Okay, so maybe I’m not quite done here. I blame the coffee I had earlier.

I have to study for my Anthropology midterm but nope, not right now. Why? Because Antigone is why.

To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about Antigone. I can’t hate her but I can’t like her. I can’t define her but I can’t deny her existence. Even the play itself, I feel absolutely nothing for it. I don’t hate it, I don’t like it, but neither do I deny it’s substance.

To be or not to be.
To be is to think.
To think is to be.
To do is to be.
To be is to do.

Which is it?

Be nothing. It’s easier.

I don’t know what to make of Antigone… If I choose one opinion then I betray the existence of another opinion which undoubtedly has some truth in it. If I focus on one aspect of the play then I betray other aspects that are just as important and vital. Is Sophocles saying that we must choose or that we cannot choose for there are no options? (Choice being a very vague word here) But even so, there are parts in Antigone’s where choices are present… Right? Are we subjected to fate or is there free will?

There are two ways I’m starting to see the play as well:

One, being that the reader itself is being pulled into ambiguity and the readers responsibility is to make sense of it (almost how we are born into the world and it is up to us to make sense of it. It is up to us to live. Tuum Est – it is yours. Ha-ha.)

Two, being that when we first read the play, we can make sense of it and form our opinion but those opinions are not based on a solid foundation therefore it is less easily defined. Surly I had an opinion when I first read the text but the more I think about it, nothing makes sense and very little has substance or truth.

The Gods are mocking me right now.

Someone help me, I can’t stop thinking about Antigone and Antigone’s Claim. I can’t seem to put everything on one post because once I publish something, another thing pops up.

Damn you, Sophocles. Damn you.

Right now I’m thinking about Sophocles’s intention when writing the play, because I think if I figure that out (or make some sense of it), I’ll understand the play as a whole. But here’s the thing: philosophers are cheeky bastards.

Right now I think I’m focusing too much on Antigone and not Sophocles’s intent when writing Antigone. I wish I knew his intentions. Sure, you can say that she acts upon family responsibility but something about it makes me think that she doesn’t really belong to a family any more. She and Ismene are orphans, and even so they are more separated when Antigone disowns Ismene. Perhaps Antigone is acting to retrieve back her family? I think it was mentioned in seminar last week how Antigone wishes to die so she can go back to her family.

And I keep thinking as to why Antigone died. I want to think that she died because she’s just crazy, but the strings that are attached to her makes me think that there has to be more. I’m starting to think that because of the ambiguity that has differentiated her also was the reason she chose death. Antigone didn’t have anything that would define her as human or made her feel human. I believe that humans have to attach themselves to something to make them feel alive. From Camus,

“Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to…”

And now if that is the case, that Antigone killed herself because her surroundings did not make any sense, what is it that Sophocles is saying? As humans, do we need to attach ourselves in order to be human and to feel like we are alive? If that is the case, is that why we go to school, make friends, attach meaning to events, go to work, and fall in love? Is it something we choose to do or must we do it to be defined as human?

I think it was also mentioned in lecture that in order to have kinship, it must be active. Events have no meaning unless we place meaning there. Otherwise, we disassociate ourselves from it. It no longer matters.

And now back to the thought about Sophocles’s philosophy which focus more on the individual than society…. If humans individually desire meaning through kinship and events and actively pursue it, than how does that play in society? Does the individual seek their own meaning or do humans merely reflect the wants and desire of society? (does that question make sense?)

DAMN YOU DEAD PHILOSOPHERS, ARISE FROM THE ASHES AND PROCLAIM YOURSELF. ANSWER MY QUESTIONS AND MAKE SENSE OF YOUR CHILDISH FOLLIES. “I DO NOT DENY MY DEED”, LIKE REALLY? REALLY? OK, I am so done. So done right now.