Antigone

Hey would anyone be able to help me my English teacher gave me this assignment and I’m honestly really lost can anyone answer these questions.

Topics for Discussion

Topic 1: Which side of the play’s central debate (loyalty to the law versus loyalty to the heart) do you side with? Who do you agree with more, Creon or Antigone? Explain your answer.

Topic 2: In what ways are the play’s central thematic considerations relevant to contemporary society? In what ways, for example, is contemporary governmental authority viewed and enacted in the same autocratic way as Creon views and enacts it? In what ways is such authority challenged and/or questioned in contemporary circumstances in the same determined way as Antigone challenges and questions it? Who are the modern Creons? Who are the modern Antigones?

Topic 3: Do you side with Antigone or with Creon when it comes to the question of how, or even whether, love should affect and/or define relationship with the law? Is Antigone right in suggesting that love should be the primary defining consideration? Or is Creon right, when he suggests that no matter what, the rule of law and government should be primary?

Topic 4: In traditional, classical theatre, the term “tragic hero” describes a noble character brought to destruction by a personal flaw – Hamlet’s death results from indecision, Oedipus’ death results from arrogance. In this context, would you classify Antigone as a “tragic hero”? If yes, what would you say is her personal flaw? If no, why not?

Topic 5: What do you think is the reason why Haemon stands up to his father? Is it a personal desire for justice? Is it a young man’s rebellion against authority? Is it love for Antigone? Is it some combination of all these factors, or none of them? Explain your answer, relating it to the play’s primary themes. 27

Topic 6: While the character of Tereisias is physically blind, there are other sorts of blindness present in the other characters. What kinds of blindness (moral? emotional? spiritual?) are evident in other characters? Consider particularly Creon and Antigone.

Topic 7: Do you think Antigone’s challenge to Creon indicates a general disrespect for authority on her part? Or does she only challenge him in the way that she does because of the particular circumstances in which she finds herself? Explain your answer.

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Topic Seven

The play’s action, its plot or narrative line, is driven by this central thematic impulse. This is the issue at the core of the debate between protagonist Antigone, who essentially argues that authority should be challenged when the human condition demands it, and antagonist Creon, who represents and embodies absolute authority and who argues against challenges such as those made by the more humane Antigone. It’s important to note, however, that the debate between the two has somewhat different individual significance. For Antigone, the issue is very personal, in that her positions are defined by the particular question of what is to happen to the body of her brother, “authority” having decreed that the body is to be left unburied. Her arguments are therefore so issue specific that it is difficult to know whether she advocates challenging authority in general, or whether she is simply advocating challenge to this particular authority. Creon, by contrast, argues in more absolute terms, saying firmly that any/all law, imposed and/or practiced by the state, must be obeyed unquestioningly.

Unlike Antigone, Creon is unaffected by the specific circumstances – the law is the law and must be obeyed, full stop. This, in turn, can be seen as an important indication that the play as a whole is arguing against the power of authority. In his sweeping, absolute condemnation of anything that challenges the established law, Creon comes across as unreasonable and inhumane, not to mention suffering profoundly as the result of his immutability. In other words, the play suggests that Creon, and by extension any/all who advocate and/or practice the sort of totalitarianism he advocates/practices, ought to be perceived as and/or treated as tyrants and challenged, as Antigone does, however and whenever possible.

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