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Antigone
The play 'Antigone' is at least 2,440 years old. Still timely nevertheless are its main concerns over what to do about a bad law and how far to go for the sake of love or justice. Contributors typically ask and answer questions about the play's author, characters, imagery, literary devices, plot, and relationship to other plays of the same themes or time period.
3,361 Questions
Why is Creon unable to stop the tragedy?
Not being able to stop the death of Antigone is the reason why Theban King Creon is unable to stop the tragedy in the play. He understands that he and his family are doomed if he doesn't reverse his previous actions. He's able to get the dead body of his nephew Polyneices buried. But he doesn't get to the cave in time to stop his niece Antigone's suicide. Her suicide inspires the successive suicides of Creon's son Haimon and Creon's wife Theban Queen Eurydice.
How are Antigone and Ismene different?
Antigone and Ismene are sisters. The story centres around the undignified way in which their brother's body has been left (at the time the women of the family would prepare the body for burial), and the king has made it illegal to bury him. Antigone believes that justice would be served if she defies the law, risking death if she is caught, and buries her brother. Ismene abides by the law and does not help to bury the body.
What is the status of Oedipus the tragic hero?
He became the King of Thebes after killing his father and marrying his mother
What does Oedipus do when he ses jocasta hanging in her rom?
He is told that Jocasta has hung herself, he doesn't see it.
Why does Oedipus want to discover the murderer of Laius?
To show respect to the Oracle at Apollo's Shrine is the reason why Theban King Oedipus wants to discover the murderer or murderers of his royal predecessor, Theban King Laius. The Oracle says that finding and punishing the perpetrator or perpetrators will end the pestilence that afflicts the Theban people and their livestock and harvests. Additionally, Oedipus decides that he needs to carry out the quest for his own self-protection. He suggests that otherwise what happens to one Theban king well may happen to another. He may be next in line on someone's assassination list.
That she does great deeds is the reason why Antigone is a hero. A hero is someone who does great deeds or has great powers. Antigone does the great deed of carrying out the will of the gods by seeing to it that her brother Polyneices is buried according to proper Theban procedure.
Specifically, all Thebans have god given rights to below ground burials and funeral services. That right is denied to Polyneices. His corpse is left exposed, above ground and to the cruel workings of the weather and wildlife.
Antigone doesn't have the strength to give her brother anything other than a partial burial. That means that the corpse is given the proper funeral services and the oils. It's just that it remains above ground, but under a thin layer of dust.
Is it Antigone or Creon who better fits the definition of a tragic hero in 'Antigone'?
Well, honey, let me break it down for you. Technically, both Antigone and Creon can be considered tragic heroes in their own right. Antigone fits the classic definition more because she's the one who faces adversity due to her principles and suffers the consequences. Creon, on the other hand, is a tragic figure because of his pride and stubbornness leading to his downfall. So, take your pick, they both bring the drama.
It represents dramatic irony; the audience knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer, but Oedipus does not.
How did Antigone's father die?
The how and where of the death of Antigone's father, Oedipus, was unknown to readers and viewers of the play 'Oedipus at Colonus'. The particulars were known only to King Theseus of Athens. Theseus' messenger to Oedipus' daughters, Antigone and Ismene, knew only that Oedipus was there one minute with Theseus, and gone the next. It had been foretold that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his own mother. His parents, Theban King Laius and Theban Queen Jocasta, tried to escape such a fate by leaving the newly born Oedipus exposed to the weather and the wild animals. But Oedipus survived, and ended up being raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. As an adult, he learned of the prophecy, and left Corinth in order not to kill what he thought were his biological parents. At a crossroads, Oedipus got into a right-of-way argument with Laius, whom he killed. He didn't know that he was committing the doubly heinous crime of father and king killing. He then married the widowed Queen Jocasta. Years later, the people of Thebes were suffering from a plague. It was determined that the murderer of King Laius needed to be identified. Ultimately, the true story of Oedipus and his parents came to light. Jocasta killed herself. Oedipus blinded himself, and went into exile. The Greek god Apollo had comforted Oedipus with the promise of a death on ground sacred to the fateful Furies aka the Eumenides. He also promised Oedipus that the former Theban King's grave would bless the country in which it was dug. The prophecy was carried out with the support of Athenian King Theseus, who ruled over the land and people of Colonus.
The ancient Greek city of Thebes is where King Oedipus actually is from. But he leaves at least three days after his birth, for Corinth. There, he spends his childhood and adolescence thinking that he's the Corinthian-born and -bred son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. As an adult, he flees to the Delphic oracle, a fateful crossroads, and then Thebes.
Decades later, Oedipus is forced to give up his home and job, for a humiliating, miserable exile as a disgraced, blind beggar. He dies in Colonus, the home of an established, long-time, powerful, wealthy family whose most prominent member is Sophocles [496 B.C.E. - 406 B.C.E.], author of the cycle of plays about Theban King Oedipus.
Who is the Greek hero Oedipus?
Oedipus is King of Thebes. He also is the vanquisher of the Sphinx, who overtaxes Thebans and terrorizes Theban residents and visitors alike. That act of conquest shows him to be a hero.
A hero is known for great deeds and great powers. Oedipus shows both in outsmarting the Sphinx at her own mental and physical games. He does so by solving a seemingly unsolvable riddle. He alone figures out that a human being is the life form that gets around on fours in the morning of life, on twos in the afternoon, and on threes in the evening.
Additionally, Oedipus is the adopted child of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. He's the biological child of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. He's the descendant of Cadmus, the founder and first king of Thebes. He's the father and half brother of his daughters Antigone and Ismene, and of his twin sons Eteocles and Polyneices. He's the nephew of his brother-in-law and uncle, Theban King Creon.
But at the same time, he's the albeit unknowing killer of his father and sovereign, Laius. He's the albeit unknowing incestuous partner of his mother and wife, Jocasta. And he's the unknowing victim of his own free will. Specifically, the choices that he freely makes and the actions that he freely pursues ironically lead to the carrying out of the very fate that they're intended to avoid.
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What does Oedipus discover in his search to find the murderer of Laius?
That he killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta.
Is the act of Oedipus blinding himself is that weakness or strength?
You could say Oedipus blinds himself as a punishment. He said when he found Laius's jiller he would punish him, when it was found out that he himself was the murderer he punished himself.
Why does Oedipus not believe that he killed Laius?
That he thinks he knows himself and his life very well is why Theban King Oedipus at first doesn't believe himself to be the killer of Theban King Laius. He knows of having committed a murder on his way to Thebes. But he finds it unbelievable that his surly victim could have been royal. Likewise, he finds it unbelievable that a king would have behaved so violently and stupidly as to end up dying in a street brawl over a right of way at a crossroads.
What two people does the messenger say have died in antigone?
During the Exodus, the Messenger tells the story of how Antigone killed herself, and shortly afterwards, Haimon also kills himself.
What knowledge on the audience's part causes dramatic irony in 'Oedipus Rex'?
That Oedipus does everything he can to find the murderer of King Laius,
while the audience knows from the beginning that the murderer is himself.
Oedipus is Laius's murderer.
Yes, Theban King Creon has his nephew Polyneices buried. Previously, he refuses to allow Polyneices' corpse the god given rights of all Thebans to proper funerary rituals. He decides to deny these rights because of Polyneices having led an army of disgruntled Thebans and invading Argives against Thebes.
But Teiresias the blind prophet finally gets Creon to realize that this insult to the will of the gods leads only to disaster and misery. It's when Creon understands that his own family is included in the doom and gloom that he changes his former stance. He sees to it that Polyneices' body receives proper attention and burial.
What is Antigone's most notable characteristic in Scene 1?
Humanitarianism is Antigone's most notable characteristic in the first scene of the play. She's concerned about the respecting of god given rights of a proper burial to all Thebans. In this specific instance, those rights are carried out only for those Thebans who were loyal defenders of Thebes in the recent struggle with the Argive invaders. But they're supposed to be available to all Thebans regardless of whether they die loyal or treacherous.
Who do you think is the better leader Oedipus or Creon?
I personally think that Oedipus is a better leader because he was willing to exile himself to protect Thebes from the plague. Also, in Oedipus Rex, Creon discusses with Oedipus that he does not want to be king because he didn't want that responsibility; as long as Oedipus was king, he had all the privileges of royalty without having to worry about the politics of it.
When the audience knows something that a character on stage doesn't know, it is called dramatic irony.
What is the climax in 'Antigone'?
The climax of Antigone is when Creon and Antigone have their confrontation, and Creon realizes he cannot overpower her. She goes on teasing and disobeying him, and so he angrily condemns her to death. The second time a climax could occur is when the reader realizes that Antigone has killed herself right before Creon decided to release her. It's an ironic twist that emphasizes the tragic aspect of the play. Depending on your perspective, either one of those could be the climax.
The climax, I believe, is the argument that takes place between Antigone and Creon since that is where the play actually begins.
Their argument is what will, eventually, decide the fate of Polynices and Antigone herself.
