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Dramatic significance in antigone
The importance of ethics in decision making
Dramatic significance in antigone
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Ethics of Psychoanalysis - Lacan’s Antigone and the Ethics of Interpretation
My paper examines Lacan’s reading of the Antigone as an allegory of our own textual and ethical obligations as readers and critics. This paper addresses both the ethics and the aesthetics of our encounter with the text.
In 1959, Lacan presented Sophocles’ Antigone as a model of pure desire for his seminar on The Ethics of Psychoanalysis:
Antigone presents herself as autonomos, the pure and simple relationship of a human being to that which it miraculously finds itself carrying, that is the rupture of signification, that which grants a person the insuperable power of being—in spite of and against everything—what he [sic] is. . . . Antigone all but fulfills what can be called pure desire, the pure and simple desire of death as such [i.e., of that which is beyond the pleasure principle]. She incarnates this desire. (1986: 328-29)
Lacan notes that Antigone’s decision to defy Creon consciously seeks death. She makes no effort to defend Polynices’ actions (Lacan 1986: 290, 323-25). Her choice takes her beyond the realm of rational discourse and the collective norms of human satisfaction it implies (Lacan 1986: 78, 281; Zizek 1991: 25). Hers is a position that transcends the comfortable binary oppositions that structure our daily ethical and social lives. Because her choice of death cannot be understood according to strictly rational norms, she cannot be read as representing some simple antithesis of freedom to tyranny, or the individual to the state (Lacan 1986: 281; Zizek 1992: 77-78). In fact, as she acknowledges, she had chosen death before Creon’s decree against the burial of Polynices, and she defines herself to Ismene as one already belonging to the realm of the dead (ll. 559-60; Lacan 1986: 315, 326). Creon is not a tyrant who forces Antigone to make an impossible choice between life and freedom; rather, he embodies the civic norms that her pursuit of a desire beyond the bounds of those desires articulated within the realm of common life both requires as defining foil, and transcends. Her choice thus represents a pure ethical act shaped neither by a self-interested selection among communally recognized goods nor the self-loathing of conforming to a code that is recognized and despised (Zizek 1992: 77).
Such an ethical choice, as Lacan acknowledges, is Kantian in its devotion to a pure concept of duty, but psychoanalytic in its predication on a highly individualized desire whose content cannot be generalized into a universal ethical maxim (Lacan 1986: 68, 365-66).
This novel gives insight on the social issues that African Americans in the south underwent during this time period. This document is important in American history because it allows for historians to understand the two mentalities of black activist during this time period. It also conveys to historians how African American’s attempted to reach equality. Although W.E.B DuBois and Booker T Washington both has their differences in attaining equality, they both wanted African Americans to live better lives in this “new south” era, but had complete different
Antigone holds her love of family, and respect to the dead, elevated beyond the laws of Creon, whom she believes, has no righteous justification to close his eyes to the honor of the deceased. In her determination to fulfill Polynices' rights, she runs directly into Creon's attempts to re-establish order. This leads to encounters of severe conflict between the dissimilarities of the two, creating a situation whereby both Creon and Antigone expose their stubbornness and self will.
As the tragedy concludes, the chorus issues its final words: "Pray for no more at all. For what is destined for us, men mortal, there is no escape," demonstrating how justice remains impartial to the prejudice of men; those who make imprudent judgments will ultimately suffer from the consequences of their actions. In Sophocles' Antigone, these prejudices notably surface in the form of paternalism as demonstrated through Creon's government, highlighting the importance of gender roles throughout the play. Therefore, analyzing the motif of gender roles and its effect on the definition of justice through the perspectives of Ismene, Antigone, and Creon enables the audience to understand how Sophocles' macroscopic analogy to humanity's prejudiced judgments as well (and ambiguity of justice)
Antigone believes that a woman should be intrepid and strong, even at the risk of challenging men’s authority. When she proposes to bury Polynices, Ismene answers, “we’re not born to contend with men”. (75) Antigone’s response, “that death will be a glory” (86), does not directly address gender issues, but it expresses her fury at Ismene’s passivity. After the burial of Polynices, Antigone defiantly states, “I did it. I don’t deny a thing,” while being interrogated by Creon (492) and later comments that she was “not ashamed for a moment, not to honor my brother”. (572-3) Antigone’s gallant speech and defiance toward traditional gender identities audaciously shows her revolutionary desire for gender equality.
In 2004, “The Effect of Three- Strikes Legislation on Serious Crime in California” study showed the lack-lustering effect of the Three-Strikes Law. The study displayed that the Three- Strikes Law didn’t have a positive impact on reducing crime. Instead, the policy just increased the incarceration
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, (2018) many jurisdictions have a popular law called “three strikes and you’re out”. Where offenders receive harsher punishment or even life in prison on the conviction of a third felony. In 2003 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of this law in two separate cases.
The great W.E.B. DuBois (William Edward Burghardt DuBois) had an essential role that played with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). DuBois traveled around the world to educate African-Americans and tell them, use this knowledge to fight back. He accomplished more than what people could do in that time period; he was a historian, sociologist, author, and an editor. W.E.B. DuBois was a proud African-American who disliked discrimination; loved his education, loved his family, and the changes he made for the NAACP.
In addition, the number of guards compared to inmates are extremely low due to overcrowding. Since there are less guards within the prison, they have to take precautions to keep themselves as well as other inmates safe, which could lead to severe violence that results in the injury or death of either (Davidson, 2012). Since the mandatory minimum laws have become a large controversy, the number of incarcerations within the past decade have decreased, but yet, people incarcerated under these laws make up about 56% of federal inmates. In 2010, there were 108,022 prisoners incarcerated under the mandatory laws and in 2016 it decreased 14% to 92,870 prisoners (“Mandatory Minimum Sentences Decline, Sentencing Commission Says” 2017). But, the issues of imprisonment under the mandatory minimum laws have also created issues regarding the three-strike rule, which states that at any circumstance of getting in trouble, whether it be another drug conviction or littering, would resort back to incarceration specifically under these
Segal, Charles Paul. "Sophocles' Praise of Man and the Conflicts of the Antigone." In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Both Sophocles and Jean Anouilh use classical tragic figures in their respective interpretations of Antigone, who suffer from misery caused by their own actions. The characters’ tragic flaw leads to their downfall, thus causing their misfortune. Both Antigone and King Creon can be portrayed as the tragic heroes in the two plays. Evidently, Antigone’s tragic flaw of self-righteousness, and Creon’s stubborn pride cause many deaths throughout the play. Despite all of these similarities between Sophocles and Anouilh’s Antigone, the former adheres to the principles of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy much more stringently than Anouilh’s, who questions the principles of a Greek tragedy. In Sophocles’ and Anouilh’ interpretations of Antigone, the
..., is the faulted factor in the situation. As was explained before, Antigone states that her death “is of no importance” and that the important factor is the denial of a proper burial for Polyneices (“Antigone” 1035 Line 70). The rhetorical devices she uses in her argument improves its overall persuasive strength.
Antigone uses the concept of death in many ways when unfolding the tragic story of Antigone and her rebellion. The most obvious way is how death is used as a form of capital punishment and justice against state-dubbed criminals and wrongdoers. The play first exhibits this notion when Antigone states, “No passing humor, for the edict says who’er transgresses shall be stoned to death” (Sophocles, p. 3). The head of the state, Creon, uses death as a form of justice for the man or woman who is to disobey his law. Creon also emphasizes this by threatening a guard when he is notified that his edict has been violated. Creon states, “Go, quibble with thy reason. If thou fail’st to find these malefactors, thou shalt own the wages of ill-gotten gains is death” (Sophocles, p. 8). Death is once again used as a threat and form of justice for people sinning against the state laws. However, death is not only used as a form of state justice, it is also portrayed as a factor in personal justification and completion. The notion that people are not whole or justified until they die is emphasized by Antigone when she states, “A sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth, but by the dead commended; and with them I shall abide for ever” (Sophocles, p. 4). Antigone says that through death, human life is justified and made complete, and that death is essentially the final form of justice for any human l...
Antigone has a greater respect for those not living or supernatural than she does for man’s earthly rule. She recognizes that death is eternal, but life is temporary. This relates to parables and
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, also known as W.E.B. Du Bois, was born on February 23, 1968 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was born during a time when the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced to free American Negro slaves in the United States (Du Bois, 1968, p. 61). He was the only child of his mother, Mary Silvia Burghardt, a domestic servant. His father, Alfred Du Bois, was a barber and itinerant laborer of Haitian descent (Gates, 2011, p. 230). From the age 6 to 16, Du Bois attended public schools where most of his classmates were white. Although many blacks experienced unfairness during this period of time, Du Bois claimed to have “almost no experience of segregation or color discrimination” growing
Cloud computing facilitates sharing of computing and storage resources with the aim of reducing computing expenses in organizations. Moreover, cloud computing facilitates information sharing among individuals within a cloud. Despite being advantageous, data stored in a cloud is usually prone to hacking and other security issues. This paper addresses the various mitigation measures that organizations are using to ensure that data stored in the cloud is secure.