Understanding Tragedy

Background for Antigone

by Sophocles

Tragedy

• A play depicting serious and important events in which the main character(s) suffer great loss or often death.

Tragedy Continued

• The nature of a tragedy is such that we, the audience, have grown to care about the character who suffers this loss.

Tragic Hero:

• The main character in a tragedy.

• The tragic hero/heroine has seven characteristics.

7 Characteristics of a Tragic Hero:

• #1. A tragic hero is a great character with admirable qualities who holds a position of power or opportunity.

Characteristic #2

• Actions involve the well-being of others in his/her society

Characteristic #3

• He/She works hard to achieve a goal that’s very dear to her.

Characteristic #4

• The tragic hero’s actions involve choices.

Characteristic #5

• Tragedy is brought about by an error in judgment

Characteristic #6

• This error in judgment sets off a chain of circumstances he/she cannot foresee or stop.

Characteristic #7

• When it is too late, he/she realizes what has happened and dies bitter and desperate.

Tragic Flaw:

A fundamental character weakness that is partially responsible for the hero’s demise.

C a t h a r s i s

• A sense of emotional release experienced from watching a tragedy

F o i l

• A character used to contrast another character. Writers use a foil to emphasize the difference between characters.

Extended metaphor

• comparison between 2 unlike things without using like or as. Several lines long.

Example:

•“Our Ship of State, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last, guided . . .” ~Creon, Scene I.

V e r s e

• Poetry. Free Verse is poetry that doesn’t have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. In Antigone, the Odes between scenes are written in verse.

P r o s e

• Prose is the language of the common people. Most of the characters speak in prose language.

M o t i v a t i o n

• Something that causes a character to do something or act in a certain way

Verbal irony

•A contrast between what is said and what is meant. An example can be sarcasm.

Dramatic Irony

occurs when the audience knows something important that a character does not know

Situational Irony

what actually happens is the opposite of what was expected to happen

Greek and Roman Influences on Literature

A. The way we look at literature, art, drama, philosophy, architecture, and government has to a great extent come down to us from the Golden Age of Greece (500-338 B.C.)

B. Romans borrowed the Greek Gods and adapted them to their own, more family-centered and patriotic religion

C. Romans admired Greek learning and put it to more practical use than the Greeks

Greek and RomanInfluences on Literature

D. The Romans spread the Greek culture to the countries they conquered

E. Created stable governments where knowledge could be preserved and passed on

F. By A.D. 117, the Roman Empire included all of continental Europe west of the Rhine and Danube Rivers, Britain, Asia Minor, and North Africa.

 

Carvings of Masks

Myths

A. Earliest form of literature & they originated with religious rituals

B. Their purpose was to “explain” mysterious ways of gods, humans, and nature

Ex. Persephone’s death and revival explains the seasonal cycles

Myths, Continued

C.      Myths enlighten us by telling us about our fears, desires, and what we are capable of as human beings

 D.     Our main source of Greek

myths came from the poet Homer and the Roman myths mainly came from the poet Ovid

Fundamental Themes of Old Myths

A. The idea that a true hero must be willing to sacrifice personal desires and even his family’s well-being in order to save his country

B. The idea that the causes of war may not justify the enormous suffering that it produces

C. The idea that individual conscience and divine law are superior to the dictates of civil law

Fundamental Themesof Old Myths, Cont.

D.     The idea that anger, stubbornness, and pride can lead to tragedy

 E.      The idea that youth is rash and

deaf to all warnings to be moderate F.      The idea that in attempting to be

“more” than human, human beings can bring disaster upon themselves.

Sophocles(496?-406 B.C.)

A. Greatest of Ancient Greek Playwrights

B. Known for his dramatic, poetic, & musical talents

C. Was a general, political leader, & priest

Sophocles, Cont.

D. Was a choragos, chorus leader, in a dramatic celebration of Greece’s victory over Persia

E. At the age of 28, he beat Aeschylus in a playwriting competition

F. Won a total of 24 - 1st place prizes & 7- 2nd place prizes out of a total of 31 competitions-Best record out of any Greek playwright

Sophocles, Cont.

G. Wrote 120 tragedies-only 7 survive todayH. Plays always contain a moral lessonI. Was a technical innovator: added a third

character to Aeschlyus’s original two, introduced painted sets, and expanded the size of the chorus to 15

Admired for hisOedipus Trilogy

A. Written over a 40 year period

B. Began with the last & third part of the trilogy, Antigone

C. Twelve years later he wrote the first part of series, Oedipus the King

D. During the last year of his life, he wrote the middle segment, Oedipus at Colonus

The Sphinx

Pictorial Record

Conflicts and Themes in Antigone

• Although various conflicts arise, the main conflict is btw. the requirements of human/state law (civil law) & divine law (religious law).

Theme #1 – Strong links btw. wisdom (reason), piety & humility.“There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;No wisdom but in submission to the gods.Big words are always punished,And proud men in old age learn to be wise.” (792, l.139-142.)

Conflicts and Themes in Antigone

• Theme #2- Folly of pride“Think all men make mistakes, But a good man yields when heKnows his course is wrong, And repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” (783 l.33-35)

Conflicts and Themes in Antigone

•Theme #3-Supremacy of moral laws

“The laws of gods are mighty, and man

must serve them,To the last day of his life!” (786, l.108-109)