Here are a few thoughts for an Antigone blog. You need not choose one of these, but I ask you to write a few hundred thoughtful words on some aspect of the play’s meaning.
1. Demonstrating the power of the individual to resist unjust authority or immoral force is perhaps Antigone’s great achievement. What parallels do you see in other events you know about, perhaps through your knowledge of history?
2. Creon’s position is that the safety and security of the state come first, ahead of the rights of the individual. How does his position relate to current debates in the war against terrorism?
3. Haemon tactfully attempts to point out to his father the error of his (father’s) actions. Can you think of a comparable situation in which the child turned out to have greater wisdom than the parent?
4. Re-read Antigone’s final speeches (ll. 963-968 & 978-1021)—do the feelings she expresses there give us any insight into why she may have taken her life in the tomb?
5. The Chorus suggests at the end of the play that too often in human life wisdom and humility come too late to do any good, that pride leads to suffering and pain. Do you agree with this view of human life? Why or why not?
1. Demonstrating the power of the individual to resist unjust authority or immoral force is perhaps Antigone’s great achievement. What parallels do you see in other events you know about, perhaps through your knowledge of history?
2. Creon’s position is that the safety and security of the state come first, ahead of the rights of the individual. How does his position relate to current debates in the war against terrorism?
3. Haemon tactfully attempts to point out to his father the error of his (father’s) actions. Can you think of a comparable situation in which the child turned out to have greater wisdom than the parent?
4. Re-read Antigone’s final speeches (ll. 963-968 & 978-1021)—do the feelings she expresses there give us any insight into why she may have taken her life in the tomb?
5. The Chorus suggests at the end of the play that too often in human life wisdom and humility come too late to do any good, that pride leads to suffering and pain. Do you agree with this view of human life? Why or why not?
