Natalie Perez
IB English HL
Ms. Jachowski
March 19th 2018
Antigone reflective statement
How was your understanding of the cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral discussion?
Throughout the interactive oral discussion, I learned and expanded my knowledge on many topics I believed I knew a lot about. I learned about the greater role of women then just being a house wife. Before anything we had studied in class my understanding of the role of women in Ancient Greece was very basic. I knew that they were seen as less than men and that they didn’t have as many rights as men. That was about as far as my understanding went. After studying the culture of the Ancient Greeks, I learned that there was much more to women we learned about their religious affiliations and how they played a huge role in religion.
I learned that even though women played this tiny role in society they were the greatest players when it came to death and burial. They were in charge of everything. We would expect this to be a “man’s job” but to my surprise it was one of a women’s main jobs. Women also had a big role in mythology. Many of the people they looked up to as their Goddesses were females. One of the most recognizable being Athena; the Goddess of wisdom, literature, strategic warfare and intelligence. I found it quite odd that there was a goddess representing this and not a God. This is because in this time in history things such as warfare and intelligence were associated with men and very rarely with women. Many saw women as less than men and less capable of being such powerful humans.
To conclude my reflection, my understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral discussion. This discussion opened my eyes to many new facts that I really benefitted from. I expanded my knowledge past the point where I thought it could go and discovered many shocking facts that I would never have had believed to be true. This interactive oral discussion was one that was very helpful in further expanding my understanding of the Greek Culture.
Word count: 339
Natalie Perez
IB English HL
Ms. Jachowski
June 9th 2018
How greed for power can lead to someone’s downfall and eventually their demise in Antigone by Sophocles
As Stephen Hawking once said, “we are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet”. This quote directly relates to the play Antigone by Sophocles. It explains that people need to stop being wrapped up in greed and stupidity and look at the world around them. By looking at the world around them they will be able to see who they are hurting and that they are also hurting themselves in a way that might cause their early death. In the play one of the main characters, Creon the King of Thebes displays greed for power and all the “benefits” that come with it. He is the perfect example for this quote. Using evidence found in the play, many will see that a person’s greed for power can lead to their downfall and eventually their demise. Examples of this can be found all throughout the play. The following are just a few examples which capture this idea in its entirety.
The first examples of how a person’s greed for power can lead to their downfall and eventually their demise is when Creon says “believe me, the stiffest stubborn wills fall the hardest” (line 529). In the quote, we see that Creon himself knows that those people who are like him will have the biggest fall. When mentioning a person “like him” it refers to how he is stubborn and unwilling to change. Creon can be perceived as stubborn because of his inability to forgive Antigone for a so-called crime that was just getting justice for her late brother. This decision made him unpopular when it came to the people of Thebes, causing him to lose support of his people. By using this quote, we can see that this is true about himself. This is one time where we see that his greed for power will lead to his greatest downfall. So that he wouldn’t seem weak he will continue with Antigone’s punishment even though it is unfair. This quote is ironic because it foreshadows what will later happen in the play. Later on, in the play he will fall into a downwards spiral in which his stubbornness and pride will cause him to lose everything he cares about. Examples of this include losing his wife and his son. His own life will later be lost as well.
A second example of how a person’s greed for power can lead to their downfall and eventually their demise is when the Chorus says “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” (line 1466). What the Chorus is trying to say is that when you do something wrong you will get something bad in return. From this return of something negative, you will learn a lesson. In Creon’s case his lesson was learned too late. He then died and wasn’t able to apply his newly learned lesson to his life. Creon in this example was the proud man whose mighty words were paid in full with mighty blows of fate. Another thing that this quote shows is that Creon often confused cockiness with wisdom and because of this confusion he will meet a terrible end. Again, his terrible end being death. This is because he believes that everything he does is correct and that he is infallible which is incorrect. He believes that he is wise beyond his years and that he is the only person who is incapable of doing wrong. This quote also shows us that sometimes it is necessary to be wrong and do wrong in order to learn from our mistakes and prosper. If Creon weren’t so greedy and in search for so much power he wouldn’t be in the situation in which he is in. He wouldn’t be dead and he wouldn’t have lost everything he cared about. He would have been living the same life he had before this incident but he decided to continue the situation which in turn caused him to be corrected and punished with death.
Thirdly, another example of how a person’s greed for power can lead to their downfall and eventually their demise is with something Creon says. He 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?” (line 1460). At this point of the play is when we see that he is at his lowest point. After losing all one cares about there isn’t really a reason to continue or at least in Creon’s case. He feels responsible for killing his son and his wife. This is where the reader can see that his greedy actions led him to his downfall and his losing of anything and everything valuable to him in his life. He now sees that he was wrong and is getting punished for being so greedy and caught up in being this powerful high figure that lost sight of what was important. He is now realizing although too late that he shouldn’t have punished Antigone for an act of honor towards her late brother. The readers can sense that at this point in the play Creon is giving up on life he doesn’t have any family any support system or anyone to look to in a time of need like the one he is in currently. He is now thinking of all the ways he could have fixed his ending. Something he doesn’t seem to know is that there is no fixing fate. He was destined to lose everything he loved and cherished because of the mistakes and action he decided to make.
The final example of how a person’s greed for power can lead to their downfall and eventually their demise in Antigone by Sophocles is something that happens towards the middle of the play. Creon says “I promise you, you’ll pay taunting, insulting me! Bring her out, that hateful- she’ll die now, here, in front of his eyes, besides her groom!” (line 851). At this point of the play Creon still didn’t know what the future was holding for him all he knew was that Antigone was making many question his power. He wanted to prove that he was not someone to be messing with so he ordered that she be killed immediately. Haemon his son also questions his power which is why he, Antigone’s husband shall be there to see her execution. This is a huge part in the play because we see the first tragedy in Creon’s life start to develop. By him killing Antigone he created a direct passageway for Haemon to kill himself as well because Antigone was the love of his life. Creon’s’ own selfish and egotistical actions were what led him to his downfall. He has no one to blame but himself.
To conclude, Creon the King of Thebes went through many events in the play that led him to his downfall and eventually his demise. He lost all he cared about and he can’t get that back. In the process, he ended up killing himself as well. All of these events were because of his own selfish and greedy actions. These mentioned events could have been avoided in their entirety. He in a way brought these things upon himself. If he weren’t to be so concerned with public appearance and so caught up with the power he had, and wanting more none of these events would have occurred and he would still be alive to continue to rule over Thebes. If he were different he would have still been alive and still been with his son and wife which were ripped away from him because of his own selfish behavior. These examples show the audience that it is true that a person’s greed for power can eventually lead to one’s downfall and demise.
Word count:1351