When is the play antigone set

All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. Get Antigone from Amazon. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. The rising action of Oedipus at Colonus occurs when Creon demands that Oedipus return to Thebes and tries to force him to do so. The climax of Antigone is when Creon, too late to avert tragedy, decides to pardon Antigone for defying his orders and burying her brother. This discovery drives Jocasta to hang herself, Oedipus to poke out his own eyes, and Creon to banish Oedipus from Thebes.

The curse is followed by the onset of a storm, which Oedipus recognizes as a signal of his imminent death. The falling action of Antigone occurs after Creon decides to free Antigone from her tomblike prison.

They act as the voices of normality, but they can also be rather obtuse. The audience, as a result, is continuously moved to question where its sympathies lie and what constitutes an appropriate reaction to the unfolding tragedy. The Antigone is a compact play, both thematically and temporally: the majority of the action occurs within a few hours.

Sophocles proves himself a master of lyric storytelling: the furious confrontations between characters are rendered in stichomythia alternating verses , while in the kommoi lyrical songs of lament the characters can fully explore their emotional turmoil. The messenger-speeches, in turn, provide the narrative climax.

The six choral odes in the Antigone are counted among the richest and most beautiful of Greek lyric poetry. They are also surprisingly ambiguous, not necessarily relating to the tragic events in the rest of the play and can therefore provide an endless source of interpretation. Since the 18 th Century, the Antigone has continuously been one of the most read, performed, and adapted plays in all of dramatic literature. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

Antigone , like Oedipus the King , is set in that disaster-prone city-state known as Thebes. And what happens in Thebes does not stay in Thebes. Though most Greek playwrights were from Athens, their plays are hardly ever set there. This is not because they had no hometown pride. In fact, they weren't allowed to set their plays in Athens. It seems Athenians preferred a little objective distance when examining tragedy.