QUESTIONS

1. Comment on the significance of the opening scene of the play between Antigone and Ismene.

2. What is the function of the first choral song, or “Parodos,” in Antigone ?

3. Describe the scene of the confrontation between Antigone and Creon. How does it serve to highlight the contrast in their respective characters?

4. Examine in detail the role of the Chorus in the play. 5. Account for the change in CreonÂ’s hard-hearted stance after Antigone is led out to her doom.

6. Analyze the nature of the conflicts embodied in each major “agon” of Sophocles’ tragedy.

7. Show how Sophocles makes intricate use of familiar myths in the various “stasima” sung by the Chorus.

8. How does Sophocles treat the legend of the ill-fated House of Cadmus in Antigone ?

10. Assess the character of Creon as a strategic or practical politician who is a failure as a human being.

11. Examine the structure of SophoclesÂ’ Antigone as a classical Greek tragedy.

12. Consider the view that the play, Antigone, does not have merely one tragic character.

13. Discuss the implications of the remark that SophoclesÂ’ Antigone explores the incompatibility of the practical world of physical power with the idealistic world of spiritual strength.

14. Is Antigone a political tragedy that focuses on the conflicts between the individual and the state?

15. The tragic outcome of the play arises from the conflicting forces of Destiny and “self-willed passion.” Discuss.

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