Jean Anouilhs' play Antigone - Analysis of Major Themes.

        Another very ascendant theme in the play is that of suicide.  Considering the number of characters, it is safe to say that suicide is rampant in this play.  For instance, Haemon commits suicide after learning of the hanging of his beloved fiancé, Antigone.  As stated by the messenger, “Haemon stared at the trembling old man, and without a word plunged the sword into his own belly.  Then he lay down beside Antigone, embracing her in a vast red pool of blood” (Anouilh 59).  This particular suicide comes about because of the loss of a loved one.  Haemon could not bear to live another day without his adored Antigone by his side.  Consequently, Haemon’s mother commits suicide after receiving news of his demise.  The chorus reports to Creon:

When Eurydice, the queen, … heard of her son’s death she was knitting for the poor, as usual.  She quietly finished her row and laid down her needles – calmly, as she did everything … perhaps even a little more calmly than usual.  Then she went into her room, her lavender-scented room with all the embroidered mats and plush frames – and she cut her throat. Now she lies on one of the old-fashioned twin beds… (Anouilh 59)

Seeing as Eurydice was unable to cope with the bereavement of her only child, Haemon, she decides that existence is not in reality worth living without him and slices her won throat.  Finally, to some extent, Antigone commits suicide as well.  She willingly went to secrete Polynice’s body knowing full well that she would be executed for it.  Although she states that she is dying for what she believes in, this act of defiance can also be interpreted as committing suicide.  When given the opportunity to continue to live by Creon, Antigone refuses the “happiness” that he offers and chooses to die instead.  From this, it sounds as though Antigone wanted to die and that she just was not stalwart enough to do it herself.  In modern society, Antigone’s actions would be referred to as suicide by cop.  In this situation, a person defies authority with the hope that the end result will be his or her destruction at the hands of someone else.  This is precisely the case with Antigone.  She flouted Creon’s decree and he enjoined his guards to exterminate her.  This subject symbolizes one of the collective ideas rendered in the play.

        Lastly, the most meaningful theme in the play Antigone is that of determinism and fate.  Fate is the supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.  It cannot be altered nor tampered with.  Unfortunately for those living in Greco-Roman civilizations, augurs usually told of negative events such as death, destruction and disease.  In Anouilh’s play Antigone, the chorus represents the prophesy telling the audience who will live and who shall die.  Through the prologue, the chorus is able to notify the audience as to who will die and what will happen in the near future.  For paradigm, the chorus tells us in the prologue that Antigone is doomed to expire.  It says:

        She’s thinking she’s going to die … though she is still young and like everyone would         have preferred to live.  But there’s nothing to be done.  Her name is Antigone, and she’s         going to have to play her part right through the end.  Ever since the play started she has         felt herself hurtling further and further away from her sister Ismene. … Further and         further away from all the rest of us, who are just here to watch, and haven’t go tot die in a         few hours’ time. (Anouilh 3)

This excerpt foreshadows to the audience that Antigone is destined to die and that no one can help her now.  Secondly, the chorus informs the audience that not will Antigone pass away but Haemon will also pass on.  “He didn’t know that never in this world would there be such a person as Antigone’s husband.  That all this princely title conferred on him was the right to die.” (Anouilh 4).  It can be determined from this that anyone who married Antigone would be bestowed with the “right to die”.  No matter who she had married, it can been portended that anyone who married her would die.  Furthermore, the chorus also reveals to the audience that Eurydice, mother of Haemon and queen of Thebes, will die.  “She’ll go on knitting right through the tragedy, until it’s her turn to die” (Anouilh 4).  It has been predetermined by the fates that Eurydice will also die in this tragedy and the chorus divulges this information to the audience before it occurs.  Through this theme we explore one of the most basic ideas of the play Antigone.

        In conclusion, themes are the essential and habitually universal ideas investigated in a literary opus and play an important role in Jean Anouilh’s Antigone.  Social status, suicide, and fate were the most important themes exemplified in this play.  Themes are a fundamental component of literary compositions and without them we would not understand a composition as well as one with themes. Imagine a literary masterpiece with no themes.  Where’s the substance  in that?