Essay on Character Traits of Antigone

Antigone as a character within Jean Anouilh’s modern re-creation of Sophocles’s Greek classic, ‘Antigone’, is surrounded by ambiguity. Within Sophocles’s version, Antigone is presented with clear, rational, and understandable motives for defying Creon and the oppressive state in which he struggles to uphold. However, unlike Sophocles, Anouilh teaches us nothing of Antigone’s motivations and instead creates a depiction of an irrational, existential; rebellious teen, who herself is unable to conclude what it is she is dying for. ‘Like Sophocles, Anouilh uses an early conversation between Antigone and Ismene to point out how 'unreasonable' Antigone can seem when compared with her conventional sister’, “Listen. I’m older than you, and not so impulsive”, “Sometimes it’s best not to think too much”. Through this exchange, it is suggested that Antigone is not completely unaware of her foolishness and that her impulsive self will cause her selfish actions, which in turn will catalyst the downfall of other characters within the play. Anouilh placing this exchange at the beginning of the play, allows the audience to instantly gain insight into the existential character Anouilh wishes to depict Antigone as. Antigone’s carelessness towards those around her is produced via her determination to act upon her freewill, this emphasis that is placed upon exerting free will could link to the fact that the play was first published in 1943, during the period when the Nazis occupied France, with Antigone’s persistence in acting upon her freewill symbolizing the power struggle present in France at the time. ‘In an allegorical way, the play is openly critical about collaboration with the Nazis’, which could suggest the reasoning behind Antigone’s persistence to disobey Creon and the state in which he controls, even though he pleads with Antigone to dismiss the fate in which she has chosen for herself.

Furthermore, Creon’s role within Anouilh’s version is distinctly different from that of Creon in Sophocles’s original play. In the original, Creon is displayed as a harsh, unsympathetic ruler, whose insecurity in his governing over Athens, causes his ruthlessness. Despite this, Anouilh completely subverts this harshness that Sophocles imposes upon the original Creon, by developing him into a caring; understanding ruler, who is relentless in his attitude to what he believes to be morally viable. This shift in the presentation of Creon further accentuates Anouilh’s depiction of Antigone as unstable, naive, and radical. Whereas Creon’s vision, in the original, is blurred by his self-doubt and skeptical perception, ‘blindness is not the essence of Anouilh's Creon: he is, on the contrary, completely lucid’, and pragmatic in his way of thinking, and his attempted reasoning with Antigone to try and remove this radicalness in which her mind has fixated on. ‘Anouilh's Creon is willing, even eager, to forget all about Antigone's transgression’, and even offers to cover up her wrongdoings, as long as she forgets and moves on from this impulsiveness towards self-destruction, “That’s enough. You’re crazy”... “I won’t be quiet!”. Throughout, Anouilh’s play, Antigone is constantly referred to as “crazy” by many of the characters within the play, adding to the audience's already perceived madness towards Antigone. Anouilh uses the other characters as vices to reinforce this idea of Antigone as a figure of insanity, as even when Creon proposes an equation of happiness with life, Antigone rethinks and rejects this to continue her exploration of power and her role as an individual.

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Although Anouilh keeps to the original plot, he modernizes the characters, which enables his more modern audience to identify more with the play, departing from the Sophoclean model, and building upon the theatricality of the Greek drama. One clear instance of Anouilh’s adaptation is his inclusion of the nurse, which not only establishes a modernness to the play but also emphasizes Antigone’s age within the play, which Anouilh places more of a focus on than Sophocles did. ‘In both plays, ... the behavior of Antigone is a direct function of her age and temperament’, yet Anouilh’s play bases Antigone’s character around her ‘youthful passion’. Within Sophocles’s play, Antigone’s age is unclear, as the way she conveys her actions, by disregarding Creon and the patriarchy, is eloquent and justified in the audience’s eyes, forming a more mature stature to Sophocles’s Antigone. Yet, Anouilh depicts Antigone in a childish light, with her youthfulness being the substance of her character and her unjustified actions, being that ‘she provides no motivation other than irrationalism’. This irrationalism is further integrated into the audience’s perception of Antigone, as she confesses “(quietly)” within her interaction with Ismene that she’d “have preferred not to” die. Although Antigone confesses this “(quietly)” within their discussion, she does not confess this in an aside, implying that some part of her desires Ismene to stop her from acting upon this madness that will cause her downfall. However, ‘Ismene is presented as somewhat scared to venture away from her dutiful role, as an obedient female subject, as she attempts to distance herself from Antigone who opposes her ‘role’ to fight for what she believes in'. Throughout the play, references are made towards ‘roles’ in which Anouilh’s characters must abide by, “Everyone has his part to play … That’s how the cast-list was drawn up”: Creon knows he is “cast as the villain”, and that he will have to put Antigone “to death”, yet attempts to escape his conventional role as “the villain” by pleading with Antigone to dismiss her attack on bourgeois happiness, which will set her fate as death. Nevertheless, ‘Antigone is cast in her role, so she has no choice but to fulfill it, by rejecting the portrait of happiness offered by Creon, to instead continue as a doomed princess. Perhaps, however, there is the possibility that ‘we are trying too hard to understand Antigone as a 'character' in the first place', and that ‘she functions in the open more like a provocative set of ideas or situations’ instead of this figure of irrationality. Anouilh could have possibly used Antigone as an allegory for free will, within a society that is insistent on preventing the radical from questioning and disagreeing with the state, furthering Antigone’s exploration of power, ‘Anouilh isolates and singularises’ Antigone, ‘whilst Sophocles embeds’ her ‘into a narrative and historical traditions’. This questioning of state and set roles could have been used as an anti-authority message, a statement against Nazi-occupied France, and support for the French Resistance, or Anouilh could have been interested in the individual and mass reaction to authority.

This translation and modern adaptation allowed Anouilh to redevelop things within the play to suit his modern audience. Within Anouilh’s modernization of the play, he uses his refigured Creon to dismiss Sophocles’s clear; sufficient motives for Antigone’s burial of her brother, which persuaded the audience that her actions were just and dignified. Yet, by eliminating these compelling motives, her argument shifts as being seen childishly, that the other characters constantly belittle. Anouilh does this as ‘The modern reader cannot feel, as the ancient Athenian did, the importance of the rite of burial to the peace of the dead man; nor can he quite understand how a handful of dust thrown on the corpse sufficed to quiet the unhappy shade’. Anouilh reveals the modern audience's inability to comprehend Antigone’s religious motives, as Creon questions Antigone’s reasoning for her need to bury her brother: “Is your brother’s ghost doomed to wander forever if a handful of earth isn’t thrown on the corpse…?”. Creon belittles Antigone’s motives by degrading the value the Athenians placed upon “a handful of the earth” when burying a loved one, highlighting the ambiguousness that surrounds where Antigone’s ‘reason-based critique of reason ends and irrationality or insanity begins’.

Within the adaptation, Anouilh illustrates a closer, romantic bond between Antigone and Haemon, which is not as present in Sophocles’s play. This emphasis furthers the audience’s interpretation of Antigone to be that of insanity, as ‘Why, with a vehemence unjustified by the arguments beneath it, does Antigone say 'no' to life, even though she has, in the offing, a marriage, a royal household, and a well-developed fantasy of bearing a son?’. Anouilh displays all she has to live for right at the beginning of the play through her discussion with Ismene, “You’re engaged, you’re young, you’re beautiful”, yet she persists in sacrificing her life for a cause she does not completely understand or desire, which is exposed when she “(quietly)” states that she would “have preferred not to” die. While Anouilh modernizes Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’, he also restructures how an audience perceives: Creon, the state, character roles, the play itself, and the ambiguity that surrounds Antigone, and which the play focuses on, by dismissing the motives which were the pillars of Sophocles’s Antigone. Ultimately, ‘Anouilh was willing to let Antigone reject her society without fully understanding it’.