So, um, I wasn't here for the first day of reading. I have no clue what happened. So I borrowed one of the books, and I'll get it back to you ASAP.
I have now read the entire play, much to my joy, and now I am ready to blog about it. Antigone is definitely not your typical tragedy. The main character is a girl! Women in those days were thought of as seen and not heard. Their job was to make babies and tend to the household. They had no mind, no opinion. So the fact that Sophocles chose to make a girl the protagonist of this tragedy was very forward minded thinking on his part. All the characters that survived Oedipus return in Antigone, stringing the two dramas together. Antigone was a very honorable girl, despite what her uncle Kreon made her out to be. She risked her life to properly bury her brother. Not many people are willing to risk everything for honor. What I find interesting is how in these two tragedies, one death sets off a chain reaction. When Oedipus' wife kills herself, it leads Oedipus to his death, along with others. In Antigone, Antigone's death caused Haimon's death along with Haimon's mother's death. Antigone seemed to follow in her mother's footsteps by committing suicide. Antigone may have been, shall we say pushed, toward the idea of suicide when Kreon locked her in the tomb to live with the dead as she wished, but she still committed the act. Kreon is the only family member who emerged from both dramas unscathed. Well, Ismene is still alive as well, but she's all alone now because her entire family is dead. The sacrifice that Antigone made for her brother is heroic indeed, and regardless of how tragic the story is, I admire that quality about her. She didn't listen to Kreon when he said that her brother would lie unburied to be food for vultures and dogs. She went out and buried him, defied "the man", and she made a step forward for women.
I also noticed how directions and the sun were mentioned frequently in the stage directions. Whenever there would be set directions, it would say "the sun is high in the sky" or that "Antigone exited to the west". This could be due to the sun being a universal system of time. We all know that the sun is high in the sky at noon.
I have now read the entire play, much to my joy, and now I am ready to blog about it. Antigone is definitely not your typical tragedy. The main character is a girl! Women in those days were thought of as seen and not heard. Their job was to make babies and tend to the household. They had no mind, no opinion. So the fact that Sophocles chose to make a girl the protagonist of this tragedy was very forward minded thinking on his part. All the characters that survived Oedipus return in Antigone, stringing the two dramas together. Antigone was a very honorable girl, despite what her uncle Kreon made her out to be. She risked her life to properly bury her brother. Not many people are willing to risk everything for honor. What I find interesting is how in these two tragedies, one death sets off a chain reaction. When Oedipus' wife kills herself, it leads Oedipus to his death, along with others. In Antigone, Antigone's death caused Haimon's death along with Haimon's mother's death. Antigone seemed to follow in her mother's footsteps by committing suicide. Antigone may have been, shall we say pushed, toward the idea of suicide when Kreon locked her in the tomb to live with the dead as she wished, but she still committed the act. Kreon is the only family member who emerged from both dramas unscathed. Well, Ismene is still alive as well, but she's all alone now because her entire family is dead. The sacrifice that Antigone made for her brother is heroic indeed, and regardless of how tragic the story is, I admire that quality about her. She didn't listen to Kreon when he said that her brother would lie unburied to be food for vultures and dogs. She went out and buried him, defied "the man", and she made a step forward for women.
I also noticed how directions and the sun were mentioned frequently in the stage directions. Whenever there would be set directions, it would say "the sun is high in the sky" or that "Antigone exited to the west". This could be due to the sun being a universal system of time. We all know that the sun is high in the sky at noon.