Sunday, October 11, 2009
Answers for the last part of the final Antigone Worksheet
In the comments section of this post, I have put the answers to the rest of the Antigone comprehension questions. I want you guys to have time to study and prepare for the midterm, so you may print out the rest of these answers. After the midterm, however, you must copy them by hand into your notes and I will test you over all of Antigone.
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21. What does the messenger say about fate and fortune? Who does he use as an example to prove his point?
The messenger says that fate and fortune has the power to raise or destroy anyone at any moment in their life. The messenger uses Creon to prove his point, saying that Creon was once a man to envy—he rescued Thebes when it was being attacked by the soldiers that Polynices had hired and set the city up with sound laws. His life blossomed like a tree, and he had sons to follow in his place—but now he has lost everything. (119.1276-1284)
22. What horrible news does the messenger bring?
The messenger says that Haemon has killed himself. (120. 1295-1298)
23. Who is Eurydice? When Eurydice hears the news of Haemon’s death, how does she react?
Eurydice is Creon’s wife and Haemon’s mother. When she hears this news, she faints—but then she asks the messenger to give her the full details of what happened. After she hears the messenger’s long story, she doesn’t say a word and simply goes into her house. (121-123. 1305-1374)
24. Describe, in detail, the circumstances of Haemon and Antigone’s death.
The messenger said that he took Creon to the plain where Polynices corpse was, and there, Creon performed the rites and buried the body in the way that the gods demanded. Then, he and the messenger went to Antigone’s stone prison, and even before they got there, they could hear somebody wailing and screaming in an unnatural and disturbing way. Creon recognizes the voice and says that he fears it is his son—he sends the men (including the messenger) ahead of him to see what is going on—and when the men reach the tomb, they see that Antigone had killed herself, by hanging herself with her veil. Then, they saw Haemon, who had his arms clasped around the hanging body of Antigone. He was weeping uncontrollably for his dead bride and also for his father’s crimes. When Creon saw Haemon, he ran to his son and asked him “What have you done? What disaster has driven you mad?” but Haemon, enraged at his father, did not say anything and simply pulled out his sword. Creon then tried to run away as Haemon tried to attack him—but Haemon wasn’t able to injure Creon- when Haemon realized that he couldn’t kill his father, he impales himself on his own sword. He then moves back to Antigone and embraces her again—spitting up blood on her face as he slowly dies. The messenger says that now, Haemon and Antigone lie there dead, finally joined in death in a way they never could be joined in life.
25. After Eurydice hears the awful details of Haemon’s suicide, what does she do?
She does not say a word and simply goes into the palace. The chorus fears that she will harm herself, but the messenger doesn’t think that she would do something so rash.
26. After Haemon commits suicide, does Creon change in any way? Give specific lines to prove your point of view.
Creon definitely changes—he once was proud, but now he recognizes that his own plans and his own stupidity were the things that destroyed his son. He once believed stubbornness was necessary, but now he sees the consequences of it. (124)
27. What horrible news does the messenger bring Creon as he’s bringing the dead body of Haemon into the city? How did this happen?
The messenger tells Creon that Queen Eurydice has killed herself—she stabbed herself at the altar—crying out for her two lost sons, one named Megareus, who had died in the civil war, and now Haemon, who died because of Creon. With her last words, she called down curses on Creon because she thought he was the cause of the deaths of her sons. (125-126)
28. After Creon realizes that in addition to Haemon’s death, Eurydice has also died, what does he say about himself on page 126? How is he “nothing?” Of all the characters in this play, who does Creon most resemble now?
He says that all the guilt is his, and that no man but him deserves to be blamed for what happened. He is nothing because he now has no family, no future hope of grandchildren or a legacy, and he will not have any power in Thebes now that Antigone is dead- since his people will believe that it was his fault. He now resembles Antigone as she was in the beginning of the story—without a family, without hope, and without any desire to live. (126)
29. What are Creon’s last words in the play? What dominant imagery is present in this final speech? Where else in the play is this same imagery used?
Creon says “Take me away, I beg you, out of sight. A rash, indiscriminate fool! I murdered you, my son, against my will—you too, my wife…
“Wailing wreck of a man, whom to look to? Where to lean for support? Whatever I touch goes wrong—once more a crushing fate’s come down upon my head!”
Creon describes his destruction in terms of a shipwreck—he says that he is a “wreck of a man”, and then he describes fate in terms of a tidal wave crashing over him. This passage resembles the conversation that Creon and Haemon had, where Haemon warns his father using the metaphors of the tree and the ship. (127)
30. What are the final words of the Chorus at the end of the play? How does it relate to the entire play?
The chorus says “Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy, and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded. The mighty words of the proud are paid in full with mighty blows of fate, and at long last those blows will teach us wisdom.”
These last words are a comment upon why Creon was destroyed. It was because of Creon’s pride in himself as a king, as a lawmaker, and as a man that he wanted to punish Antigone. It was because of his pride that he was unwilling to listen to the warning of his son Haemon, and it was his pride that kept him from listening to Tiresias’s warning until it was too late. Creon’s pride destroyed all the things that he loved in his life, and by the end of the play, he is left completely broken and without any of the things he once loved.
31. Now that you know the end of the play, some parts of this play will seem especially ironic or especially great examples of foreshadowing. Go back over the entire play and find two examples of foreshadowing and irony each.
1. EXAMPLE OF FORESHADOWING:
“You’ve seen tress by a raging winter torrent,
how many sway with the flood and salvage every twig, but not the stubborn—they’re ripped out, roots and all. Bend or break. The same when a man is sailing: haul your sheets too taut, never give an inch, you’ll capsize, and go the rest of the voyage keel up and the rowing-benches under.”
2. EXAMPLE OF FORESHADOWING:
‘Man the master, ingenious past all measure
past all dreams, the skills within his grasp—he forges on, now to destruction now again to greatenss. When he weaves in the laws of the land, and the justice of the gods that binds his oaths together
he and his city rise high—but the city casts out that man who weds himself to inhumanity thanks to reckless daring. (77)
“But if these men are wrong, let them suffer nothing worse than they mete out to me—these masters of injustice.” (106)
3. EXAMPLE OF TRAGIC IRONY:
‘Then she will die… but her death will kill another.”c
4. EXAMPLE OF TRAGIC IRONY:
Creon’s response to Tiresias’s warning.
Haemon’s attempt to kill his father, when his father has finally come to do what is right.
Creon rushing to save Antigone and do what is right, only when it is too late.
Not tragic irony, but definitely ironic: Haemon and Antigone’s deathly marriage.
32. Now that you have read the entire play, what themes within the play seem most dominant to you? What questions does this play raise, and what answers does it give?
Pride: stubbornness destroys all.
Love: you must have a healthy love for the things in your life or you will destroy yourself and the things that you love.
Moral law vs. Civil Law: the laws of the Gods must not be broken, and they will have no mercy on you to realize this. You must do what is right as soon as possible.
Death: the realm of death belongs to the gods. Do not love it. Do not use it as a tool. Realize what it is and who it belongs to.
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