Literary Analysis Guide to Antigone
Summarize what happens in each of the following segments of Antigone.
1. The Prologue –
2. The Parados –
3. First Episode (Scene) –
4. First Stasimon –
Episode/Scene I
1. Characterize the Sentry. Use specific words/lines from the play (and cite) to illustrate his
character.
2. What has happened to Polyneices’ body? Use specific lines from the play to answer this.
3. Who does the Choragos suggest may have done this? Use specific lines to support.
4. What is Creon’s reaction? What does he think really happened? Use specific lines to
support this.
5. Why is Creon annoyed by the Sentry? Why is this significant?
Episode/Scene II
1. Summarize the plot development in the second episode.
2. What, specifically, is the developing role of the choragos?
3. Why does the sentry return? What is Sophocles saying about human nature through his
(the sentry’s) return?
4. Describe Antigone’s attitude and temperament. Creon’s. Ismene’s.
5. Outline the major points of debate between Antigone and Creon as the conflict develops.
Antigone
Creon
6. What is Creon’s opinion of Antigone and Ismene at the end of the scene? Why does he
feel this way?
7. What complication is incorporated into the plot with the introduction of the character,
Haimon? How might this add to the conflict?
8. Why can’t Creon yield?
9. Summarize the message of the chorus in the Second Stasimon/Ode.
Episode/Scene III
1. Why does Haimon at first tell his father, “I am your son, father, You are my guide”?
2. Why does Haimon then argue that Antigone be spared?
3. On what does Haimon base his plea?
4. What is Creon’s reaction?
5. What is Haimon’s threat?
6. What is Creon’s final decision on Antigone and Ismene?
7. What does episode III reveal about Creon? What does this have to do with the Greek
concept of tragedy?
8. What is the Greek concept of tragedy?
9. What is the theme of the third stasimon?
Episode/ Scene IV
1. How does Antigone’s appearance move the chorus? Why? How has she changed?
2. What emotion does Sophocles evoke in this scene? Why?
3. Why is Antigone a tragic figure?
4. How has Antigone’s attitude changed?
5. In the fourth stasimon, the chorus sings an ode about other well-known figures of the past
who were also forced to endure cruel punishments. What Greek concepts are signified
here?
Summary
1. The plot of Antigone is not a complex one. Outline the basics of the plot thus far. What
later plays may have been influenced by Antigone?
2. We know that the Greek theater goers knew the plots of many of the plays before they
saw them and that their interest in the plays depended on the effectiveness of the authors’
interpretations of the roles of the characters. What are some of the interpretive elements
in Sophocles’ play?
Episode/Scene V
1. Identify Tiresias. What is his prophecy?
2. What is Creon’s reaction?
3. What Tiresias’ advice to Creon?
4. At this point, what is Creon’s inner conflict? How does he resolve it? What does this
indicate?
5. What is the advice of the elders?
6. What has Creon finally realized? What is tragic about this?
Stasimon (Paean) – A hymn of thanksgiving.
1. Whose praises does the chorus sing? Why?
Exodos
1. What news is brought by the messenger? Outline what he tells Eurydice?
2. What is Eurydice’s reaction?
3. Creon returns. Outline his remorse, guilt, and his admissions of failure.
Writing Assignment
In Antigone, Sophocles examines the age-old conflict between the requirements of
human and divine law. This universal problem is crystallized in the dispute about the burial of
Polynieces, in which Creon’s understanding of the public welfare is opposed to Antigone’s
conception of her religious duty.
The central character of the play is Creon, a distinctly tragic figure who acts from sincere,
patriotic, and selfless motives, but who is too inflexible and narrow in outlook to heed criticism
or admit error until it is too late. Creon ultimately admits his mistakes, but it is too late to
changethe consequences of them.
Although she has a smaller role, Antigone is a more complex character. Some would say
that she is guilty of having too much pride and thus martyred herself in a masochistic way; others
feel that she is truly a noble woman who is unwilling to compromise the truth as she sees it and
thus suffers the supreme punishment.
In either case, it is evident that Antigone is driven by her instincts and emotions, while
Creon acts on the basis of principle and a reasoned analysis of the situation.
The positions of Antigone and Creon are opposed: this obviously the basic conflict of the
play. Both, however, possess the same stubborn belief in their own righteousness. Thus, on the
issue of burial one is right and one is wrong, but to an extent they share the blame for the tragic
end of the play.
Based on your analysis of the circumstances, plot, and characters, who do you think is the
more tragic figure in the play?