Antigone Essay Assignment
First Draft Due: Tuesday March 3rd
Final Draft Due: Thursday March 6th
Your task:
Design and write a clear, concise, detailed, focused, and interesting short essay of 750800 words that:
1. Expresses explicitly a thesis concerning Antigone based on one of the themes that we
discussed in class.
2. Supports its thesis with solid, relevant, and sufficient evidence.
3. References Antigone through paraphrase and in-text citations (at least four references)
Assume for this essay that your audience is familiar with the play, so summary is
necessary only as it serves as evidence for a claim the essay is making.
Remember to…
1. Develop a complex, interesting thesis
2. Develop a written voice
3. Adopt a vocabulary and tone appropriate for an educated audience
4. Control grammar and other technical matters
5. Define terms
6. Provide well-developed, sufficient evidence for claims
7. Integrate paraphrase, summary, and quotation
8. Organize ideas effectively
Topic Ideas:
Construct a clear thesis for your essay by considering one or more of these topics:
1. Which is more important to Sophocles—family or authority? Look at Antigone,
Ismene, Creon, and Haemon, and at what happens to them and their relationships.
Be sure to cite specific quotes from the play to support your claims.
2. Creon says to his son Haemon that it would be bad enough to yield to a man, but he
would never yield to a woman (meaning Antigone). What does the play say about
a woman's place in society? Be sure to cite specific quotes from the play to
support your answers.
3. Creon claims that the rule of the king must be obeyed even if it’s wrong in order to
avoid anarchy and chaos. Does the play agree or disagree with Creon? Be sure to
cite specific quotes from the play to support your answers.
4. What is Creon’s fatal flaw? How does the flaw affect his state? His ability as a leader?
His downfall? What does a play that centers on this particular fatal flaw have to
say about the qualities that are needed or not needed in a ruler?
5. The German philosopher Hegel stated that the play Antigone represents the tragic
collision of right against right, with both sides equally justified. Do you agree
with this interpretation? Why or why not?