Three years later, it was once again on the reading list for a class, this time for Classics 10. The short play, less than fifty pages long with a dull, monochromatic cover simply stating the title, sat on my desk all quarter until I finally picked it up to read last night before we had to debate it during discussion today. I had fully intended to briefly skim through it just enough to be able to participate in class.
It was love at second sight.
If you haven't read Sophocles before, Antigone is the last of the Theban plays that center around the story of Oedipus Rex. However, the play itself is quite self-contained. All you need to know to really understand Antigone, is that Oedipus banged his mother and had four children (Antigone, Ismene, Polyneices, and Eteocles). His sons, Polyneices and Eteocles both died on opposite sides of the Theban civil war, and the new King Creon refuses to give Polyneices the proper burial rights to let his soul rest. This is when Antigone comes in, and ultimately gives her life to honor her brother.
Since it is a play, the story is obviously driven by the dialogue. Amidst the drama and tragedy, the dialogue can sometimes turn comic. Take for example the exchange between Creon and the watchman who has the unfortunate luck of being the one to tell him that somebody has buried the body of Polyneices that they were supposed to be guarding.
Watchman: Can I say something? Or should I just turn around and go?The comic dialogue often reminded me of what could be found in Shakespearean tragedies (or I guess the dialogue in Shakespearean tragedy reminds me of Sophocles' humor). I think that's a common misconception about tragic plays: they must be serious and sad and everybody dies. It's definitely what deterred me from reading tragedies during high school.
Creon: When you open your mouth you irritate me.
Watchman: Where exactly....ears or heart?
Creon: Why do you anatomize my discomfort?
Watchman: The man who did it hurts your heart....I hurt your ears.
So Antigone is full of themes that you can analyze to death in high school English classes. Burial rights, citizenship, the role of women, corruption, the value of family, the importance of the state. But the theme that struck me the most was that of the inescapability of fate and the fragility of man. It's a concept that carries its way through the Oedipus cycle and in Ancient Greek stories in general. You just can't seem to avoid your fate. The more you try to avoid it, the more likely it's gonna happen. Man can move mountains if they so wish, but fate and death are facets of life that are set in stone. The chorus sings
What a remarkable piece of work is man.
In the tossed waves of winter
He dares the bucking back of the sea
When the swells swirl heavy....
He knows the language of the tongue.
He knows thought that has wings.
He knows the passions that create cities.
And he has found refuge from the arrows
Of rain and hail.
He can do everything. And yet he can do nothing,
Nothing in the face of death that must come....
His mind is rich in thought.Personally, this speech really got to me emotionally. I was having a sort of existential crisis sitting on my bunk bed in the dark at three in the morning. It's just beautifully written and the meaning behind the lines is so powerful.
His mind feeds on hope.
But Good comes and Bad comes.
We ended up not getting around to talking about Antigone in the discussion section today. Disappointing, I know. The debate was supposed to be on who was the real tragic figure in the play. I think it's Creon. Antigone comes to a sad end, hanging herself in the cave where Creon left her buried alive, but it was what she wanted. She did what she believed was right at the expense of her own life and in doing so honored her family, leaving her with no regrets. Creon, on the other hand, lost everything. His actions were guided by his sense of total loyalty to the state, and once he realized that he was probably taking it a bit to far, he had inadvertently killed his son (who committed suicide in the arms of his dead fiancé, Antigone) and his wife (who also committed suicide after the death of her son). He was the one who, at the end of the play, was really fucked over by (look what makes another appearance) his inescapable fate predicted by the prophet Tiresias.
Fate. It's a bitch.
