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challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Owen Bennett Jones recently wrote on the Islamic State in the LRB. "Every time a Jihadi movement has won power it has lost popularity by failing to give the people what they want: peace, security and jobs." When I read that I thought about poor King Creon. I have always felt disturbed by the vice of fate in this play which steadily traps and crushes. It was Creon's hubris which caught my attention this time. Doesn't he have a mandate? I imagine him simply incredulous. Why this dissent? Subsequently I read a number of secondary pieces, though as I feared Creon is a symbol, whereas Antigone remains human, though her plight is class-conscious according to some, whereas others view matters as a collision of opposed ideas. Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet explored such in their Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece.
Rather, it is between two different types of religious feeling; one is a family religion, purely private and confined to the small circle of close relatives, the philoi, centered around the domestic hearth and the cult of the dead; the other is a public religion in which the tutelary gods of the city eventually become confused with the supreme values of the State.
Who would have guessed that a few hundred years after the Enlightenment such rituals and disputation would remain foregrounded? My views on progress and positivism have been eroded greatly over the course of my adult life. A chill remains in the air and yet a glimmer of hope persists, even now. I hope to always harbor such impossibilities
Rather, it is between two different types of religious feeling; one is a family religion, purely private and confined to the small circle of close relatives, the philoi, centered around the domestic hearth and the cult of the dead; the other is a public religion in which the tutelary gods of the city eventually become confused with the supreme values of the State.
Who would have guessed that a few hundred years after the Enlightenment such rituals and disputation would remain foregrounded? My views on progress and positivism have been eroded greatly over the course of my adult life. A chill remains in the air and yet a glimmer of hope persists, even now. I hope to always harbor such impossibilities
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I do say this about a lot of the classic plays but Antigone is probably one of my favourite plays of antiquity. It makes for such a compelling story and the tension between the world views of the characters is fantastic. The scene of Kreon and Haimon arguing is fantastic and weirdly enough extremely relatable because who hasn't gotten into a screaming match with their parents?
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
"Antigone" is, to me, the best of Sophocles' plays. It portrays a hungering duel between the laws of the state and the expected traditions, together with the fight between a man who does not wish to see his power questioned, against Antigone, a woman ready to sacrifice herself by questioning power.
The drama grows and expands, until it reaches the apex of its tragedy by the end of the play. The chorus joins as a unique voice, offering a beautiful if often confusing insight, playing upon riddles and symbols of Greek mythology.
A must read.
The drama grows and expands, until it reaches the apex of its tragedy by the end of the play. The chorus joins as a unique voice, offering a beautiful if often confusing insight, playing upon riddles and symbols of Greek mythology.
A must read.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced