Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Antigone #10

Events
-Oedipus is the king, but then he dies
-He had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles. After his death they agreed to alternate being king every other year. 
-Eteocles refused to give up the throne when it was time so Polynices rebelled.
-Polynices attacked with the aid of 6 other princes and each was defeated at each of the 7 gates to the city.
-Eteocles and Polynices killed each other in the fighting and Creon became king.
-Eurydice is knitting next to Creon until she goes to die.
-Creon orders that Polynices may not be honored and whoever honors him receives death. 
-Antigone wants to give Polynices a proper burial and tries to convince Ismene to help her and Ismene refuses.
-Haemon proposes to Antigone, even though he was talking with Ismene all night. As a result his death is predicted by the Messenger.
-Antigone sneaks out and has an argument with Haemon.
-Nurse questions her when she comes home and Ismene shows up and does the same.
-Antigone goes to bury Polynices.

Reflection

In the way Anouilh structures events there seems to be a lot weight on trickery and betrayal between brothers, sisters, friends, in relationships, and with the law. This sets up the story as being one filled with lies and false belief which follows along with the preceding story of Oedipus the King, which is also filled with lies. Another result of the large amount of lies in the first 48 hours of the story is that it helps to set up Antigone as a tricky character, mainly because she lied to the nurse about why she went out so early in the day. Antigone's family also has a result of living in lies, trickery, and betrayal because of her two brothers, and the story of her father. All of which set her up to be a rebellious character in the story, especially against a preset law. This structure of the back story that highlights the lies sets it up so that it is already centered around betrayals and secrets.

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