PROLOGUE
QUOTES HIGHLIGHTING
THEMES & ISSUES
Antigone:
I will lie with the one I love and loved by him – an outrage scared
to the gods!
Highlighting Antigones loyalty to family against loyalty to the gods
Ismene:
Then go if you must, but rest assured, wild and irrational as you
are my sister, you are truly dear, to the ones who love you.
Highlighting loyalty to family – even though Ismene does not agree with
Antigone she clearly states her love toward her sister.
Antigone:
My own flesh and blood.
Highlighting relationship between women and loyalty to family.
Antigone:
Do as you like, dishonour the laws the gods hold in honor.
Highlighting loyalty to the gods versus loyalty to the state – greek burial
Was held in such high importance at the time and not to bury a body
was thought to go against the will of the Gods.
Ismene:
I, for one, I’ll beg the dead to forgive me…I must obey the ones
who stand in power.
Highlighting Ismenes loyalty to the state versus loyalty to the gods.
Ismene:
When a law forbids the city.
Highlighting loyalty to the state.
Ismene:
Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men.
Highlighting the role of women – in the day women held in very low
Regard and were allowed nothing to do with burial, even their own
family.
Ismene:
Then too, we’re underlings, ruled by much stronger hands.
Highlighting role of women.
Antigone:
…he goes with glory down among the dead…He’s to be left
unwept, unburied, a lovely treasure for birds that scan the field
and feast to their heart’s content.
Highlighting importance of greek burial.