King Lear! Ermergersh!

Journal 12: Antigone Conflict

Anouilh uses the contrasting concepts of beauty and ugliness throughout Antigone to illustrate his definition of tragedy. The obviously beautiful Ismene is constantly compared to more unconventionally beautiful Antigone. While everyone expects Haemon to be in love with Ismene, he instead asks Antigone; while everyone describes Ismene as being beautiful, the children stare at Antigone whenever she walks by. There is this ambiguity that surrounds Antigone and her level of beauty. Creon, on page 43, says that Antigone is ugly for yelling about the futility of hope; Antigone counters this by saying that one only becomes beautiful after all hope has been extinguished and all questions answered, like her father at the end of his life. This idea of beauty-after-anguish conforms to the definition of tragedy that Anouilh presented earlier in the play through Chorus, in that"nothing is in doubt and everyone's destiny is known. That makes for tranquility" (24). Anouilh is, at this point in the novel, using this contrast of beauty and ugliness to parallel the ideas of hope and futility. Those who are beautiful in Antigone's way are also hopelessly trapped, where there are no questions about their destiny or their death. They are peaceful, at rest, tranquil, and beautiful.

Journal 11: Antigone Chorus

In the beginning, the Chorus is more of a distant, storytelling character. Chorus establishes the exposition of the plot in an unbiased way. In the second reading, though, Chorus takes on more of a persona, giving his analysis on the plot of the play. Chorus comments on the structure of tragedies, and the definition of tragedies, something that you don't normally hear from a narrator-type character. And by providing insight to tragedies, Anouilh provides foreshadowing of the sadness to come and the pain the audience will feel. Chorus says that in a tragedy, "there isn't any hope. You're trapped" setting up a mood of despair and, well, hopelessness. Chorus has now set up the audience for the tragic events to come, amplifying the dramatic irony that always seems apparent in tragedies.

Journal 10: Antigone Exposition

List of Events:

1. Oedipus died
2. Eteocles took the throne and refused to give it up to Polynices
3. Polynices led a force against Thebes, civil war ensued
4. Polynices and Eteocles kill each other in battle
5. Creon takes the throne
6. Haemon, Creon's son, proposed to Antigone, who said yes
7. Creon declares that Eteocles will be buried nicely and Polynices will be left out to rot
8. Antigone dresses up in Ismene's clothes and goes to Haemon, and they fight
9. Antigone tells Ismene she is going to bury Polynices and asks for help
10. Ismene doesn't want to, so Antigone buries him alone

Most of these events that take place before the start of the play are announced by the Chorus. The events are described in an unbiased way, allowing the audience to interpret them (the war between Eteocles and Polynices, Creon's decree, etc.) however they want to. Instead of having Antigone, who is on Polynices' side, describe the events in her biased way or Creon, who sided with Eteocles– etc. That would present the plot in a one-sided way, which it is not. Anouilh was careful to do this because he wanted the play to be successful during the Nazi occupation of France, which meant his audience had two distinct audiences on both sides of the conflict. If he showed the events all from Antigone's side, then the French rebels would enjoy the show but not the Nazis. And if he showed it from Creon's side, then vice versa.
His unbiased presentation of the conflict also conforms to the rules of tragedy. Tragic conflicts are between two sides that are equally moral and right, so that in the end, it's tragic either way. So the exposition is set up so that both sides have equal footing and the plot is unbiasedly presented.

Topic Sentence

The character Mother consistently and blatantly accuses others of causing the tragic events which have filled her life, because she actually fears the possibility that she may share some of the blame.

Journal 9: Blood Wedding Themes

List of possible Themes for Blood Wedding:

In Blood Wedding, the author, Frederico Lorca, expresses the theme that...

• humans often desire most what they are unable to attain.
• As seen in the Bride and Leonardo and the Mother, the most. Even the Bridgroom shows this to some extent, by wanting the Bride who doesn't want him back.
• "wallowing" in misery can lead to destruction of yourself and others.
• Seen in the Bride and Leonardo and especially the Mother.
• one who has no family to love (and be loved by) is poor, no matter their material wealth.
• The Mother shows this and even says she is poor because she has no son. There's a lot of contrast between poor and rich throughout the play that could prove this theme.
• people are more compelled to break free from their given societal roles the more constraining their roles are.
• The Bride shows this most, because she is the one that people describe the most as being a certain way and she is the one who breaks the archetype most obviously.

Journal 8: Blood Wedding Setting

Between Act Two and Act Three, the setting changes to further outdoors than in previous acts. The three scenes in the first act all take place inside, in living spaces of the houses of the different families. In the second act, both scenes take place outside the Bride's home; The first takes place on the veranda of her house, the second takes place at the "exterior" of her house. Finally, the third act moves further into the outdoors and into the wilderness. This transition is slow but sure, and takes place as the tension of the plot builds. It seems that the transition from a civil, indoor setting to an outdoor, wild setting parallels the transition from civility to the "barbarism" of blood wars. The atmosphere becomes dark and "murky" in this first scene of Act Three, setting the mood for the dark events to follow. In theatre, it's very important to set the mood for the audience so that the climax has a greater emotional impact.