This is about neither of the two options, but instead about a separate point altogether. Essentially, the rather frequent and strong reliance on death/dying in the play. I’ve recently suffered such a tragedy very close to me and I read the play with a new perspective. I want others to think about how serious death is… Death of a stranger, a friend, or a family member, especially of a family member, it is a reason that your life may change a little or a lot. The death may be expected or not, the unexpected being worse I believe. My point is that death is a very serious thing, and should be given thought as something more than a bad/good guy getting shot/stabbed, blah blah blah… Death is what happens to the people closest to you and yourself. Children often bury their parents, and sometimes parents bury their children. Picture hearing the news that a grandmother has died, surely it will be much more devastating than when skimming over the death of Antigone, Eurydice and Haemon. Sophacles creates pure carnage, as if death is such a meaningless thing at the conclusion. I detest that notion, there is no emphasis on feelings there, and I picture the play — in a 3 minute sequence, people just stabbing themselves left and right… This does not give the viewer/reader to develop the correct feelings towards the characters he has gotten to know so well. Sure, the story is fiction, but it does not eliminate the fact that people have died by suicide in similar and much, much worse circumstances.
Sorry for the style of writing, I wanted to publish this ASAP and hence did not have a chance to edit it thoroughly.
Miro
Dear Miro,
I can definitely relate to you when you talk about the loss of a close family member, a friend, and and/or a stranger. I am also experiencing these incidents first hand, so what you are saying truly speaks to me.
I think death in real life and death in a story, a play, or any other form of writings and entertainment are totally different from one another. One one hand, we go through the five stages of grief, and on another hand, we analyze the character’s five stages of grief. We look at death through a less critical lense when we read about it–death becomes more of an entertaining tool to improve the climax of the story. Death ceases to impact us, especially in Greek mythology, because it is totally expected.
I am not sure if we apply the emotions, which we ourselves experience when a close person to us passes away, to the literature that we read. I am not sure if we can attach ourselves enough to the characters to start seeing their motives the way they do.
I wonder if we have read/seen too many deaths on the news or on TV that we fail to relate anymore to the characters in Antigone.
I disagree with your opinion that death is loosely thrown around by Sophocles. Antigone is a short play in comparison to what we’re used to: movies, television programs that go on for months, maybe years. Even plays today are often 2 or 3 hours long, while Antigone seems as if it could be done in an hour.
The point of a tragedy is death, the function of death is to prove a point, to depict an idea, way of thinking or a personality flaw that is dangerous to yourself and others around you. Death is necessary to prove a point but when you’re not working within the realm of technology and the restrictions of time, death is the most effective way to symbolize the dangers and lessons learned from plays. To discredit Sophocles because too many people died would be to discredit all of Shakespeare’s tragedies because too many people died.
As you stated, death is much more serious than most people give it conscious credit for; however subconsciously we understand the gravity of death and lessons are more easily embedded in our heads due to it.
I’m sorry for your lose and I agree with your view of the play. But do you think that death would be mourned as vividly as it is presently, in Ancient Greece? Even today, death often goes unrecognized.
The sophocles`s drama is truly filled with blood. It is a tragedy because the motive of death is present. I believe you were trying to show that there is too much of a violance in that play and not a lot of feelings. I think there are feelings shown. Feelings of hatred, jelousy, pride, selfishness.
The play however, was written about times where people used knives and swords a lot. They punished each other using those tools. A fight with swords could happen over almost any subject of conversation. If people would act like that today, there would be lots of killings and it would be done quicker given the fact that technology is advanced and we have guns now. It seems like it was meaningless to kill each other so often. We have different laws though. Imagine a long time ago two men fighting over a right to a woman. Both of them risking their lives. For us a silly thing to participate in such thing. Pointless. We live in a modern society. We know that nowdays woman have different rights, and in case when two men like a woman at the same time, it is up to a woman which men she wants to be with. If a man is forcing a woman to be with him againts her will it is a crime. In Antigone woman don`t have the rights to have their own opinion. They simply exist.
This play gives us a picture of a society that I would never want to live in. We are shocked by a tragedy like Antigone because we think from a different perspective. It is hard to imagine that I wouldn`t be able to bury my brother even if he would fight against the country I live in. It is hard to believe that I would be married to my cousin. There is almost no death penalty either. You are right, death is really serious for us and reading a play like this can make us nauseated. Sophocles, in my opinion, tried to portray the society he was familiar with.
There is no hero in Antigone, because no one really is pure in their heart. Everyone shows his/her ego by being selfish. My question would be who loved who for real? Antigone knew that by burying her brother she risked her life. How come she did not care that if she would die she would leave Ismene and her fiance alone? Did she care what will happen to them? Did Creon love his own son truly when he decided to kill Heamon`s love- Anitigone? Seems like all of the characters wanted to be honored and fought honorably, but all I see is a masacre as a result of it. Therefore it is a true tragedy, about people who loved only certain people, had no respect for humanity and ended up dead and miserable.