded from the political sphere in Greece, this is the reason, why Antigone’s attempts to participate in political struggle against Creon could not be successful. The whole system of government in Greek polis was absolutely patriarchal and Antogine and Ismene were not perceived seriously by the king. Excluding of women from the political sphere did not strengthen the overall position of the state, as the male opponents continued to fight with each other for power and were not able to protect their state together from the outside enemies. The state of constant inside struggle between the political leaders of the country led to the situation, when Greece became vulnerable to invasion. Religion interfered into the political life immensely. All the human actions and choices were related to the will of gods and most of people acted in the ways, which seemed to be favored by gods. The rulers, such as Creon for example, were convinced that they had divine power over the rest humans and all their choices and actions could be supported by gods.  One of the most important values in Greece was obedience to law and this is underlined by the Chorus in the following lines: “When the laws are kept, how proudly his city stands! / When the laws are broken, what of his city then? / Never may the anarchic man find rest at my hearth, / Never be it said that my thoughts are his thoughts.” (Sophocles 1984).

According to the classic form and model of dramatic structure for a tragedy, there should be two characters, responsible for moving of the whole action of the play, starting from the introduction and till the resolution of the conflict in the end. These two characters are the protagonist  and the antagonist, the first one bears the positive features, whereas the second one is considered to represent the evil side. Antigone stands out of the other plays as it is difficult to draw the clear line between the two types of heroes. Creon has the characteristics of both the antagonist and the protagonist in the play. Protagonist is defined as “one who takes the leading part in a drama; hence, one who takes lead in some great scene, enterprise, conflict, or the like.” (Aristotle 1971). Antigone seems to correspond to this definition, as her decisions and actions have serious impact upon further events of the play. Antigone does not adhere to the order of Creon and decides to bury her dead brother, then she buries the body for the second time, after the soldier of Thebes unburied it. She is sentenced to death by the order from Creon for violating of his order, but she does not adhere again and commits suicide, depriving Creon of the chance to decide for her about her destiny.

The character of Creon is not less sophisticated, than Antigone. He is presented as strict or even sometimes brutal leader, who prioritizes his on laws above all. At the same time he could not be considered a classic example of protagonist, like for example Oedipus in Oedipus the King, as his decisions follow the decisions of Antigone. At the same time some of his actions are still influential for the overall conflict and flow of events and thus Creon still fits the definition of protagonist to some extent. Creon is impacted by his own pride and stubbornness. These two qualities do not let him to admit that he could be mistaken and he even makes the same mistakes. Creon speaks a lot about those individuals, who are not ready to change their minds for their own sake and condemn themselves, without realizing that he also belongs to this category. “She has much to learn. / The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron / Cracks first, and the wildest horses bend their necks and pull at the smallest curb.” (Sophocles 1984). Creon corresponds to the Ariostotle’s criteria of a tragic hero, Creon faces his tragic flaw of arrogance. When Creon turns out to unable to admit that he made a mistake with his verdict for Antigone, he influences his own tragic flow. Haemon, his son, comes to him, asking to be reasonable in relation to Antigone, saying “You’ve seen trees by a raging winter torrent. How many sway with the flood and salvage every twig, but not the stubborn-they’re ripped out.” (Sophocles 1984). Haemon tries to do his best to save his beloved woman and his father, convincing Creon to change his attitude: “Do not believe that you alone can be right. / The man who thinks that, / The man who maintains that only he has the power / To reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul– / A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.” (Sophocles 1984). Haemon realizes that the ruling of his father is rash and unwise, but Creon is convinced that it is correct in frames of the greater good for the whole country. Creon makes such choice, because he thinks that there is no place for pity towards his niece and even his son, if this pity confronts his duty in front of his state. Sophocles manages to create a complex conflict of moral duty, putting the audience to the position of the judges for this conflict and the real nature of the morality and human duty. To understand this moral dilemma, it is necessary to know that polis was something more that just a form of political organization, rather it was a sophisticated spiritual and cultural system with certain rules and customs. The basis of the polis morality was related first of all to the absolute and unquestioned obedience to the existing laws and customs along with supporting of the key virtues of polis: piety, justice, courage and moderation.

The character of Creon is very controversial, as on the one hand he considers himself to be the top power of the state and is convinced that his orders and actions correspond fully to this position, and on the other hand Creon is too arrogant and self-concentrated for becoming equal to flawless gods. He is so much sure of his own power that he is not able to admit his mistake and improve it. The tragic conflict of Antigone roots from obsessive devotion to the duties, exercised by both Antigone and Creon, they are two much focused upon one of the sides of morality without being able to see the other side of it. Creon and Antigone break the ideal combination of the state and household – of polis and oikos.

Overall, Antigone is a great tragedy by Sophocles, exploring the themes of relationship between the duty of each individual to the polis and to his own family. The author managed to create a brilliant dramatic picture of life in Greek polis, adding the portion of philosophy to the dramatic conflict of the play. In addition Antigone is perfect for revealing of the differences between Athenian audience, which would most luckily take the side of Creon and modern audience, supporting Antigone, as the means of showing the transformation of human morality within centuries.

Works cited:

Aristotle. Poetics. In Critical Theory since Plato, ed. Hazard Adams (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971

Euben, J. Peter. The Tragedy of Political Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990

Sophocles.  The  Three  Theban  Plays  (Antigone,  Oedipus  the King, Oedipus at Colonus). Translated by Robert Eagles. London: Penguin Classics, 1984

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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