Whether we agree with this play's message, or follow it, it's theme lies in Antigone's triumph against mundane opposition. It definitely showed support for her conviction, and the reader should be able to accept or reject this view. Whether one gives one's life for a cause depends on how deeply our moral standards are imbedded in one's heart, and on our acknowledgment of the importance of a sacrifice.
How does the Ode on Man contribute to your understanding of important issues in the Antigone?
“The Ode on Man talks of the might of man and all his accomplishments. His evolution and dominance over nature are praised. Only death is the one thing man cannot overcome. And, for man to be glorious, he must remember to successfully integrate the laws of the land with the unwritten laws of the gods. In the “Antigone”, the important issues are man’s place in regard to the gods, the respect for the gods’ laws, and the finality of death which cannot be overcome.
The Ode on Man stands as a forewarning to the characters that they are about to cross a boundary that they can’t recross. The Ode places man in the spotlight and praises him as if he were more special than the gods. And, we see Creon take this stance. He even mocks the gods at one point. When the Ode talks of the integration of the two sets of laws, we think of both Antigone and Creon. Neither respect this important issue. Antigone respects only the gods’ law and Creon respects only his own. When the ode speaks of overcoming death as man’s only unaccomplished task, we think of Creon and Antigone’s punishment. Death is something that man cannot change, and Antigone and Creon both experience it. Antigone loses her brother and her life, while Creon loses his son and his wife. The ode foretells how the characters will learn about these important issues the hard way.”
“The Ode on Man spoken by the chorus in the Antigone discussed many issues. It showed the evolution of man, the dominance of man over nature, and the creation of civilization by man. It heavily praised man and showed that the only thing man had yet to conquer was death. It suggested that good leaders should “weave” together the laws of man and the justice of the gods. It also raised doubts about laws because of the conflicts they caused. This helped to understand Antigone because, first, it showed man’s dominance over everything and, hence, his arrogance and control. Second, it showed that laws made by men (like the law by Creon not to bury Polynices) were always going to cause conflict until the laws were made in agreement with the justice of the gods. This helps us to understand the conflict between the laws set by Creon and the laws upheld by the gods, and the downfall it was going to cause. The Ode on Man also suggests that there may never be harmony between the law of man and the law of the gods, so we should try to compromise.”
[COMMENTS: Both essays speak very precisely of the four basic parts of the Ode: the description of man’s dominance over nature, the outline of man’s evolution, the comment that death is the only thing man has not overcome, and the warning about harmonizing divine and human law. The first student does a good job of trying to link three points in the Ode with the action of the play by referring to Creon’s comments about the gods, both characters’ views of divine and human law, and the deaths that take place in the play. The second student focused on the warning about the conflict between human and divine law and its relevance to Creon’s actions. Many other approaches would have worked, but any approach needs to be grounded in an accurate recollection of the key points of the Ode. Some students spoke more effectively of how the imagery of dominance over nature was applied to Antigone; others talked about the warning about death had relevance to Creon’s ill-conceived attempt to make laws about the dead; others were more precise in describing and interpreting the dramatic context of the Ode, sung just before the captured Antigone is brought before Creon.]
Types of Drama / Plays: Comedy
"Komos" -- Greek -- revelry at end of comedies based on some deviation from normality in action, character, thought, or speech "in fun" (tho' can still have serious purpose)
Henri Bergson (1917) "On Laughter." -- "anesthesia of the heart" --audiences view objectively -- the banana peel fall is funny, as long as it is not us and if not hurt (cartoons).
Aristotle's book of comedy, if there was one ever, is not extant. In tragedy, people are better than they really are; in comedy, people are worse that they really are.
Often: if a happy ending, therefore a comedy. A kind of catharsis through laughter and amusement -- helps remind us of our frailties and helps keep us sane.
Wilson, p. 200 -- Characteristics of comedy -- a way of looking at the world in which basic values are asserted but natural laws suspended -- to underscore human follies and foolishness -- sometimes wry, rueful, hilarious.
- suspension of natural laws
- contrast between social order and individual
the idea or concept that turns the accepted notion of things upside down and makes it the basis of the play -- provides structural and thematic unity and can be a springboard for comic dialog, characters, and situations.
involves exaggeration and incongruity and contradictions--
Incongruity -- illogical, out of place surprise.
Comic techniques
verbal humor
puns
malapropisms-- or --misusing wrong words in such a way that they sound similar but usually are strikingly different from the word intended.
Characterizations
incongruity between the way characters see themselves or pretend to be, as opposed to the way they really are
lot complications -- especially in farce
coincidences --
mistaken identities -- Comedy of Errors, The School for Scandal
Shakespeare -- uses comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy and different kinds of comedies --difficult to categorize.
Kinds of Comedy: "High" and "Low"
1. Farce: often considered a separate form (Plautus, Charley's Aunt).
often considered to be "low comedy" (versus "high comedy").
physical comedy : "slapstick" -- physical action provokes the thought.
Very high incongruity (surprise, something out of place or unexpected).
Comedy of situation, but extreme incongruity -- buffoonery, accidents, mistaken identities, ludicrous situations.
[H., P., &L: "the average human being as an undeserving, universal victim of circumstance..."]
Often stylized: "aside" "take" `"mugging"
2. Burlesques-- lampooning other works of art, including theatre pieces.
3. Satire -- ridicule of public institutions and figures.
4. Domestic Comedy --home and hearth.
5. Comedy of Manners / Wit: similar to character and situation aristocratic and witty characters .
6. Comedy of Ideas
Additional forms not mentioned in Wilson:
a. Comedy of situation:
character and ideas are minor hidden identities, discoveries, reversals, etc. similar to farce, but less unrealistic
b. Comedy of character: eccentricities of the protagonist (Moliere)
c. Romantic comedy struggles of love, sympathetic characters, ludicrous devices lovers use (Sh. Midsummer, 12th Night)
Restoration Drama (School for Scandal)
Concept or thought is essential.
Shaw (prostitution, English class system), Aristophanes (Birds, Lysistrata)
Ladder of Comedy:
Lightness of touch --
elements of story can be serious, but most is funny, or humor plays a significant part
The Six Elements of a Tragedy / Play present in all plays, but some standard forms can be discerned.
Verisimilitude -- the "illusion of truth" -- the method of achieving it changes.
Form: the shape given to something so it may serve a useful purpose.
For our purposes: form / genre / types are intended to be categories that are not firm--there are endless sub-categories, and many plays will fit into a number of different categories simultaneously.
It can become dangerous to evaluate a play as one form, when it might not indeed fit that form.
Genre--(135) -- French for "category" or "type" -- sharing a particular point of view/ forming a group.
Genre criticism --can show how a play does or does not fit into a particularly category, but can also be useful as a way of examining the plays and discovering more about them -- as a learning tool.
Such categories as "dramedy," "tragic farce," etc. have been used to show the merging of "types."
Shakespeare's Polonius in Hamlet ridiculed categorical obsessions: "tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral." (Act II, scene ii).
Tragedy (136-142)
Characteristics of "Action" --
1. Origins of Tragedy:
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"tragos" + "oide" -- goat song usually involves a calamity (death, etc.), but attention is focused on what reactions are to that calamity by the characters and what those reactions can tell us about life.
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The "dithyramb" -- hymns sung and danced in honor of Dionysus (367, 193).
- Usually about the struggles of the "protagonist", moral issues, the effects of suffering.
- Struggle is ethical, spiritual -- protagonist's integrity is tested.
- Tragedy raises questions about the meaning of human existence, moral nature, and social / psychological relationships.
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Aristotle suggested a "certain magnitude."
- Evil often shown along with good, which does not always win.
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Some tragedies (Greek) like Oedipus, suggest that the protagonist has violated some moral order which must be vindicated and reestablished.
- Often seems inevitable and predetermined (we can look and decide for ourselves later).
Magnitude: characters have high stature -- ethically superior but sufficiently imperfect
modern tragedies -- more common characteristics (Willy LOMAN).
High seriousness: Tries to arouse (effect) proper purgation of pity and fear -- [some have asked if the purgation is to be in the audience or in the characters??]
"Catharsis" -- a purification -- the compassion accompanying shared grief -- a humanizing force--
we return to a state of equilibrium after release of tensions (366).
(141) -- Contradictory reactions -- pessimistic, yet not willing to surrender individuality.
a form of victory..
The Tragic Hero (protagonist) has a flaw in character or makes an error in judgment -- "tragic flaw" (140, 371) -- hamartia" -- literally "missing the mark" (368).
"hubris" -- a characteristic -- overweening pride or self-confidence (368).
Aristotle suggests that the best plays (Oedipus) have the hubris being too much of a good thing (what makes Oedipus strong is his self-confidence and pride)
Universality -- Universal human values -- When a play touches something that is human in all of us and has lasting value through
As defined in the Webster's Students Dictionary, imagery is a figurative term which reveals description by applying the five senses. William Shakespeare's usage of the imagery of animals, the imagery of blood, the imageries of clothing and weather, are frequently shown throughout the play. Through examples of imageries of animals, Shakespeare uses literary elements such as symbolism. Before Suncan's assassination, animals, such as the owl and the falcon, emerged from the night and acted unnatural, "even like the deeds that's done."
"It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the stern'st good-night." In Act 2, scene 2, Lady Macbeth waits anxiously for Macbeth to return from killing Duncan, the King of Scotland. The step that Macbeth is leaping over goes against the rules of nature, and when thsi happens, animals and weather erupt. The owl is a bellman because, according to superstition, the hoot of the owl portends death. He is fatal, perhaps because he death and horror. thus, when the owls screamed and the crickets cried, it symbolized evil and ominous doings.
In Act 2, scene 4, Ross and an old man exchange accounts of the disturbed night and the recent unnatural happenings. Hours seemed dreadful and things strange. The heavens and animals are troubled by man's presence on earth's stage, where he performs his bloody acts. The night has been unruly, houses and chimneys were being destroyed by fierceful winds, and everything was filled with "dire combustion." The indistinguishable bird of darkness, the owl, clamored the night. "A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl, whose normal prey is a mouse. The night has become more powerful than the day or else the day is hiding its face in shame. Also, Macbeth's horses, the choicest examples of their breed, turned feral, as they broke their stalls, and were said to have eaten each other. Horses do not each other. Bizarre events occured the night Duncan was murdered by Macbeth. These dreadful events took place at night, a symbolic reference to the evil doings of men. There is a sense of fear, wonderment, amazement, and mystery. An atmosphere of death is symbolized by the behavior of the animals of the night.
"The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements." In Act I, scene 5, Lady Macbeth has already planned the assassination. The raven, a symbol of death, announces the arrival of death for Macbeth with a voice hoarser than ususal. Duncan's entrance is fatal, he will die "under her battlements." The reader realizes the working of Lady Macbeth's mind and how she plans to kill Duncan. King Duncan will not leave the castle alive. the words "fatal entrance" contradict Duncan's lines as he enters the castle, "this castle hath a pleasant seat." The raven, a bird of demise, represents Duncan's doom.
William Shakespeare wisely applies the imagery of animals throughout the play. Many of the images relate to symbolism. Thus, the owl and the raven are animals of the night, and symbolize doom.
