Literary Analysis The rattling of tiny white pills produces a stark array of reactions, from the girl who whimpers, craning her neck away, to the man whose features visibly brighten. Medication for mental illness is a godsend for some, tiny molecules of chemicals being the only way they can face the world, and a personal hell for others -be it a false diagnosis, or the abuse of those pills. The mentally ill of modern times have a host of resources available to them, and many still must bear the burden of suffering in silence. In “primitive” societies, the mentally ill were often treated as subhuman savages, with prisons masquerading as hospitals. In Antigone and Station Eleven, Jean Anoulih and Emily Mandel show a stark contrast of how mental …show more content…
Secondly, Antigone provides a harrowing look of how the mentally ill are treated in her primitive society, starting with her first interactions with another person. In Antigone’s first interactions, she’s speaking with Nan, her nurse, after she’s been up, wandering in the garden. Nan harshly reprimands her, calling her a “naughty girl” and a “brazen hussy”. On the contrary, upon reading this passage, there are two warning flags of Antigone’s mental state: her sleeping habits and her location. Antigone is up at all hours of the night, wandering around the garden, which is clearly out of character for her from Nan’s reaction. If Antigone often strolled about the garden so late, Nan would expect her. Her erratic sleep habit points to a deep distress in her mental state, with one of the main symptoms of depression being oversleeping or avoiding sleep. Additionally, her behavior in the garden is a farewell to the place she holds dear-a clear warning sign of suicide. Had Antigone been a young girl exhibiting this behavior in modern society, the first reaction would most likely be comfort and concern-not flying to
In the beginning of the story, we can tell that Antigone starts off at stage five of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development; as stated in the last paragraph. Throughout the story, Antigone faces people who disagree with her decision. In the story, Antigone is caught by Creon’s workers. Antigone is confronted by Creon about breaking the law he created. Creon states “He would: for you honor a traitor as much as him”
Antigone is a powerful character, strong-willed, determined and at times self-righteous. She is contrasted by her sister Ismene, who is weak and powerless. Though Antigone is a powerful character, she has no real political power and is dominated by one man, Creon. Creon is both the ruler of the state as well as the patriarch of her family. Antigone was raised by Creon’s house after her own father went in to exile. Antigone is betrothed to Creon’s son, Haemon, further cementing Creon’s power over her. There is one aspect of life that Antigone does have legitimate power in and that is her family, especially her blood line. In ancient-Greek culture the women’s place was in the home, she was responsible for household things and often wasn’t even allowed to leave the house. It is because of this responsibility that Antigone needed to bury her brother Polynices even though it went against the decree of Creon. Antigone also had the gods on her side. It was an unwritten rule of ancient Greek society that the dead must be buried, otherwise bad things may happen. This rule, because it was unwritten and therefore innate, was protected by the gods, specifically Hades, the god of the underworld and family.
The character must decide whether or not to allow the employee’s cousin to work in their restaurant. The cousin must provide for his family through the cold winter or they will become homeless. The character also knows that the law requires him to check the citizenship of all employees and forbids him to hire anyone who is in the country illegally.
Ultimately, Antigone can be viewed as evil due to the fact that she went against King Creon’s rules by burying her brother without permission. For example, in the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone says, “Will you help these hands take up Polyneices’ corpse and bury it?” and Ismene responds, “What? You’re going to bury Polyneices, when that’s been made a crime for all in Thebes?” and Antigone replies, “Yes. I’ll do my duty to my brother— and yours as well…” (Lines 55-60). This shows that Antigone is going
The play Antigone by Sophocles is about reason and opinion and reveals how people use their voice to be heard. Antigone uses reasoning and opinions to express their moral beliefs and state laws in the play. People manipulate each other by using these terms to get their way by speaking out and standing up for themselves.
Although undenialably couragous, determined, and brave. She has an achilles heel that makes her arrogant. She is unwilling to back off her quest, in burying her beloved brother. No matter if she must work alone and alienate herself in order to do so. To ensure she buries her kin with honor. “I will not press you any more. I would not want you as a partner if you asked. Go to what you please. I go to bury him. How beautiful to die in such pursuit! To rest loved by him whom I have loved, sinner of a holy sin, With longer time to charm the dead than those who live, for I shall abide forever there. So go. And please your fantasy and call it wicked what the gods call good”(Antigone 194). /she goes as far as breaking the law, presenting herself as a uncompromising person, similar to that of King Creon. Sadly her achilles heel is not from her doing. Other characters have influenced her into rushed decisions. For example Creon’s cruel punishments and brutality causes Antigone to want to bury her brother. Ismene’s refusal to help bury their beloved brother makes Antigone more determined and persistent to bury him. Eventually leading to Antigone’s suicide. She had hung herself, when Haemon (her love) saw her he stabbed himself and lied next to her in her pool of blood. Then when Eurydice(Haemon’s mother) found out she cut her throat in her bedroom. Creon was now alone. The chorus notes that if it were not
The creation of a stressful psychological state of mind is prevalent in the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as well as, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Ophelia’s struggles in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and the self-inflicted sickness seen in William Blake’s “Mad Song”. All the characters, in these stories and poems, are subjected to external forces that plant the seed of irrationality into their minds; thus, creating an adverse intellectual reaction, that from an outsider’s point of view, could be misconstrued as being in an altered state due to the introduction of a drug, prescribed or otherwise, furthering the percep...
Although Antigone has a bad reputation with Creon, and possibly Ismene, for being insubordinate, she stays true to her values throughout the entire play by following the law of gods, not so that she could appease them, but because she admired its value of honor and respect to loved ones that have passed away. This devotion and determination to give her brother a proper burial shows the true essence of her being: that loyalty to family is in fact hold above all else.
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
Antigone was a selfless person with pride as a strong characteristic of her personality. She possibly had feelings of loneliness and anger from the way society has looked upon her family from their past. It took a strong willed person who has no fear of the repercussions to stand up to a king as she did. To make everything all the worst she stood up to a king who was her Uncle and she being a female back in those time, standing up and speaking out for herself was not heard of.
The human brain is a vast, unexplainable, and unpredictable organ. This is the way that many modern physicians view the mind. Imagine what physicians three hundred years ago understood about the way their patients thought. The treatment of the mentally ill in the eighteenth century was appalling. The understanding of mental illness was very small, but the animalistic treatment of patients was disgusting. William Hogarth depicts Bethlam, the largest mental illness hospital in Britain, in his 1733 painting The Madhouse1. The public’s view of mental illness was very poor and many people underestimated how mentally ill some patients were. The public and the doctors’ view on insanity was changing constantly, making it difficult to treat those who were hospitalized2. “Madhouses” became a dumping ground for people in society that could not be handled by the criminal justice system. People who refused to work, single mothers, and children who refused to follow orders were being sent to mental illness hospitals3. A lack of understanding was the main reason for the ineptness of the health system to deal with the mentally ill, but the treatment of the patients was cruel and inhumane. The British’s handling of mentally ill patients was in disarray.
Thebes was invaded by Oedipus’ son, Polynices, and his followers. As Oedipus predicted in the previous play, Polynices and his brother, Eteocles, killed each other during battle. Creon, the king of Thebes, ruled that Eteocles should have a proper burial with honors and Polynices, the invader, be left unburied to rot.
The Tragedy of Antigone is not called Creon because Antigone is more important than Creon, she is more controversial, and she is more admirable. Antigone played a bigger role than Creon in that she defied the law and started the whole play’s chain of events, eventually leading to nearly everyone’s death.
Antigone shows throughout the play that she is always thinking that she must do what is best for other’s and not just herself. She is willing to do what is needed to follow the law of the gods, even if it is breaking the state law.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Sushma Karki P English 1302 October 10, 2017 Antigone “Antigone” is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. The story is about a young woman who has a brother by breaking the king’s decree, and now she is punished for obeying God’s law. In the classic model of dramatic structure, two characters move the action of the play from introduction to climax to resolution with their conflict. One of these characters is the protagonist, and the other is the antagonist. The protagonist is a “good guy” and the antagonist is the “bad guy”.