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carose59"You Built Your Own Canoe? Is That A Metaphor?"*
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First there was Jean Anouilh's Antigone, which I was assured by the people who talked about it afterward was a subtle-but-unmistakable attack on the the Vichy government.
I don't know how subtle it was, since the Nazis closed the play immediately. Maybe somebody told them. I certainly didn't get it.
Antigone, in case you've forgotten, is the story of Oedipus's daughter. After his death, his two sons were supposed to share the kingdom, ruling in alternating years. One of them refuses to relinquish the throne, the other takes up arms against him, battles ensue, and both are killed. Actually, they kill each other.
Creon, their uncle/half-brother, assumes the throne and randomly chooses one of them to be the hero and the other to be the villain. The hero is honored. The villain is refused burial, which in ancient Greece meant his spirit would wander the earth forever.
Antigone, who is engaged to Creon's son, Haemon, sneaks out one night to bury her brother. She's caught, has a debate with Creon that lasts most of the play, and is eventually sealed up alive in a cave. Creon finds out that Haemon had hidden in the cave, that Antigone had promptly hanged herself, and that Haemon then stabbed himself. On hearing this, Eurydice (Haemon's mother) finishes her knitting and goes to her room to cut her throat.
Other things happen, of course. There are things with guards and with Antigone's sister, Ismene. But the bulk of the play is the debate between Creon, who is trying to keep order in his country, and Antigone, who . . . I honestly do not know.
I read Sophocles's Antigone when I was in high school and I understand it. It's the same plot. The difference is basically that in Anouilh's play, nobody really thinks it matters whether or not a person is buried. It's just a ceremonial thing. Antigone admits she doesn't believe it matters to her brother, that it will not affect his afterlife. It seems to come down to, she doesn't want to be happy in an ordinary life and she doesn't want to be told what to do.
I don't like to be told what to do either, but I like the idea of being walled up in a cave even less.
I remember when I read Sophocles's play thinking Antigone was an idiot for immediately hanging herself, thinking that maybe Creon would relent. In Anouilh's version I don't even think that because Antigone doesn't seem to want to live. It's as though being walled up in a cave gave her permission to commit suicide. It makes me wonder what lost cause she would have found for herself if she hadn't had a dead pariah for a brother. My sympathy is with Creon, who doesn't want to punish her at all and only does so because she won't cut it out. He's trying to keep order in a country that's been going to hell ever since Oedipus killed his father. He's just trying to clean up the mess he's been left with and Antigone's making things worse by flouting his authority.
And I have no idea what this has to do with Nazis or fascism. I mean, I know fascists love order, but trying to maintain order is hardly enough to make you a fascist. So I don't know.
Tomorrow: Death of a Salesman.
*Cary Agos
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First there was Jean Anouilh's Antigone, which I was assured by the people who talked about it afterward was a subtle-but-unmistakable attack on the the Vichy government.
I don't know how subtle it was, since the Nazis closed the play immediately. Maybe somebody told them. I certainly didn't get it.
Antigone, in case you've forgotten, is the story of Oedipus's daughter. After his death, his two sons were supposed to share the kingdom, ruling in alternating years. One of them refuses to relinquish the throne, the other takes up arms against him, battles ensue, and both are killed. Actually, they kill each other.
Creon, their uncle/half-brother, assumes the throne and randomly chooses one of them to be the hero and the other to be the villain. The hero is honored. The villain is refused burial, which in ancient Greece meant his spirit would wander the earth forever.
Antigone, who is engaged to Creon's son, Haemon, sneaks out one night to bury her brother. She's caught, has a debate with Creon that lasts most of the play, and is eventually sealed up alive in a cave. Creon finds out that Haemon had hidden in the cave, that Antigone had promptly hanged herself, and that Haemon then stabbed himself. On hearing this, Eurydice (Haemon's mother) finishes her knitting and goes to her room to cut her throat.
Other things happen, of course. There are things with guards and with Antigone's sister, Ismene. But the bulk of the play is the debate between Creon, who is trying to keep order in his country, and Antigone, who . . . I honestly do not know.
I read Sophocles's Antigone when I was in high school and I understand it. It's the same plot. The difference is basically that in Anouilh's play, nobody really thinks it matters whether or not a person is buried. It's just a ceremonial thing. Antigone admits she doesn't believe it matters to her brother, that it will not affect his afterlife. It seems to come down to, she doesn't want to be happy in an ordinary life and she doesn't want to be told what to do.
I don't like to be told what to do either, but I like the idea of being walled up in a cave even less.
I remember when I read Sophocles's play thinking Antigone was an idiot for immediately hanging herself, thinking that maybe Creon would relent. In Anouilh's version I don't even think that because Antigone doesn't seem to want to live. It's as though being walled up in a cave gave her permission to commit suicide. It makes me wonder what lost cause she would have found for herself if she hadn't had a dead pariah for a brother. My sympathy is with Creon, who doesn't want to punish her at all and only does so because she won't cut it out. He's trying to keep order in a country that's been going to hell ever since Oedipus killed his father. He's just trying to clean up the mess he's been left with and Antigone's making things worse by flouting his authority.
And I have no idea what this has to do with Nazis or fascism. I mean, I know fascists love order, but trying to maintain order is hardly enough to make you a fascist. So I don't know.
Tomorrow: Death of a Salesman.
*Cary Agos