Sophocles' Antigone, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Jean Anouilh's Antigone and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
The representative population of a community is not comfortable when confronted by an individual who defies the laws that bind them. Whether or not the laws or the powers behind them are just, the populace must deal with any challenge to their authority. In some cases, the community, fearful of a powerful regime, will side with that power and avoid the risks associated with rebellion. Others find the tyranny too unjust to stand idly by and, risking their lives, join with other defiant individuals against it.
The group of characters named as Chorus in both Sophocles' Antigone and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound
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Anouilh does not alter the fundamental structure of Sophocles play. Rather, he makes the familiar Antigone into a tool for subtly encouraging his intended audience in Vichy France to not stand passively as a chorus "who sit or stand here, looking at [Antigone], not in the least upset ourselves- for we are not doomed to die tonight" (3). The story is presented by Chorus as immutable and this point is brought up over and over until it is apparent that the only way to change the ending is for the community to stand fast with, in the case of the French, those who would rebel against the occupation and fight the seemingly insurmountable …show more content…
His opening lines remove himself from the action and place him somewhere between the audience and the characters: "Well, here we are. These people are about to act out for you the story of Antigone" (3). By grouping the audience with himself, however, he co-opts them into his position as a witnessing community member who allows the defiant Antigone to play her part:
...she is going to die. Antigone is young. She would much rather live than die. But there is no help for it. When your name is Antigone, there is only one part you can play; and she will have to play hers until the end. (3)
Knowing that her youthful rebellion will result in her death, they can only join Chorus in watching the affair. As members of the community, they must inevitably share some guilt for her
In a History of the Worlds in Six Glasses, Tom Standage describes beer as one of the oldest beverage. According to Standage the discovery of beer was around 10,000 BCE, it was made from grain that grew in the region called Fertile that could be stored and made wet or soaked to turn into beer (p 15). Beer was shared with several people and goes on to become a social drink. Standage goes on to explain about another beverage made with wild grapes vines produced between 9000 and 4000 BCE in northern Iran (p 47). Wine became a symbol of social differentiation and a form of conspicuous consumption. In this essay I will describe how Tom Stranger’s text discusses the relationship between beer and wine with their social behaviors and their different beliefs in religion Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome have.
The Greek Chorus is very similar to America's news channels because it brings the people the news in a way that they can understand it. The play Antigone by Sophocles is a tragic drama structured around the argument between a king and two sisters about the burial of their brother. Antigone can be compared to the conflict surrounding granting illegal immigrants amnesty. The Chorus is a group of people who provide background information, interpret the information, and relate it to human nature. The Chorus in Antigone tells the pros and cons of both sides of the story and adds important information needed to fully understand the conflict. The Greek Chorus serves the same functions as American news channels in the twenty-first century.
Othello, takes place in Venice during an attack of the island of Cyprus . The
The chorus being a part of the audience allowed for the audience to have a more direct link between what was occurring in the play. However, the chorus itself added a comedic and introspective aspect into the play. For example, the chorus seemed to be one of the few characters that were aware of the situation that the characters were in and the fate of each one. An example of the comedic effect that the chorus adds is when he questions Antigone about whether she remembers doing the entire play with a door strapped on her back because her father wanted her to. This comedic effect seems to lighten the mood during an intense monologue that Antigone is about to give, which addresses the ignorance of Kreon. Also, the wedding between Antigone and Haimon is another high point of the play as all the characters, including Kreon and Eurydike, are in a moment of contempt during the marriage. The low points of the play include Kreon’s realization of his actions and the suicide of Antigone. Both Kreon’s realization and Antigone’s suicide creates a cathartic moment in the audience, as those watching give pity to Kreon and Antigone for dealing with a less than ideal situation. The scene that surprised me the most is the random musical number that was added intermittently in the play. For example, the dancing scene surprised me as due to the randomness in the scene. I would not expect a dance
In Sophocles' most famous Theban play consisting of two parts, "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone", both parts are necessary in understanding some of the things that happened around them, and what type of man had raised Antigone. She is the main character in the play of “Antigone”.
Throughout history, society has engaged in taking substances such as alcohol, that alter our physical being or our psychological state of mind. There are many experiences and pressures that force people to feel like they have to drink in order to cope with life, but for many alcohol is a part of everyday life, just like any other beverage. Alcohol is introduced to us in many ways, through our family, television, movies, and friends’. These “sociocultural variants are at least as important as physiological and psychological variants when we are trying to understand the interrelations of alcohol and human behavior”#. How we perceive drinking and continue drinking can be determined by the drinking habits we see, either by who we drink with, or the attitudes about drinking we learn over the years. The chances of people drinking in ways that can harm others and ultimately themselves can be seen by the correlation of educational lessons, cultural beliefs and the usage of alcohol. Looking at all the possibilities, the complex question we must ask is why do people drink? Is it through their defiance of law, the accessibility of alcohol, teachings of others or the values set in place in their society?
In the 1600's and 1700's, the American colonists drank large quantities of beer, rum, wine, and hard cider. These alcoholic beverages were often safer to drink than impure water or unpasteurized milk and also less expensive than coffee or tea. By the 1820's, people in the United States were drinking, on the average, the equivalent of 7 gallons of pure alcohol per person each year (“drinkingprohibition” 1). As early as the seventeenth century, America was showing interest towards prohibition. Some people, including physicians and ministers, became concerned about the extent of alcohol use (“There was one...” 1). They believed that drinking alcohol damaged people's health and moral behavior, and promoted poverty. People concerned about alcohol use u...
Robinson, David. From Drinking to Alcoholism: A Social Commentary. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1976.
Most people point to wars, Presidents or the economy when asked to describe the history of the United States, but what about alcohol. Social history in general has always taken a back seat to political and economic history, mostly because many aspects of social history are not exactly bright spots from the past. Alcohol, for example, is actually a much bigger aspect of our history than one may expect. As a matter of fact, early America was centered around drinking as a kind of social event. William Rorabaugh’s book Alcoholic Republic outlines how prevalent drinking really was during the years after the Revolutionary War. Rorabaugh argues that post-colonial Americans should be considered alcoholics. However, the evidence Rorabaugh uses
Youngerman, Barry. The Truth about Alcohol. Ed. Mark J. Kittleson. New York: Facts on File, 2005. Print.
In the Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the play is not the title role. Instead King Creon, the newly appointed and tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just seen the suicide of his son. However, despite this pitiable fate for the character, his actions and behavior earlier in the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity at his torment. The way the martyr Antigone went against the King and the city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or without ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact that this passionate and pious young woman was condemned to living imprisonment.
In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, it is greatly apparent just within the first few exchanges between Ismene and Antigone that there are various social issues surrounding the women in ancient Greece. The play raises many gender and socially related issues especially when looking at the contextual background of the playwright and the representation of the women within the play. When the characters of the first scene begin their analog, it is important to note what they are actually saying about each other and what their knowledge of their own social status is. The audience is first introduced to Antigone who we later learn is the antagonist of the play as she rebels against the protagonist, Creon. Her sister, Ismene, is the second character the audience is introduced to, hears of Antigone's plan to bury their brother's body in the first scene. Ismene’s actions and words give the reader the hint that her sister’s behavior is not usual, "so fiery" and "so desperate" are the words used to describe Antigone's frame of mind. At this very early point in the play the reader discovers that Antigone is determined to carry out her mission to bury her beloved brother. However, she is in no position that gives her the rights as a woman, sister, or even future queen to make her own decisions and rebel. Instead, her decision to bury her brother demonstrates her loyalty to her family, the gods, and to all women. Her motivation for those decisions will end up driving her far more than that of what the laws set by Creon have implemented. She shows no fear over disobeying the king and later says about the punishment of death "I will lie with the one I love and loved by him"(Sophocles, 2). Throughout the play the reader can see the viewpoint of an obedient woman, a rebellious woman, and the social norms required for both of them.
Antigone’s two purposes for giving this speech are centered on her two main audiences, Creon and the citizens of Thebes. In reference to Creon, Antigone’s purpose is to convey that even after being caught, she does not fear his power, or her punishment. She desires to show him that she stands by the justness of her actions and the injustice of her conviction. To display this, she refers to her death as unimportant because it is the direct result of what she thinks to be just actions.... ...
In answering this question, I will look at the question in two ways. Firstly, I will look at the role of the chorus objectively, examining the basic role of the chorus in the play, and looking at the role of the Chorus as Sophocles would have intended the role of the Chorus to be understood. However, I will then look at how I think the Greek audience would have perceived the role of the Chorus and then how the role of the Chorus is perceived today by a 20th century and examine the key differences in the two different sets of perceptions. Finally, I will look at the importance of the role of the Chorus to a 20th century audience and a Greek audience respectively.
In the list of characters at the beginning of the play, the Chorus is stated to be a chorus of Corinthian Women. This draws the first link between them and Medea. The Chorus follows Medea on her journey through this play. They act as narrators on important occurrences in the play; however, they also act as a device Euripedes uses to influence the opinion of the audience. He does this by presenting to the audience a moral voice in the Chorus. The audience can relate to them, because the Chorus is in a neutral position in the play. They are definitely an integral part of the play, but their role is not so much to influence the actual plot of the play, but more to echo what has happened in the plot and the thoughts of the protagonists, and to suggest moral solutions the audience. The Chorus uses language which almost makes it seem that they are speaking from the perspective of the audience, and in doing this they are guiding the audience responses to what Euripedes wants it to be: