Literary Devices in Antigone
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Much of the symbolism in Antigone lies in the characters themselves. Antigone and Creon represent a number of opposing forces: male vs. female, family ties vs. civic duty, man vs. nature, and man's...
Setting
Antigone, like Oedipus the King, is set in that disaster-prone city-state known as Thebes. And what happens in Thebes does not stay in Thebes.Though most Greek playwrights were from Athens, th...
Genre
Antigone is one of the more famous tragedies ever to be written... and that's saying a lot. Sophocles' play has served as a model for countless other playwrights over the years. Interestingly, thou...
Tone
It’s important to know Sophocles didn’t make the whole Oedipus story up. The myths had been around, so Sophocles’s audience would have been familiar with the tragic ending before the play beg...
Writing Style
The writing style of Antigone kind of depends upon whose translation you’re reading. Since the play is, you know, super old, there have been many translations of Sophocles’s original Greek thro...
What’s Up With the Title?
Well, the title is rather self-explanatory: Antigone is the heroine of this play.
Plot Analysis
Antigone arrives in Thebes and finds that her brothers are dead, Polyneices’s dead body is unburied, and there is a royal edict against burying him.This is what’s up at the beginning of the boo...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Antigone returns to Thebes with the intention of helping her brothers avoid the prophecy of their death. Antigone is hopeful and dedicated to serving her brothers. She is focused and confident. An...
Three Act Plot Analysis
Antigone learns that her brothers are dead and that Polyneices is unburied. She asks Ismene to break the law with her and bury him. When Ismene refuses, she goes it alone. Antigone successfully bur...
Trivia
Sophocles wrote Antigone around 442 B.C. It was written before Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, but the events of Antigone take place after the events of those two books (Source).Antigone h...
Steaminess Rating
Although Antigone and her siblings are the product of an incestuous relationship (her father, Oedipus, accidentally married his mother), there is absolutely no sex in Antigone.But if this were a "M...