Antigone
please help answer these questions!!!
What royal decree does Antigone reveal to Ismene in the opening scene?
Why has Creon decided to handle the funeral arrangements for each brother so differently?
What penalty has Creon proclaimed as punishment for anyone who defies his commands?
What happened to Antigone’s two brothers? How did they die?
How does Antigone plan to break the law? (i.e., what law is she going to break?)
Why does Antigone think that the dead, not the living, make the longest demands?
Why does Ismene refuse to help Antigone?
What background information do we get in the first Chorus or Parodos?
In the first episode, Creon is speaking to the chorus. How has he become King of Thebes? What obligations does he say a leader has when he sees danger to his people?
Characterize the way the sentry talks when he first appears to bring Creon the news about the body. What do his ramblings suggest about his emotional state?
How did this particular sentry get stuck with the job of delivering this news to Creon? Why do you suppose the sentries chose to make the selection this way? What does this suggest about Creon's characteristics? What does that in turn suggest about how a director might cast this part?
What does Creon think must have happened to cause the sentries to neglect their duty and let the body be buried?
Who does the sentry drag in as the culprit before Creon's throne? Why does he bring her so willingly this time? And yet, why does he pity her?
Describe some of the burial act that Antigone went through to bury her brother.
What does Antigone say is more important than Creon’s laws?
Why is Ismene arrested after they have the culprit? What does Creon think the two girls have been up to? What do his suspicions reveal about Creon's motivations?
Why does Antigone refuse to let Ismene be executed with her?
What is Haemon's relationship to Antigone?
What is the general public's reaction to Antigone’s arrest?
How does Haemon respond to his father's argument that he is "king and responsible only to myself"?
Note the line where Haemon says, "Then if she dies, she does not die alone." What is he actually talking about or predicting? What does Creon mistakenly think Haemon's talking about or predicting?
Ode III contains a hymn sung to a deity. What deity does the chorus sing to?
When Antigone is locked away in the vault, she speaks of the deity Persephone. Who is Persephone and why is she an appropriate mythological allusion for this situation?
In Ode IV, the Chorus sings about Danae. Who was Danae and why is she an appropriate mythological allusion?
What horrible omens does Teiresias point to in scene 5 that indicate the gods are upset?
What motivates Teiresias's prophecies, according to Creon's cynical view?
What does Antigone do in her cell at the end of the play? How does she manage to do this when she has no rope?
What does Haemon do when he discovers what Antigone did?
How does Eurydice kill herself when she finds out about Haimon's actions?
When Creon finds out about his wife's death, what does he ask for from the choragos and the messenger? Do either the choragos or the messenger grant him his request?
