Discussion Topic
Antigone's Alignment with Aristotle's Tragedy Principles
Summary:
Sophocles' Antigone aligns with many of Aristotle's principles of tragedy from his Poetics, though not perfectly. The play features noble characters, a serious and complete plot, and evokes emotions of pity and fear, fulfilling the catharsis essential to tragedy. It adheres to the classical unities by focusing on a single, significant action without subplots. The play's protagonists, Antigone and Creon, embody tragic heroes through their noble status and tragic flaws, particularly Creon's stubbornness. However, debates exist over who the true tragic hero is, as both undergo significant suffering.
According to Aristotle, is Antigone considered a fine tragedy?
Antigone possesses many, but not all, of the elements of the ideal Greek tragedy as described by Aristotle.
In literary genre, it is clearly a tragedy. It has a Chorus and three actors. It is written in the appropriate meter and alternates between episodes and choral odes. It operates by means of mimesis, or imitation of action. Its earliest section explain the premise or dramatic situation, it has a central conflict, and it moves inexorably to an unhappy climax.
The main characters are noble, members of a royal family, and the action of the tragedy has "a certain magnitude", affecting the course not just of the lives of the individuals, but of the future of Thebes.
The reason why Aristotle, one suspects, uses Oedipus rather than Antigone, as his paradigm for tragedy is the problem of the tragic hero. In Antigone, one can consider Creon
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Creon the hero and Antigone the antagonist or Antigone the hero and Creon the antagonist. Literary scholars have argued both sides of the issue. In both cases, we have noble characters whose stubbornness and pride leads to their downfalls.
This is a good question. It is best to start with a quotation from Aristotle's Poetics, in which he define what a tragedy is. He writes:
“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody.”
Based on this definition, Sophocles' Antigone is a great tragedy. For example, the tragedy, Antigone takes an action that is serious - life and death. It is also of a certain magnitude; royalty is in view. It also arouses fear and pity to create a katharsis. What can be more fearful than a young woman who goes against the ruler of Thebes knowing that she might die. She is finally sentenced to death and awaits death. In the end Creon, the ruler of Thebes has a change of heart, but it is too late. She hangs herself.
Explain how the play Antigone adheres to Aristotle's classical unities, referencing the Poetics.
The plot of the play focuses on one subject only: Creon's command not to not bury Polyneices, and Antigone's defiance of that command because he is her brother and the gods demand burial of the dead. There are no subplots. All other characters only serve to enhance the theme and conflict above. Ismene is afraid. Creon's son, Haemon supports his fiance, Antigone. There is no "action" in the play, it all only a series of conversations, and those conversations are thought-provoking, argumentative, and emotional. The audience can see Creon's point about Polyneices seeming to be a traitor, but still knows that Creon is ultimately wrong because a human should never try to defy the gods. Antigone's strength and determination are very admirable, and her threat of suicide is made real. It is added drama that Haemon also commits suicide and that Creon only realizes the error of his thinking in a moment just minutes too short to save the young people from doing themselves in. All of that end of the play is very gripping and emotional, thus providing what Aristotle would have call the catharsis.
Aristotle's classical unities for drama are pretty simple. Basically the action within a play should stay within a limited physical space, should have unity of action (i.e. few subplots, tangents, and deviations from the tragic form), and should occur within a limited amount of time. In Poetics, he gives the most attention to unity of action, and Antigone sticks to the plotline pretty rigorously. Aristotle's unities are essentially guidelines for elegance, and few plays are as elegant as Antigone.
How does Antigone exemplify Aristotle's classical definition of tragedy?
In his Poetics, Aristotle discusses what he sees as the most important characteristics of a tragedy. Before looking at Antigone in comparison, Aristotle’s basic definition should be looked at.
Aristotle makes two key points about the nature of a tragedy. The first is that a tragedy relies primarily on action, as opposed to its characters.
The second, perhaps more familiar, is that tragedy plays on negative, heavy emotions such as pity and fear.
Aristotle states, “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude” (23). Aristotle continues this thought later on by saying, “Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists of action” (27). In this way, Aristotle makes his case that in a well-written tragedy, the actions driving the story arc are more important than the characters involved. Aristotle goes so far as to say that “without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character” (27).
His second point on tragedy explains the need for emotional appeal, with “events terrible and pitiful” (39) and “actions which excite pity and fear” (45).
So, how does this relate to Antigone?
Aristotle’s definition of tragedy as driven by action rather than characters fits fairly well with Antigone. The play has a cause-and-effect chain of events that starts before the play itself and continues to the end of Antigone.
The main events of Antigone are the betrayal and death of Polyneices, Creon’s harsh law against his proper burial, and Antigone’s subsequent rebellion against Creon’s law. Antigone is then condemned to death, per Creon’s law. There are a number of other key plot points that are put in motion following Antigone’s actions.
However, it is not just the play’s events that can relate to Aristotle’s action-driven tragedy. I would look closely over the dialogue sections featuring Antigone, Ismene, and/or Creon. Take a look at how their speeches are based on their actions and the actions of other characters.
One example could be Ismene’s role. She first reveals her law-abiding, obedient character as she rejects Antigone’s plan to provide their brother a burial and is later rejected by Antigone for her refusal to act alongside her.
In terms of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy focusing on emotions such as pity and fear, you might look at foreshadowing (think Haimon, Teiresias) for fear and at the many deaths that close the play for pity.
If you’re looking to take your analysis a step further, you might read Aristotle’s discussion of the six parts of tragedy, which include plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song.
References
In Sophocles' Antigone, who are the characters and their roles?
Sophocles' Antigone is very different from traditional plays or
tragedies. Not only does the play have two characters that function as
protagonists, they also both function as the tragic hero ("Antigone--Whose
Tragedy Is It?"). Since formatting limits us in how many characters we can
discuss, below is a discussion of both of these tragic heroes.
As the play's title suggests, one of the protagonists of the
story is Antigone, and she is also one of the tragic
heroes. According to Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero found in
his Poetics, a tragic hero must be of high social status and his/her
downfall must be brought on by some fatal character flaw. Antigone fits this
picture because as daughter of the late King Oedipus, she is a princess; also,
her tragic character flaws are her headstrong nature and her stubbornness.
Antigone sets the tragic outcome of the play in motion by rebelling against
Creon's new decree that her brother Polynices shall be left unburied as a
traitor to the city. Antigone decides to secretly bury her brother regardless
because she feels she ought to honor her brother and because she feels that the
gods' laws to pay respect to the dead are far higher than Creon's laws.
The second protagonist and tragic hero is
Creon. In fact, some would argue that he really is the main
tragic hero; although others would argue that he functions as more of an
antagonist until the very end of the play. The antagonist is
the character that the protagonist struggles against. Since Antigone struggles
against Creon's law, and Creon even causes trouble for his son Haemon, we can
easily view Creon as the play's antagonist. However, others view Creon as the
true tragic hero in the play, and the reason is that, according to Aristotle's
definition, a tragic hero must have a moment of development, a moment of
revelation (McGee, "Creon: A Tragic Hero"). While Antigone is lead to the tomb
believing that she is being mocked by the citizens for foolishly being
headstrong enough to break a law, she never has a moment in which she decides
that what she has done is right or wrong. Instead, it is Creon who
undergoes a moment of revelation. After Tiresias prophecies doom,
including not only the destruction of the city, but the death of Creon's own
son, Creon finally relents and changes his mind. Contrary to his initial
characterization, he even asks the chorus, "What should I do? Tell me, and I
will obey," whereas before he accepted no one's counsel but his own. Since
Creon finally relents and sees that he should not have passed a decree that
broke a commandment of the gods, we see that Creon is really the character that
has the moment of revelation. Not only that, since his revelation comes too
late and what he has done already brings death and destruction, we can say that
Creon is a tragic hero.
How well does Antigone fulfill Aristotle's requirements for a tragedy?
Let us remind ourselves of what Aristotle said. He argues that a tragedy should be a tightly unified construction based on a single action and featuring a single protagonist, or hero. Aristotle argued that this hero should be a man or woman who is on the whole good, but whose downfall is brought about by some frailty or tragic flaw. Mostly, this flaw is based on arrogance. The tragedy consists of the hero going through reversals of fortune until he recognises the truth that has been hidden from him. In the process the hero experiences profound suffering.
Examining the plot of this excellent play reveals many similarities. It is indeed a tightly unified construction, and the tragic hero is obviously, in spite of the title, Creon. It is his stubborness that is his tragic flaw, as he seeks to secure his power by a show of strength forcing all rebels to be left unburied. It is Antigone's refusal to do this for her brother that leads to his stubborness in stating that she must be buried alive to starve to death and then leads to the death of his son and wife. It is only at the end of the play that he realises how stupid he has been and he is left a raving old man, having to cope with his isolation and what he has done. He realises his tragic flaw has resulted in this situation.