A Study of Ancient Tragedy: Sophocles’ Antigone
This unit of study in
ancient tragedy is designed to engage students in the task of making mature,
responsible decisions. The word tragedy, as we use it today, is often
applied to horrible car accidents, murders, suicides, the death of a young
person, or a catastrophic, unfathomable “act of God.” We use the word tragedy
whenever some form of suffering offends our sense of justice in the extreme.
However, this quite ordinary use of the word does not correctly communicate the
meaning of tragedy at its beginnings. The word “tragedy,” in fact, is derived
from Greek, and means “goat song.” Tragedies were part of the festivals held in
early Greek society (starting around 535 BCE) in honour of Dionysus, the god of
wine and ecstasy (goats and satyrs, or half-man, half-goat beings were
associated with Dionysus). Tragedy, as a literary form, is the study of the
human soul in the process of making decisions.
Making good, mature,
responsible decisions is not easy. Students who read Sophocles’ Antigone
seriously will come to see that making good decisions can involve tremendous
suffering for justice -- what the Greeks referred to as dike. In the
play, the characters must look to find justice, and justice cannot simply be
equated with following the laws of the land; in fact, Antigone rejects the laws
of Creon as unjust, and Creon rejects the established laws concerning the
treatment of the dead as inadequate to deal with the serious problems of
treachery and political upheaval that almost destroyed his city. Both
characters must look beyond the law; they must dig deep down into themselves to
find an order of justice or dike that is higher than the laws as they
are. Only when an individual is forced to descend into the depths of his or her
soul to seek out what is the right thing to do is there real tragedy, in the
Greek sense of the word. Dionysus is the god of these descents into the soul,
and this is why the festivals were held in his honour by the Greeks. Sophocles’
Antigone is not a tragedy just because there are a lot of people who die
in it; it is a tragedy because it involves digging deep down into the soul to
find out what is right. People tell us what is right all the time: our friends,
our teachers, and our parents only to name a few; but tragic action
doesn’t occur when you just do what other people have told you is the right
thing to do, or when you simply obey the law because it dictates what is right;
nor are we engaged in tragic action when we calculate the “pluses” and the
“minuses” of an action – i.e.: “What’s in it for me? How can I come out best
from my choice?” Rather, action is entitled to be called “tragic” only if it
involves a Dionysian descent into the soul to look for what is right. Most
often, we’re forced into these sorts of situations, and that is why tragedy
involves great suffering. That’s what happens in Sophocles’ play.
Student Work
and Assessment:
Major: Students will work
independently or in groups of no more than 5 people to compose and perform
their own tragedy. This tragedy can involve any scenario (modern or otherwise),
but it cannot simply be the sort of modern “car accident”-style tragedy.
Rather, it must involve descent into the depths of the soul of one or more of
the characters in order to seek out what is right. As in ancient Greek
tragedies, students may want to choose a scenario where doing what the law says
falls short of justice, but breaking the law for justice also involves
suffering.
Major: Each student will
write a 5-paragraph critical essay on the question: “Who was right? Antigone or
Creon? Why?”
Minor: Time permitting, each
student will watch a film adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone and write a
short movie review. The following questions will be answered:
q Students
must discuss what they liked about the movie and why.
q Students
must discuss what they did not like about the movie and why.
q Students
must discuss whether or not the movie is "true" to the play as
written by Sophocles. Did anything get left out? Was anything added?
q Students
must grade the movie on a scale of one to ten (ten being the best).
Daily Minors: Students will be
assigned daily single-page (one side, double-spaced) reflective responses
to questions posed in class. These responses will be due at the end of class,
or by the beginning of the following class at the very latest.
Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension Unit Final:
All students will try their hand at the unit final for Antigone, since
practice at writing tests in the multiple choice format is important as
preparation for provincial examinations.