US IB English-Antigone (Sophocles): Summary & Analysis

The "Antigone" of Sophocles
Author: S. M. Adams

THE structure of this drama has disturbed many critics: despite its title, it continues, with Creon in the central role, for some four hundred verses after Antigone has left the stage for good. We have here, it is said, not one play but two; and for this kind of piece the term "diptych play" has been invented-doubtless more in sorrow than in censure. This is faulty criticism. It arises from an arbitrary conception of what Sopho- clean tragedy was, or ought to have been, a conception founded on the form of the Oedipus Tyrannus and on principles of dramatic construction derived by Aristotle some three-quarters of a century later. If we con- sider the Antigone in its place in the development of Greek tragedy we shall see it for what it really is. It does indeed contain two stories, but to Sophocles and his audience it was an artistic entity; and theirs is the viewpoint that really matters. He wrote, and they saw and heard, a drama of conventional pattern, the pattern of hybris assailed by peitho and brought to punishment. There is throughout the greater part of the play a marked shift of emphasis from "tragic hero" to a figure secondary in the so-called moral formula; that is all. And for this there was prece- dent and authority.

Sophocles was bound to take this pattern. Whatever may have been the details of Antigone's story in the KOLPJ) 56a, one thing is certain: Antigone met her death through defiance of an edict forbidding the burial of Polyneices' body. It is no less certain that to Sophocles and his audience that edict was a piece of gross irreverence and, as such, the act of a man of hybris. The dramatist wishing to tell the story of Antigone thus found himself with the familiar theme of hybris on his hands. He could not tell her story without bringing in the edict, and once that act of hybris was introduced the artist would desire, and the audience would expect, the punishment of its author-in our play, Creon. Moreover, Antigone's story must end before Creon's: his punishment cannot come until after her death. There is only one way to avoid anticlimax or, worse, a mere addendum; but it is an obvious way. Sophocles composes a drama which is, in basic structure, the story of Creon; technically, the protagonist is the king; and it is through his story that the story of Antigone is told. That she is nevertheless the dominant figure until her part is over is due to the fact that up to this point the dramatist keeps the story of Creon on more or less traditional lines. Vivid as is his por- trayal of the man of hybris, the tale so far is one with which the audience was familiar. Their chief interest was therefore free to rest with Antigone, who captured it with the force of her personality in the first verses of the prologos. That is the simple skill of a genius.

To read the full article on JSTOR, click HERE.

Adams, S. M. “The ‘Antigone’ of Sophocles.” Phoenix, vol. 9, no. 2, 1955, pp. 47–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1086704. Accessed 18 June 2020.

THE ANTIGONE

A summary and analysis of the play by Sophocles

In the Antigone contempt of death enables a weak maiden to conquer a powerful ruler, who, proud of his wisdom, ventures in his unbounded insolence to pit his royal word against divine law and human sentiment, and learns all too late, by the destruction of his house, that Fate in due course brings fit punishment on outrage.

The play takes up the story of the Seven Against Thebes, by Aeschylus, but with some changes in the situation. Two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, have fallen, as will be remembered, at one of the gates of Thebes. King Creon allows Eteocles to be buried at once, that he might receive due honor among the shades; but he orders a herald to forbid any funeral rites or burial to the corpse of Polynices. "Let him lie unwept, unburied, a toothsome morsel for the birds of heaven, and whoso touches him shall perish by the cruel death of stoning."

Antigone tells these gloomy tidings to her sister Ismene, and informs her of what she has resolved to do:

"In spite of the orders, I shall give my brother burial, whether thou, Ismene, wilt join with me or not."

In vain her sister bids her keep in mind the ruin of their house:

"We twain are left alone, and if we brave the king's decree, an unhappy death awaits us. Weak women such as we cannot strive with men; rather were it seemly to bow to those that are stronger than ourselves. The dead, who lie below, will deal leniently with us, as forced to yield."

Pathetically noble is the response of Antigone:

"Gladly will I meet death in my sacred duty to the dead. Longer time have I to spend with them than with those who live upon the earth. Seek not to argue with me; nothing so terrible can come to me but that an honored death remains."

The sisters retire, and the chorus of Theban elders enter. They greet the sun's bright beams, the fairest light that ever shone on seven-gated Thebes.

"For the warrior-host from Argos sent, which Polynices brought, is dispersed in headlong flight, ere it was sated with Cadmean blood, and ere the fire of Hephaestus had consumed our towering battlements. Presumptuous insolence has Zeus laid low, and he who boldly rushed high on our towers with cries of victory is hurled headlong by his lightning flash. If round the seven gates of Thebes Ares roused mutual strife, yet there the foreign leaders left their armies as tribute to victorious Zeus; yea, even the two unhappy brothers, who, with victorious spears, dealt with each other like doom. Wherefore let there be no more thought of war; in stately dance we will surround the temple of the gods, with joyous Bacchus at our head."

Creon enters, as ruler of the State, to tell the elders of the city why he bade the herald call them to assemble. He announces his decree:

"Honoring the good and punishing the vile, as well beseems a ruler, I have assigned due funeral rites to Eteocles, who died fighting for the fatherland; but Polynices, who sought to make desolate with fire his native city and its gods, and who sought to glut himself with kindred blood and lead our citizens to slavery--to him shall no man give a tomb. Let the body lie mutilated, as a feast to dogs and birds. Therefore have I appointed watchers over his corpse, and do ye watch yourselves that no one disobey. Greed has often led men to their death."

A guard approaches reluctantly and with fear.

"But just now," he says, "someone has sprinkled the corpse with dust, and given it funeral rites. Yet there is no sign whose hand it was. One guard accused another; yet each will by ordeal of fire and sacred oath maintain his innocence. At last we made resolve that we would tell the king of this thing and the lot fell that I should be the bearer of this unwelcome message."

"Well might this deed," says the chorus, "be the work of the gods."

But Creon rebukes the suggestion as impious.

To read the full article, click HERE.

This document was originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 112-123.

http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/bates017.html