How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
Through the interactive orals presented today, the group was informed on Sophocles life and career and
the later versions/ adaptations of Antigone. Although the group was only presented with two
presentations, I feel my contextual and cultural understanding of Sophocles Antigone was improved.
The first interactive oral presentation we were given was about the life and career of Sophocles. This
presentation gave me a small insight into the author of Antigone, although I feel this did not develop my
contextual and cultural understanding of the novel that much. Apart from being informed about
suspected conditions Sophocles grew up in, I don’t feel this aided me. I feel this way as at the end of the
presentation the group was informed that Sophocles never wrote a biography or documented his life
anyway, this suggested to me and the group that the information given here could have been hear-say
and thus made me want to disregard it as having any inspiration towards Sophocles writing of the novel
Antigone.
The story of Antigone is about two women with opposing views, one, Ismene, of which conformed with
the general rules for how a woman should act during this time and the other, Antigone, that went
completely against how women should act in a male, royal dominated world.
After hearing the interactive orals, I feel that I am better able to understand some of the cultural and
contextual aspects of Sophocles’ Antigone in the way in which the women are depicted. Although I feel
that if i had heard the other two interactive oral presentations on Sophocles and his novel Antigone I
would be more able to interoperate the meanings behind the novel and what inspired Sophocles to
write his novels.
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
Reflections on IOs -Antigone
In today’s IOs, I learned a great number of pieces of information that I was not aware of before. A few of
the things that I was aware of was the Greek myths and legends connected to Antigone and that women
rights in ancient Greek times were far below that of men. However before today’s IOs I couldn’t connect
my knowledge of ancient Greece to the play Antigone.
After the IOs I was able to piece together that Antigone’s behavior in the play Antigone is quite
significant as it shows her rebel like attitude going against the general rule of that time where the
women were submissive and followed orders. A perfect example of this is the character of Ismene who
represents the normal, lower view of a woman during those times. As Antigone was supposedly the
‘protagonist’ of the play it made me wonder whether Sophocles who wrote the play was encouraging or
even starting the idea of revolution and equal rights between the men and the women.
I learnt that Sophocles’ reason (that people who wrote about him claimed) for writing was political as is
the same as many who have used the tale, which has shown that it is not interpreted as a feminist tale
but a form of resistance. Much later Jean Anouilh rewrote the play with the same intent in mind to spark
the idea of revolution and to portray the French Resistance’s struggle against Vichy France.
I know that in ancient Greece, there were many gods, (12 major and hundreds of minor and demi-gods)
who were often portrayed as cruel or uncaring due to the fact that they were higher beings. I was not
aware however of the fact that some people took it a step further and portrayed the gods as being
stupid. This is relevant since in the Antigone, the gods are portrayed as uncaring of tragedy that befalls
Oedipus and his family for any good reason.
Through today’s IOs although I didn’t learn much new information I was able to see how the knowledge
that I possessed of Ancient Greece connected with the text.
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
Antigone, Reflective Statements
Interactive Oral
Through today’s interactive orals, the topics discussed were centered around Sophocles. Sophocles
Antigone was written in 442 BC, although the actual story was based in 1200 BC. Antigone is a great
example of how Greece was run during this time, how women are perceived as lesser human beings and
also about the royal family of this time. While Antigone and Ismene are the main characters of this play,
they each represent different aspects of a woman. Antigone depicts what a woman shouldn’t have been
during this time, while Ismene depicts how a woman should have acted during this time period (dutiful,
faithful to the royal family and refusing to express her true beliefs). Some elements of the culture of the
era are evident throughout the play, mainly Ismenes’ role in the plot line. Ismene believed that although
it was her brother, what the royals decided, based on “gods” decisions, should happen. She followed
suit of the majority believing that one of her brother did not deserve a true burial. The importance of
the burial ceremony was made clear to me through the Interactive Orals, where i was informed that the
rites given at a true burial service during this time were essential to ensure happiness in the afterlife.
Although some later depictions of Antigone were created, they all followed the same suite, one sister in
favor of what the royals/government said and one sister in favor of what she believes is the correct
thing to do.
Because Sophocles never wrote a biography and most of the information we have about him is based on
stories passed on, it’s difficult to find where Sophocles got his inspirations for Antigone, other than the
dilemmas that were going on during his life time (or what we think we may know about it).
I don’t feel today’s interactive orals helped me gain much understanding on the cultural and contextual
relations to Antigone as I don’t feel there was enough information found or told to the group, although
learning that Sophocles wrote about life before he was even born did help me to understand some of
what I appeared to misunderstand.
Question: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work
developed through the interactive oral?
Antigone’s interactive oral presentations taught me a lot about the history of the time of Sophocles.
Such that the time of his life around the 400 BCs, was when Athens was in great development and also
called the ‘Golden Age’.
I found it fascinating how Antigone had been re-created into modern versions. This includes Jean
Anouilh’s version of Antigone with the same name made in 1943. This adaptation was based on Creon
being the Vichy government, and Antigone being the French Resistance. I also found out about Athol
Fugard’s play called ‘The Island’, which is about two prisoners acting out the play of Antigone. I found
this idea very interesting, and I would like to watch this play in the future.
I had only heard of a few of Sophocles’ plays before this oral presentation session. However, I
understand that he actually wrote 123 plays, whilst only 7 of them survived. I find this quite tragic, as
most of his other plays have become very famous. If all 123 plays had survived, I think Sophocles would
have become an even more famous play-writer. I found out about the three great poets of that time,
who were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Sophocles and Aeschylus were said to be the ones who
were quite traditional and respectful of the culture and Greek Gods. Where Euripides was less
traditional and believed that the Gods were spoilt and didn’t deserve that much recognition.
I learnt that in the time of Sophocles, Athens was a male dominated state. Royal family members passed
on their power from father to son, daughters were not respected as much. It is effective for the female –
Antigone to disobey the rules of the government, which makes her an even greater hero. Whereas her
sister, Ismene, is a character who fits the general image of women at the time, being weak and
incapable. This shows the difference between the ‘normal’ woman and a heroine.
In conclusion, I believe I learn a lot about Sophocles himself and the history of Athens at his time. All of
this information has helped me further interpret the background knowledge to Antigone. It has also
made me understand how Antigone was seen as such a great hero of the time.
Q: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
The interactive oral about Antigone by Sophocles acknowledged me of the significance of characters in
Antigone, and what effect the play had on other plays afterwards.
Antigone takes place in 1200 B.C Thebes, and this describes the courage of Antigone to bury his
defamed brother Polynieces’ body and tragedy of Creon who didn’t listen to others and caused death of
his family members. The fact that Antigone doesn’t have right to become the ruler tells the viewers that
men and women are not equal, and the passivity of the Ismene and other citizens explains that citizens,
in particular women didn’t have right to express opinions at those times. However, the courageous
action of Antigone is quit atypical which presents the other side of women. I’ve also realized that
banning of Polynices’ burial had strong impact since burial was very important at the time of Sophocles.
Antigone was recreated and adapted to various plays such as that of Anouilh and Fugard afterwards.
The poet Sophocles was born in 497/496 BC and died in 406/405 BC. He was born in Attica and wrote
123 plays among 7 of which have survived, including Antigone. He was born in wealthy family, was
general in the Athenian campaign, and lead choral chant to God. He lived during the Golden age of
Athens and was born in wealthy family, which caused him to focus on tragedy of royal family since he
didn’t experience hardships of poor.
The tragedies such as Antigone started with Thespis and were then made by Aeschylus, Sophocles and
Euripides. Some like Sophocles were more devout to God, but others like Euripedes’ play reflects the
spoiled behavior of God. Also, it was amazing how the addition of 3rdactor began with Sophocles, and
before his play there were only main actor, secondary actor and chorus in the play.
In conclusion, I’ve understood the implications of scenes in Antigone such as the banning of burial in
cultural context, and learnt characteristic of the play such as multiple actors and courage of Antigone
which I took for granted, but was very novel at Sophocles’ time.
Q- How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
Through the interactive orals today, I learned more about Greek mythology and Antigone. From the
various presentations and discussions, it was quite obvious that nothing much was known about
Sophocles and his work Antigone. All I learnt was that as a writer, Sophocles wrote about 123 plays, and
all of them have been lost except for 7, and Antigone is one of these 7 plays still existing. Antigone is one
of the greatest plays written by Sophocles and truly is a testament of his great writing.
While discussing Antigone today, I realized that Ismene and Antigone in the play represented women of
society at that time. I learnt that women at that time did not have much say, and it was a male
dominated society. Ismene and Antigone represented two opposite kinds of women- the kind that
submitted to authority, and the kind who stood up for her own rights. I never thought that the play
represented two different kinds of people, and only saw these two contrasting characters as different
moral standings with two contrasting kinds of ulterior motive. Also, I learnt that burial was a big
important issue at that time, and thus the issue of not burying Polynices probably had a very great
impact out of the people reading it at that time. Sophocles used ‘current day’ issues and expressed his
ideas through concepts that could be understood by his audience.
Antigone is a very well known play and has been adapted by some writers in later years for different
intents and purposes. Antigone was adapted by Jean Anouilh in 1943, and was used to represent his
political stand against the Vichy Government, represented by Creon, who was portrayed negatively, but
was humble and forgiving. Antigone represented the French Resistance against the Nazi’s, and also
represented Anouilh’s support of them. Antigone was recreated by different people in a variety of
different ways with various intent and meaning. It was especially popular during the Vietnam War,
where people were expressing their views against the government.
I think that my understanding of ‘Antigone’ has grown a little through this interactive orals. I am now
able to look at the issues raised within the book with greater clarity. Though not much information can
be learnt about Sophocles himself as a writer and his thoughts, learning about life at that time has shed
some light on ‘Antigone’ as a whole.
Question: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work
developed through the interactive oral?
Antigone is a play written by Sophocles around 442 BC but the story actually takes place in Thebes
around 1200 BC, before Sophocles was born. This play clearly showed how Greek states were run by
dictators and it was a patriarchal society and women were not of great importance. The two main
female characters in the play is Ismene and Antigone. They show the two polar opposites of women:
one weak-minded and submissive, while the other is strong and independent, respectively. Many
elements in the story show the culture at the time because when Polynices was not buried and was left
outside after his death to sow his public shame. Proper burial was an important ritual at the time that
guaranteed a safe passage to afterlife. In other depictions of Antigone, characters’ personalities were
slightly changed for example, Creon is much more forgiving and political figures and their actions were
described in a certain way. Some argue that a newer version gained prominence for its political
interpretation and not for its literal ability.
Because Sophocles lived so long ago and has never written an autobiography, it is difficult to say exactly
what he was like and specific details about him. We are only able to trust the honesty and accuracy of
others. Sophocles was said to have a fairly peaceful life with very few hardships and difficulties. This may
have an impact on his writing as it shows that he doesn’t write much about the peasants and mainly of
royalty and the upper class.
Overall, this book holds many mysteries for me because there are many cultural meanings to Greek
culture that holds many of the important details that I have yet to uncover. When reading this book, I
see the polar opposites in Antigone and Ismene and even though I admire Antigone and her courage and
hope I would have the courage to do the same in the same situation, I also understand Ismene’s
hesitance. Since, I have never been in that kind of a situation, I cannot say what I would have done, but
if I grew up in that culture and background, it would be nearly impossible for any woman to act in the
way Antigone did.
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
In today’s IOs, I learned that, in the Ancient times, role of a Greek woman was not as equal to the man’s
as I’d imagined. I assumed that women did have equal rights in ancient Greece as today, just as some
things, such as homosexuality were prominent and socially accepted then, but were attacked by
societies dominated by Christian cultures, and come back.
I have now learned that on the contrary, the women did not have much say in political affairs and that
Antigone’s behavior in the play Antigone is actually quite significant because she did stand up against
authority, whereas Ismene is supposed to represent the normal, lower view of a woman and that
Antigone is bold and exceptional standing up for her belief. I also did not know that similar things had
happened in ancient times and that Sophocles had just changed the names.
I know that in ancient times, there were many gods, enough for some to be evil and some to be killed,
which does not happen in monotheism. I knew that polytheists would worship the gods they chose and
as many as they chose, going across cultures. I did not know that this extended further to where the
gods were sometimes portrayed as being stupid and downright cruel. This is relevant since in the
Theban Plays, the gods are not portrayed as dealing misfortune to Oedipus and his family for any good
reason.
Sophocles’ reason for writing (political) is the same as many who have used the tale, which has shown
that it is not (thank god) interpreted as a feminist tale. Jean Anouilh rewrote the play to portray the
French Resistance’s struggle against Vichy France (the southern part which sympathized with the Nazis).
I learned that Sophocles was renowned both before death and posthumously, but I didn’t learn much
about how his life was relevant to his works as he never wrote an autobiography and the only
information we have is from what others have written of him. I did learn that he was a general in the
Athenian campaign against Samos in 441BC, so understood how war politics worked, so perhaps this is
factored into his works.
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed
through the interactive oral?
In our interactive orals today we discussed the cultural and contextual consideration of Sophocles’ play
“Antigone”. In our discussion we covered the life and career of Sophocles, later versions of Antigone
and the development of Greek tragedy.
From our discussion it was easy to see that not much was known about Sophocles – or at least not much
that was certain. However, it was apparent that he had achieved a lot in his life time and that he had
lived in Athens, Greece when it was at the height of its power. During this time Athens was full of great
philosophers, politicians and, of course, playwrights – of which Sophocles was arguably the greatest.
Sophocles was said to have written 123 plays but all have been lost but 7. Of the seven we have, all or
most are great plays. They are a testament to Sophocles play writing prowess and the likelihood that he
had produced many other great’s plays.
In our discussion about the development of Greek theatre we had many names thrown at us – those of
great playwrights that had been influential. One that stood out to me was that of Thespis. He was the
innovator behind the addition of multiple actors to the role as chorus – where it had previously been
only one person. In Antigone we can see that Sophocles took a similar approach as he also uses multiple
people in his Chorus – people that represent members of the community.
We also learned that Antigone was a play that was popularly adapted or presented again. Jean Anouilh
adapted the play and put it on in Nazi occupied France in 1943. It was seen as a sign of resistance with
Creon representing the Vichy government and Antigone representing the French Resistance. This use of
‘Antigone’ was a recurring theme as its popularity grew again in America during the Vietnam War.
I think the most useful part of this IO was the discussion about ‘Antigone’ being used as a play of
protest. For me this really drew attention to the theme of protest and resistance in the play itself, while
at the same time making me more aware of the contextual considerations of the play.
Overall the IOs helped me to increase my knowledge on the historical context of the text, which in turn
helped me understand the book better as I could see why certain events happened in the book.