Honors 10 English 2012 by Sophocles:
A Response to Literature Composition
Sophocles’s tragedy is rife with dilemma, injustice, civil disobedience, and other pertinent topics which move the audience to sympathize with its characters.
Parameters : Compose and prove a thesis by way of Antigone in no fewer than five well-organized paragraphs.
Incorporate a minimum of four quotations, one simile, one metaphor, and one use of personification (these devices will be highlighted). Adhere to MLA format and submit your work punctually. A works cited page must be attached.
Prompts
1. A tragic story describes a character and his or her fall from greatness; a tragic hero is a character who is inherently good, but because of a serious mistake, loses everything.
Antigone sometimes seems to have two tragic heroes: two characters make decisions that lead to a tragic conclusion. Use Aristotle’s definition of the Tragic Hero (according to his text Poetics) to explain which character is the true tragic hero: Creon or Antigone.
2. Is Creon a tragic figure? Do you feel sympathy for him at the end as someone who initially tried to do good yet was overwhelmed by circumstance, or do you believe that he is a bullying control-freak who gets what he deserves? Should the play have been called Creon instead?
3. A corrupt throne haunts Oedipus and continues with Creon’s reign of Thebes. Discuss the similarities between the two kings; include their difficulty in managing their children and their realm. Does history repeat itself in that they are the same character? Incorporate quotations from both Hamilton’s Mythology text and
Antigone to prove your thesis.
4. Both Persephone and Antigone are imprisoned—or buried alive—for their respective crimes. Explore and find similarities and contrasts in their lives. Incorporate quotations from both Hamilton’s Mythology text and
Antigone to prove your thesis.
5. Thoreau writes, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison,” and “if the injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine (to the government’s unjust laws).” Discuss whether Antigone is right to disobey Creon and his unjust government that condemns the burial of Polyneices or whether Antigone is wrong to break the laws because
Creon is simply a patriot.
6. Explore an historical or contemporary example of civil disobedience. Relate this example to the play and
Antigone’s actions. Note similarities between the two examples. Was political change established? Was the objective met? Use evidence from the play to establish your argument.
Draft 1: ___________________ Draft 2:____________________ Final: _____________________