In Antigone ‘s civilization, the community at big unrecorded and abide by social-cultural norms. Antigone defies King Creon ‘s edict and buries her brother, Polynices by stealing. In making so, Antigone has challenged civilization ‘s conformist values and faces her fate in the custodies of King Creon. This is an analysis of the transitions in pages 13 to 15 of Antigone ‘s conversations with the Nurse with regard to the context of the socio-cultural conformance of the times. In it Antigone prefigures her decease in a linguistic communication that the Nurse did non understand.
The transition began with Antigone who had merely returned from her visit out-of-doorss in the center of the dark and was encountered by the Nurse severely. The first line of the drama is accusative and gimmicks Antigone away guard. ‘Where have you been? ‘ ( Line 1, P.13 ) , the Nurse questioned Antigone. By answering ‘Nowhere ‘ ( Line 2, P.13 ) Antigone ‘s response was slightly close in nature. Antigone spoke of ‘aˆ¦The whole universe was gray when I went out aˆ¦ . ‘ ( Line 2-3, P.13 ) . Her mention to “ gray ” acknowledges her destiny of impending decease. She contemplates her individualism of being, ‘aˆ¦ like a post card aˆ¦pink, green and xanthous. ‘ ( Line 4-5, P.13 ) . When Antigone says, ‘The garden was lovely aˆ¦how lovely a garden is when non yet believing of work forces ‘ ( Line 10, 11-12, P.13 ) she implied that personality and character is non shaped by the outlooks of the civilization. As she continued to disregard the Nurse ‘s inquirings, she persisted by mentioning to ‘The Fieldss were wet. The whole universe was dyspneic, waitingaˆ¦I ca n’t state you what a howling noise I seemed to do entirely on the route ‘ ( Line 15-18, P.13 ) . Antigone indicates that she feels she can do alteration happen. Her remark that she makes a ‘roaring ‘ noise, even though she is ‘alone ‘ metaphorically represents the impact she wants to do on the universe. Antigone is seen, by being out entirely in the forenoon. The audience understands that she is non conforming and is exerting free-will. She understands that she is going this route as a individual defiant individual.
In Antigone ‘s civilization, individualism is the exclusion instead than the norm. Antigone defends her act of rebellion in the name of filial, spiritual, or even moral unity, as she feels challenged by social outlooks of the subordination of adult females to work forces. When she says, ‘aˆ¦Have you of all time thought how lovely a garden when it is non yet believing of work forces ‘ ( Line 11 -12, P.13 ) Antigone implied that garden meant herself and how she could be free of the subordination of the regulations and ordinances of civilization which are chiefly controlled by regulations of work forces.
Although the Nurse sounded important, she did non surmise that Antigone has done anything unconventional as she retorted, ‘A lover? ‘ ( Line 29, P.14 ) , ‘aˆ¦You ‘re all alike all of youaˆ¦dandle to do the male childs ogle you and you ogle back. ‘ ( Line 2-6, P.15 ) , the nurse interpreted Antigone ‘s words literally and does non cognize that Antigone had sealed her destiny by withstanding the regulations of the King. To the Nurse, it would do more sense for Antigone to act like ordinary misss as she guessed, ‘You went out to run into person, did n’t you? Deny it if you can. ‘ ( Line 26-27, P.14 ) .
Antigone ‘s rebelliousness to her civilization ‘s outlooks and her willingness to believe in what she believed, can be described as an exercising in hubris. Antigone ‘s hubris is evidenced when she said, ‘It bothered me that whatever was waiting, was n’t waiting for me ‘ ( Line 18-19, P.13 ) which explained that although she has been contending with Creon, she is non vexed by the punishment of arising the male monarch ‘s regulation.
Antigone has shown the spirit of love and fright. When Antigone answers in the affirmatory to her Nurse, it is an effort to conceal her true feelings to the Nurse she loves, as she answered, ‘Yes I went out to run into person ‘ ( Line 25, P.14 ) , and ‘Yes Nurse ‘ ( Line 27, P.14 ) , ‘That ‘s how it is. Yes, Nurse ‘ ( Line 18, P.15 ) . It is rather unlike her character to be submissive, but by reacting in straightforward sentences, ‘Yes I went out to run into person. ‘ ( Line 25, P14 ) , ‘That ‘s how it is. Yes, Nurse. ‘ ( Line 18, P.15 ) , it revealed Antigone ‘s love for the Nurse and her desire to conform in order to delight the nurse. When she said, ‘it was beautiful. The whole universe was gray aˆ¦ ” ( Line 2-3, P.13 ) , the audience supposes that a civilization which has non been impacted by adult male, is a perfect one. “ I took off my sandals and slipped into the field ” ( Line 19, P.13 – Line 1, P.14 ) and “ aˆ¦ the dawn as, all pink, and green and xanthous. You ‘ll hold to acquire up earlier, Nurse, if you want to see a universe without colour. ” Antigone shows that a universe that is gray is better and merely people who are different to the remainder of the civilization can of all time see the universe this manner. If you want to see the universe different, you need to be different.
Antigone has already committed the offense but the manner the conversation is carried out between her and the nurse hides her workss and keeps this disclosure in suspense. The linguistic communication used by Antigone holds a dual entendre when analyzed both from the Nurse ‘s and Antigone ‘s positions. Antigone ‘s decease is prefigured in her first words while the Nurse took her words merely. Antigone strolled nowhere in a ‘grey universe ‘ ( P.13 ) , the universe is ‘breathless ‘ awaits with outlook. This doubles the phase that Antigone ‘s calamity will be certain. At the same clip, Antigone radius of the she ‘roaring entirely on the route ‘ ( P.13 ) . Antigone ‘s usage of these footings implied impending decease.
Antigone has admitted to the Nurse that she has gone out to try to go person ‘s lover, in this instance, Haemon. In an act of moving like her sister, Antigone attempts to participates in pleasances that are non meant for her. However, it is non for nil that Antigone lies to hold taken a lover after holding an illicit visit to her brother ‘s cadaver. Antigone ‘s unnatural love for her brother stands out as portion of her outstanding character. Antigone refuses to give up this desires, which she will follow to the point of decease.
Anouilh ‘s Antigone is written as a analogue to his narrative of lone rebellion, inspired by an act of opposition during Paris ‘s business by the Nazis. The drama foremost proceeds with the prologue and epilogue to border the calamity. In the prologue, the Chorus straight addresses the audience of the plot line of the calamity and introduces the characters within the drama and their functions. The Chorus reference the character ‘s functions as such their destiny was to decease. In the epilogue the Chorus so delivers an epitaph, denoting that those fated to decease hold died and will be forgotten and that a “ melancholic moving ridge of peace ” has now fallen upon Thebes.
In the concluding analysis of the cardinal transitions in pages 13 -15, it can be evinced that the society ‘s socio-cultural norms overrules the person ‘s desire for freewill and freedom. Antigone understands her destiny on the one manus, but does small to halt it. In her concluding missive to Haemon, Antigone reveals her fright and uncertainness, but she does non cognize what she is deceasing for even as she knows she must decease. This confession recalls Antigone ‘s battle with Creon, which forced Antigone to understand that she dies for no merely cause and in no 1 ‘s name except hers and possibly Oedipus ‘s. It is arguable that if the life knew these last frights, of which they could hold been her most human 1s ; they would judge her harmonizing to the footings of common work forces, thereby robbing her of her glorification. Possibly Anouilh enjoins the audience here to defy making the same. Anouilh would pull out the political and moral from Antigone ‘s decease, doing its aimlessness indispensable to the tragic. Antigone dies because she must: her desire requires it. This futility once more complicates the familiar reading of Antigone as an fable for the Resistance.
( Word Count: 1426 )
