A response on Antigone

Summery of the play;

The story of Antigone is set in Thebes and follows the main protagonist, Antigone, who is the daughter of king Oedipus, who unwittingly married his mother and killed his father. Antigone also has an uncle, King Creon, who is a proud Theban. The only reason why Creon is king is because Antigone's brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, killed each other while battling for the crown. When this happens, Creon demands order, so in turn he buries Eteocles but brands Polyneices a traitor, which means he shall remain unburied and left as carrion. But this leaves Antigone outraged due to her brother not being buried which will anger the god and he will never find eternal peace. So in turn, Antigone asks her sister to help her burry their brother, but her sister, Ismene, does not want to disobey Creon. Due to this Antigone tries alone, however she gets arrested trying to bury her brother. After she gets arrested, she tries to tell her uncle that human law should not out law the gods law, but he has non of this and sentences her to death. During this Creon's son, Haemon, is betrothed to Antigone and he begs his father to show mercy, but he refuses. But soon after this a blind prophet tells Creon that the omens are bad and that he must free Antigone or Thebes faces more troubles. But as he goes to free her, she is found to have hung herself. In finding out this, Haeomon kills himself, Which in turn leads Creon's wife taking her life after losing her son. Leaving the story closing on Creon realising his errors, and being left alone.

MY INITINAL RESPONSE

Antigone was a piece of theatre that was quite new to me in the way that it is presented compared to modern theatre, so for me it was quite interesting in the way that they did certain things. When it comes to the story line of this piece of Greek theatre, I found it quite interesting but it shocked me at how many deaths took part in the story, and how important they were to allow the progress in the story line. In my opinion, this piece included a lot of deaths, more than I liked, however the way that it is presented allows it to be less overwhelming and more immersive and entreating when it comes to the deaths. For an 1hr 30mins piece, it was quite a slow burn and it could have easily been condensed into a shorter piece. One part about this piece that I found very interesting and effective was the fact that once the climax reaches and Antigone has hung herself and is found dead, the way that they link her death into the son of Creon is very effective and flows quite well. But the way the story allows us to see the sorrow of the wife of Creon after the suicide of her son makes it very engaging and makes the audience feel for all that she has gone through and the sorrow it brings upon her. Once she then in turn takes her life, this emotional connection that the audience have gained with her makes her death more impactful, allowing us to realise just how bad the situation really is.

Late point of attack - The deaths of Antigone, Haemon and Eurydice all take part in the final 15 mins of the piece.

Violence and death, most often being off stage - The battle between Polynices and Eteocles is only talked about in the piece and not seen, so none of the battle or their deaths are seen by the audience.

Frequent use of messengers to relay information -  The way that the death of Creon's son and Antigone is told to us by the Chorus as they speak to each other. Along with this we never visually see the death of either of the characters, we only know about it through the words that the others speak about it and when we see Haemon's body being carried near the end of the piece.

Usually continuous time of action - When it comes to this piece, there are no breaks in action throughout. This piece is continuous with the Chorus breaking up some of the dialogue with short monologues.

Usually all in a single place -  From what we know, this piece is entirely preformed in Creon's war room with characters only mentioning different locations.

Stories based on history or myth but are varied - When it comes to Antigone, it is based off of the ancient Greek myth of Antigone. But the version watched uses more modern embellishments such as location and costumes.

Focus on psychological or ethical attributes of characters - In this piece, Antigone speaking out against something she is aware of is wrong is heavily focused on. In this piece we see the character of Antigone go against the so called "status quo" of the people and is not afraid of the punishments she may receive for doing this. She does this as it shows that her actions are the will of the gods so it makes them just. When it comes to Creon, he likes to remark about women as being inferior and he enforces his rules through terror. Along with this he does not honour all the deaths in this piece and allow them to travel to the after life, which we know to be frowned upon by the gods.