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ANTIGONE![]()
INTRODUCTION
āFROM WHAT KIND OF PARENTS WAS I BORN?ā
Antigone opens just before dawn in Thebes, on the day after the cityās defenders have repelled a massive assault by fighters from seven Argive cities. The Argive objective had been to return the Theban throne to Polyneikes, elder son of Oedipus. But Polyneikes and his younger brother, Eteokles, Thebesā reigning king, killed each other with simultaneous spear-thrusts during the failed assault.1 Antigone, the sister of the slain men, returns fierce and agitated from the battlefield with news for their sister Ismene: Kreon has just become Thebesā ruler following the deaths of his two nephews. He has apparently already honored and buried the loyal Eteokles, but has vilified Polyneikes for attacking his own city and now forbids his burial. Antigone declares she will bury her brother, no matter what it costs her.
Antigone thrived throughout the twentieth century as the perfect ancient play to dramatize rebellion against tyrants. Kreon could be costumed and directed to represent any number of oppressors, and Antigoneās fearless eloquence inflected to expose their evil and banality. Productions have reimagined her as a martyred fighter in various righteous causes: sheās been a member of the French resistance, the sister of an IRA terrorist or an Argentinean desaparacido, and a Vietnam War resister. Antigone will undoubtedly be drafted to face down tyrants yet unborn.
Thereās a downside, however, to interpreting Antigone solely through its capacity for embodying contemporary political battles. None of the playās clashes is as clear-cut, or its characters as consistent, as they first seem. (Thebesā resident prophetāTiresias, who appears in a single scene as the playās most commanding figure and who delivers an unambiguous condemnation of Kreonāis the sole exception.) Kreon, for instance, addressing his aristocratic peers hours after assuming power, reassuringly articulates his democratic principles and policies. He promises to accept good advice, act on it, avoid and denounce policies that would lead Thebes to destruction, and punish any citizen who betrays Thebes, including his traitorous and deceased nephew. But Kreon will fail to follow every one of his precepts. In the end, the consequences of his own actions will even force him to order a proper burial for Polyneikes. A look into Kreonās soul to locate his core beliefsāopening him up like a wax writing tablet in its case, to paraphrase Kreonās son Haimonāwould reveal his moral emptiness. As Kreon puts his crowd-pleasing but insincere inaugural speech behind him, he acts on intense and ugly prejudices, not principles.
Antigone, who possesses both character and principle in abundance, also has suppressed something of her nature in order to steel herself against Kreonās power and arrogance. She will accept nothing less than giving Polyneikes his full burial rights and will welcome her own death, if thatās what it takes. But as she elaborates her view of the world, she reveals the life-suppressing extremity of her allegiances. The deaths of her parents and brothers have made her passionate to rejoin them in Hades. But when actually facing death, Antigone suddenly yearns for the marriage and childbearing she has denied herself. The number and decisiveness of his charactersā reversals suggest that Sophocles views human nature as often unsure or unaware of its own deepest desires. As the pressure of catastrophic events increases, sudden surges of desire reveal the major charactersā contradictions, their second thoughts, and their consequent desperation. The conflicted Guard, who debates whether itās safe or suici...
