ANTIGONE QUESTIONS

Answer all questions on your own paper.

Prologue and Parados Page 814 -818

  1. Identify the following: Antigone, Ismene, Creon, Polyneices, Eteocles. (5 facts about each)
  2. What decree has Creon issued?
  3. Explain the conflict being presented in the beginning of the play.
  4. Compare Ismene’s and Antigone’s reactions to the decree. What are their arguments?

5. What is Antigone’s state of mind in this scene? Evidence:

  1. What noble qualities does Antigone display?
  2. What faults does Antigone display?
  3. Describe Ismene’s character.
  4. In line 47, what attitude toward women is shown?
  5. What is Antigone’s attitude toward Ismene?

Is Antigone justified in her attitude? Justify your answer

  1. What is the “awful sin” of their father for which they are left to suffer?
  2. In the Parados, to what animal does the choragus compare Polyneices?

How does this metaphor make you feel about Polynices?

  1. Describe the battle in your own words.
  2. At the end of the Parados, what hopes for the future does the chorus express?

Based on what you have learned in the Prologue, do you think these hopes will be fulfilled? Explain

  1. What will be the main conflict in the play?

Who will be the primary combatants?

Scene 1 and Ode 1 Pages 819 - 824

  1. On what basis has Creon claimed the throne?
  2. What metaphor does Creon use to describe the government of Thebes and the recent war? (quote) explain the metaphor
  3. Describe and discuss Creon’s philosophy of government as indicated in his address to the chorus (start with line 20).
  4. What does Creon reveal about himself in his speech? - Evidence
  5. What decision does Creon announce regarding the burial of Polyneices and Eteocles?

What is the reasoning behind his decision?

Are his intentions good or bad?

  1. How does the Choragos feel about Creon’s decree?

How do you know?

  1. What do lines 61 - 62 reveal about Creon?
  2. What 2 functions does the chorus serve in this scene?
  3. In lines 80 - 85, what news does the Sentry announce?

Why is the Sentry so reluctant to deliver his message?

  1. What suggestion does the Chorus make regarding the burial?

What’s Creon’s reaction and why?

  1. Who does Creon think has committed the burial?
  2. What punishment does Creon declare for the one who has done this?

What dramatic irony exists here?

13. From this scene what seems to be Creon’s strengths and weaknesses?

14. In line 150, the Sentry asks Creon if it is not his conscience bothering him. Why would his conscience be bothering him?

  1. In one sentence state the main idea of the first three verses of Ode 1.
  1. In Anistrophe 2, whom does the chorus seem to support – the law breaker or the law keeper?