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It
is not unusual to interpret Antigone as presenting a set of opposites,
and to see them, as the Greeks did, in terms of the feminine and masculine.
This was Hegel's approach in his astounding work in Aesthetics: Lectures
on Fine Art. It is true as a student mentioned that in the idea of
unity, one would assume a harmony between body and soul. Nonetheless,
Antigone is speaking to the spirit rather than the body
and
hence the fact that Antigone is physically a woman and Creon a man, stands
as metaphor. |
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In
reading in the play try to consider each polarity in a precise way.
With Antigone we see: instinctual conduct as in the burying where images
of animals wailing are used, the relentlessness of the natural, the yielding
as symbolized by her consistent references to death (which is the ultimate
yielding), the intimate as represented by her constant reference to family
as well as her inability to distinguish between brothers (which requires
an ability to take distance), and finally innocence in her inability to
discern why should be circumspect. |
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Creon,
on the other hand manifests the masculine. He contemplates in reflection
what is necessary for the city, and sees the city as all (whereas Antigone
sees the family as all). He is continually aggressive and self asserting;
capable of taking great distance to the point that he does not refer to
Antigone as his niece. And he, unlike Antigone is never at a loss
for speech. |
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In
addition to the above, one may add a tension between divine law and man's
law. Divine law, however needs to be understood in a particular way.
PAUSE upon the following quote from Hegel:
"
the feminine . . . has the highest intuitive awareness of what is ethical.
She does not attain consciousness of it, or to the objective existence
of it, because the law of the family is an implicit, inner essence which
is not exposed to the daylight of consciousness, but remains an inner feeling
and the divine element that is exempt from an existence in the real world.
. . ." |
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Note
what joins Creon and Antigone -- an inability to engage, persuade, deliberate,
or listen. Yet, the qualities of each are necessary to what they
cannot do. Try to consider how each quality would temper the other.
Ask yourself about the interplay between passivity and activity, ordering
and responding, and being and becoming. So too, note that both Antigone
and Creon see something of import. Antigone the need to bury a brother.
Creon the needs of the city which has just be torn by civil war.
And each is in a dilemma for both are family and citizen. What is
troubling then is not the choice, for no choice can be absolutely right,
but the extreme certainty with which each character insists upon their
choice as right. |
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Without
doubt, the play asks us a question: what is justice. Consider the
blind man and the boy. What do they represent and why are they joined
together. Why does justice require seeing with the eyes of a child
(innocence) and thinking with the head of an aged one (maturation or self-consciousness)?
If there is no right or certain answer that humans can find, is justice
about our choice of ends, or the way in which we pursue them? If
the latter, what is necessary to that pursuit? It is critical
to note that the play ends with the assertion that practical wisdom (phronein)
is the most important constituent of a good human life (eudaimonia -- a
sense of perfection or well-being as when children are lost in play in
total bliss of each moment of action). |
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Pay
particular attention to the Chorus, especially what has come to be called
the Ode to Man on page 34 of our translation. The correct opening
of the ode is "There are many deion things, but not one of them is more
deion than man."" Our translator calls on the words marvels, terrible
and wonderful to attempt to faithfully translate the word deion.
In Greek this word connotes both "the dazzling brilliance of the human
intellect" as well as the monstrousness of evil (Fragility of Goodness
at 52). It also is often associated with disunion, tension.
There is again no being more deion than man. |
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The
ode suggests that mankind, who appears to be thrilling may at the same
time be monsterous in its ambition to simplify, control and order the world.
Given the judge's attorney's and stateswoman's task to bring a chaotic
world of conflict, needs, goals, into harmony and order through Law, the
teaching of the ode is particularly relevant to us in the Life of the Law.
It would seem that contingency, humility, uncertainty, (often an object
of loathing in the world of law), may turn out to be at the same time "wonderful
and constitutive of what makes human life beautiful or thrilling." (Fragility
of Goodness at 53). |
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