Plot
This is the reason Creon refuses to listen to Haemon’s plea, even when it’s logical.
What is Hubris or excessive pride?
This character's righteous pride acts as a mirror, revealing both the courage and weakness of those around them.
Who is Antigone?
“The time is not far off when you shall pay back corpse for corpse.” is an example of this literary device.
What is foreshadowing?
This tragic element occurs when Creon realizes too late that his pride has caused the deaths of his son and wife.
What is anagnorisis?
“We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.”
Who is Antigone?
This specific act by Antigone sets the entire tragedy in motion.
What is burying Polyneices' body?
The silent endurance and tragic end of this character amplifies how the consequences of pride extend beyond the individual.
Who is Eurydice?
"O tomb, vaulted bride-bed in eternal rock,
Soon I shall be with my own again
Where [the wife of Hades and the queen of the underworld] welcome the thin ghost underground:
And I shall see my father again, and you, mother,
And dearest Polyneices––"
Antigone alludes to this Greek goddess in her monologue.
Who is Persephone?
Antigone's moral righteousness which leads to her demise is an example of this element.
What is tragic flaw or Hamartia?
“There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.”
Who is Creon?
Creon first suspects this group of people of defying his edict.
Who are the sentries?
This character shifts loyalties for the sake of his/her family.
Who is Ismene?
Sentry: "Someone has given it burial that way, and
Gone ...
[Long pause. CREON finally speaks with deadly control.]
CREON:
And the man who dared do this?"
This exchange between Creon and the Sentry gives rise to this literary device.
What is dramatic irony?
When the play shows the inevitability of the family curse and divine law controlling human actions, it refers to this element of Greek tragedy.
What is fate?
“Whenever a man supposes that he alone has intelligence or expression or feeling, he exposes himself and shows his emptiness.”
Who is Haemon?
"Ismene, dear sister,
You would think that we had already suffered enough
For the curse".
Antigone is referring to this curse.
What is the curse of Oedipus?
His late recognition (anagnorisis) connects character flaw to the theme of learning through suffering.
Who is Creon?
When Creon declares, “Anarchy!—show me a greater crime in all the earth,” Sophocles uses this device to reveal his obsession with control and fear of disorder.
What is hyperbole?
hen the play shows the consequences of Creon’s and Antigone’s choices, leaving the audience moved by both sorrow and reflection, it refers to this element of Greek tragedy.
What is catharsis?
“A city which belongs to just one man is no true city.”
Who is Haemon?
Teiresias warns Creon that "The time is not far off when you shall pay back corpse for corpse."
The corpses of these three people are what Teiresias is referring to.
Who are Antigone, Haemon, and Eurydice?
This character serves as both observer and moral commentator, reflecting on human folly throughout the play.
Who is the chorus?
“She too faced death, shut in a tomb of stone.” is an example of this literary device.
What is allusion?
When Creon decides to free Antigone, but it is too late, it refers to this element of Greek tragedy.
What is peripeteia (reversal of fortune)?
“To err is common To all men, but the man who having erred Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.”
Who is Teiresias?