Hello Arts One Friends,
It’s time for another Seamus Fera blog. WOOT WOOT HOLLA #iamubc
So tonight at 8:23 pm I will be discussing the beautiful Sophoclean play Antigone. Hopefully I will be be able to make this funny, but if not….well you guys are reading it not me.
So there is a lot about Antigone that could be discussed by I think for now I am just going to kinda drone on about one subject to another until my thoughts somehow gather into a beautifully articulate thesis.
Upon my first reading on this translation my sympathies went directly to Antigone and the house of Oedipus. Here she is, her mother/grandmother killed herself, her father/brother blinded himself and went off to wander the earth (see Oedipus at Colonus) her two brothers slew each other and now her uncle/great-uncle.soon to be father in law is king and will most likely be a tyrant. Her life has pretty much gone down the toilet, Oedipus says in Oeudipus Rex that it would’ve been better for his children/siblings to have never been born, so Antigone is stuck in a hard place. Her sister Ismene is a nervous mousy wreck and her boyfriend Haimon is like nowhere to be seen. If you don’t feel bad for Ms.Antigone then you are COOCOO.
However once I read it for a second time, I noticed that perhaps Antigone is not as much as a martyr as one would first think. She does what she believe to be blessed by the Gods (believing she must properly bury her brother) however by doing so she is leaving behind her younger sister who evidently can’t really hold her own and Haimon. to top it off, her act results in the deaths of her fiancé AND his mother…poor Eurydice.
Quickly jumping to Eurydice now. I feel SOOOOO bad for her. She enters for about a page and has one line and then she finds out that because her husband is a self-entitle arrogant you know what and her niece is a bit of a cow, her sons go crazy and shanks himself. Her name itself brings the idea of the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in which her counterpart suffers a similar fate.
I have a feeling that in our seminar debate there will be numerous discussions about the culpability of Kreon and I have to say that although he is a bit of a Pr..ck, can you blame him? Like all new rulers, he must stake his claim and assure that everyone respects and to a point fears him. I would do the same thing. His fate is similar to that of any classic Greek character, after all his follies, he is left alone destitute and alone….maybe he and Ismene will get together…follow the Oedipus tradition?
Side note, why is every son in Greek theatre named Poly(something) ????
also, my aunt’s name is Antigone…fun fact
See you around Arts One
That is a fun fact that your aunt’s name is Antigone! Now the title of your blog post makes oh so much more sense.
I agree with you about Kreon. It seems so natural to just go to Antigone’s side and think that she is in the right and Kreon is just a tyrant who refuses to listen to anyone and is completely in the wrong. That was my first thought too. But really, he was in a rough spot, as you note, and had to solidify his rule somehow. The lecture brought this out well too, I think. He still has the flaw of not being able to listen to advice until it’s too late, though.
To be fair to Antigone, though, I’m not sure it’s her fault that what she did resulted in the death of Haimon and Eurydice. She seemed to want to die alone (refused to let Ismene go with her, e.g.), and probably thought she would. But yeah, she really just drops Ismene and Haimon without much thought, it seems.
Thanks Antigone for your insightful comments.
Of course Antigone isn’t necessarily ‘to blame” but she is the trigger. Sometime I believe the greater sacrifice is not allowing yourself to die (if you want to) Antigone is a strange character because I would say she becomes less and less likable.
Seamus I agree with you,
Kreon is not the only to blame!
– D
is this my male empowerment coming out? LoL