Antigone by Sophocles Guided-­‐reading questions 1. How is Antigone’s fate foreshadowed during her opening scene with Ismene? How does this foreshadowing affect our view of her character? 2. How does Ismene respond to Antigone’s request for help? What does Ismene’s response say about her character? 3. How does Antigone react to Ismene’s reluctance to help her? 4. What major thematic subject does Sophocles introduce in the opening scene of his play? 5. What does Ismene’s line at the end of her scene with Antigone reveal about Ismene’s true feelings? 6. What expositional purpose does the “parados,” or entrance of the chorus, serve in the play? 7. Where does the chorus’s sympathy seem to lie at the beginning of the play? 8. What irony hangs over this opening choral ode? 9. What is Creon’s attitude toward the chorus during the scene in which he delivers his edict? 10. How does the scene in which Creon delivers his edict serve to introduce him as a tragic hero? 11. What ironies underlie the scene in which Creon makes his edict? 12. What is the character of the sentinel? What purpose does he serve in his first appearance before Creon? 13. What hints are given that Creon is starting to lose the trust of those around him? 14. What is the purpose of the choral ode following the scene of Creon’s edict? 15. Where do the chorus’s sympathies seem to lie in this ode? 16. How does the sentinel seem to feel about his arrest of Antigone? 17. To whom does the choral leader compare Antigone in her scene with Creon? 18. What role does Antigone’s womanhood play in Creon’s sentence? 19. How does Antigone respond to Ismene’s “confession” that she helped her sister? 20. How does Antigone explain her actions to Creon? 21. What does Antigone say about the true feelings of the chorus? Is she correct? 22. In its next ode, what does the chorus say about Antigone’s fate? 23. How does Haimon attempt to reason with his father? 24. How does Creon react to Haimon’s arguments? 25. In this first scene with Haimon, what feelings does Creon reveal about leadership and democracy? 26. What change do we see in the chorus during Creon’s scene with Haimon? 27. What event is foreshadowed at the end of the scene between Creon and Haimon? 28. What change does Creon make in his plan to kill both Ismene and Antigone? Does this change indicate a change in his character? 29. In the brief ode following Creon’s scene with Haimon, what view does the chorus express? 30. In Antigone’s final scene, what is the chorus’s reaction to her plight? 31. How does Creon continue to underrate Antigone’s courage and determination? 32. What unusual or seemingly uncharacteristic things does Antigone say in her final scene? 33. What is the purpose of the choral ode that follows Antigone’s final exit? 34. Compare Creon’s initial reception of Tiresias to the treatment he gives the prophet at the end of their scene together. 35. What is the significance of Tiresias’s prophecy against Creon? 36. What does Creon decide after Tiresias exits? 37. What is the subject and dramatic purpose of the final ode in the play? 38. What news does the messenger bring? 39. How is Eurydice’s death foreshadowed? 40. Whose body is brought onstage in the play’s final scene? What significance does this have? 41. What realization does Creon come to at the end of the play? How does this affect our view of him? Source: Perfection Learning