... and the leader of nations. Consequently, women have been diminished to the role of housekeeping, taking care of the kids, and preparing meals for the family. In any case, there is a clear distinction of the difference in power between the two sexes-one gender always dominates over the ... dominance of men and subordination of women, Shakespeare and Sophocles seem to question the validity of those beliefs in their plays, Macbeth and Antigone, with their radically heterodox female characters-they neither conform with the loving tenderness nor the acquiescence and tendency to submit to auth...

• Word Count: 1748
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . In addition, if a female role exists in the play, the male actors must assume the persona of a female and wear both an intricate mask and feminine clothing. For example, in the production of Antigone, a male will play the characters of Antigone and Ismene, the two daughters of Oedipus and Iokaste. After hours of preparation, Sophocles will finally conduct the production of his play ... over the conflict of the burial of her slain brother Polynices. Prior to the beginning of Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles, the brother of Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene, engage in a dual that takes the...

• Word Count: 1410
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the ancient tragedy, Antigone, the Greek dramatist Sophocles presents a primary conflict that features a desperate struggle for dominance and challenges the blind justification of authorial power. Although the tragedy bears the name of its ... be the conflict between the dominant and the subjugated. Specifically, the focus will be on the conflict between father and son. In Sophocles' Antigone, the opposition of Creon and Haemon mirrors the main conflict and is a reflection of the modern dynamics of father-son relationships rendering the subject ... the differences in characterization are r...

• Word Count: 1647
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the play Antigone, Sophocles at first portrays Creon as a respected leader who formulates a rational basis for his laws and punishments, and has a generally positive reputation among the people of Thebes. By the end of the play Creon's excessive ... realize their hamartia and see their place in the universe. It is this manner that Creon can be seen as the tragic character in the play Antigone. Creon's stubbornness prevents him from being influenced by any other character. He refuses all advice that is in his best interest, which eventually causes his ... realizes that Haimon's death was o...

• Word Count: 951
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the pressure of Creon, where Haemon felt obligated to comply with his father's civil laws, Haemon felt he could not fully express his love for Antigone. When Haemon discovers Antigone has killed herself, he reveals the intensity of his love for her. The messenger notes, "[Haemon] has won his bride at last, poor boy/not here but in the houses of the dead", which ... further illustrates how Haemon finally, but belatedly, expresses his feelings of love for Antigone (lines 1370-1371). Sadly, Haemon reveals his love when Antigone dies and before sharing a blissful marriage that they both so ...

• Word Count: 1318
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... her fate. Everyone considers her chosen fate too harsh, but Creon carries out his decision and is punished for doing so by the death of his own son and wife. This next play, Antigone does not teach lessons as the others do, but it does show the effect of many people with similar ... her beloved son. The chorus, or the people of Thebes, are somewhat loyal to Oedipus's family, for they were very much against the punishment of Antigone, and I believe that part of their instinct to protect Antigone was the loyal promise that Creon had made to Oedipus, to protect his young girls when he was ...

• Word Count: 2002
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... answer, lifting a curse on Thebes, allowing Oedipus to become King, win the hand of Jocasta, Queen of Thebes and have 4 children: Eteocles, Polynice, Antigone, and Ismene. The reader discovers the first element of Aristotle's definition at the height of Oedipus" reign as King. An excellent ruler, Oedipus assures the ... to Aristotle occurs when Oedipus discovers he was the baby that was the child of Laius, whose wife, Jocasta, ordered to have Oedipus killed for she had been told that she would be killed by her own son. Oedipus screams, realizing the truth and flees back into the palace o...

• Word Count: 696
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to "any moral defect or depravity"" (Poetics, 21) given by an author, but to a mistake he makes at a pivotal point in a story. For example, a hero commits a crime not because his character was given an inability to tell right from wrong, but because he freely chooses to do so. ... potentially prevent downfall, and the hero's ability to either act upon or reject this new information constitutes blame for their fall. In Jean Anouilh's Antigone, Creon makes a final plea to convince Antigone that dying for her brother Polynices is foolish, making sure she is aware of the "squalid story " s...

• Word Count: 660
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... an actor who conversed with the leader of the chorus, and by his reports of events occurring off the stage could provide the chorus with materials for fresh songs in new scenes. Through the addition of a second actor (by Aeschylus) and a third (by Sophocles), the representation was made possible ... When he discovers what he has done, he blinds himself in a paroxysm of horror and remorse. Every tragic situation results in severest suffering for the protagonist. In most cases the protagonist's suffering is so severe that he is destroyed by it, and very often the protagonist's entire .....

• Word Count: 1396
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... as the a-effect or distancing technique involving the process of taking human social incidents to be portrayed and labelling them as something calling for an explanation. The intention behind this effect is allowing the audience to criticise constructively from an objective viewpoint. Brecht's aim in alienating ... obvious, familiar and understandable and surround it with curiosity. Due to the playwrights influencing of the audience to be detached and think for themselves, audiences are drawn away from the sentimentality of the play and forced to make conscious decisions relating to iss...

• Word Count: 1464
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... as a savior to the people of the city and constructs his identity around these character traits. Creating such an image of power and authority for himself alters his reality. He is exalted in the insular world of Thebes, but not nearly as powerful in a worldly perspective. Therefore, ... though Teiresias is a reliable prophet with word from the gods. By refusing this prophecy, Oedipus shows that he listens to the gods selectively for good news, rather than fully submitting himself to anything that may be prophesized. He sees himself as so powerful and prosperous that he does ... must b...

• Word Count: 1741
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... they were often engaged in projects intended to make this ideal a reality. Ralph Waldo Emerson, champion of the Transcendentalist movement, laid the groundwork for the movement in his eloquent essay entitled, "Self-Reliance." In it, Emerson avows a gospel of spiritual self-sufficiency, where the individual possesses ... night in prison. He was released the very next morning when a wealthy relative paid his taxes. Thoreau borrows a line from Antigone that sums up his experience well, "It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than ... charitable co...

• Word Count: 1633
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate