Discussion 6

Choose one of the following questions about Antigone:

• Some critics argue that the main character of the play is not Antigone but Creon. Who exactly is the progagonist (you should definitely look that word up) of this play? Make a case for your answer, and be sure to use examples from the play to back it up.

• One student paper argued, "Antigone is a stubborn fool bent on her own destruction. Her insistence on giving a corpse burial causes nothing but harm to herself, to Haimon, Eurydice, and all of Thebes. She does not accomplish anything that Creon would not eventually have agreed to do." Discuss this view. Why is it so important to Antigone that the body of Polyneices be given proper burial? Could she have accomplished that without getting caught? Why does she die so quickly (within a few hours of being put in the cave)? What is the timeline showing that she does/does not have an impact on Creon's decisions? Is she heroic or just a fanatical nut?

• Modern critics often see the play a centering around a theme: the authority of the state often conflicts with the religious duty of an individual. Try this interpretation on the play, and decide how well it fits. Does the playwright seem to favor one side? Make a case for your answer.

• Some modern critics feel Antigone raises some feminist issues. What do you think? What role does gender play in Antigone?