Howdy pals!
I’m finally getting around to blogging about Antigone, which is surprising for me because I enjoyed it much more than Gorgias. I found this play fairly easy and enjoyable to read! Not gonna lie, I am a huge Shakespeare nerd (WHY was Othello taken off the reading list omg no) and I found Antigone to be really close in style.
One aspect of the play that I found intriguing was the presence of so many symbols and motifs. Major ones I clued into are the metaphors of ships/oceans and war, but I’m planning on doing another read-through because I want to find more…I’m especially interested in exploring the significance of blindness, both literal and figurative.
I’m glad that after a few weeks of male-dominated texts we get to see a pretty kickass female character in Antigone. It’s particularly surprising that such a character would be found in a text from this time period; I’m sure Sophocles was at least a little controversial in his day. While I admire Antigone’s bravery, I’m a little confused by why she was so angered by Ismene. Obviously Ismene didn’t want to participate in the burial at first, but wouldn’t any normal person be a little afraid to do something that was against the law? I think I’ll have to do a deeper reading of those parts because I feel a little bad for Ismene.
Also, after today’s lecture, I have a teensy bit of respect for Kreon I think, sorta, maybe. I’m not sure yet but I enjoyed that Crawford didn’t just lecture about Antigone, but more about the juxtaposition between her and Kreon. Also HAEMON wow I have a little bit of a literary crush on you. (Any of you other gals get that? No? Ok, that’s fine). I guess I just enjoy rooting for the underdog a little bit. Speaking of which, kudos to Sophocles for such great character development over such a short text! You go, Glenn Coco. I’m really hoping there’s some sort of character development-based essay question because I found that to be one part of the play that really stood out while I was reading.
Do any of you guys do extra digging when you read a text? I usually try to, and I’m actually interested in reading the other Oedipus plays now, as well as doing some research into Sophocles himself, especially after the few tidbits Crawford mentioned in lecture today.
That’s all I can really think of for now, but I’m super interested to see what sort of questions come up in seminar this week!
Until then, goodnight!
Michaela
2 replies on “Ramblings on Antigone”
Totally agree with you with Othello being taken off the reading list! I love that play 🙁 Also, I’m with you on having that crush on Haemon, hard to find guys like him these days ! I definitely want to read some more Oedipus plays as well, so if you find any good ones you wanna share let me know !
I feel the same way about Antigone being full of interesting motifs. I found several, and will mention them in seminar if no one else does! Definitely the ones about blindness and sight are interesting–notice that Antigone mentions sight in the first few lines of the play, more than once. Of course, a lot of those have to do with Teiresias, but not just him, I think. I also find similar motifs having to do with light/day vs darkness/hiding/hollow cave.
I’d be curious to hear more about character development in seminar. I see some of that with Antigone and Kreon, maybe with Ismene, but the others have so little time in the play there isn’t much space for development, I think. Or maybe so? Would love to hear more.