Creon has decided to sentence Antigone to death by execution for the crime of burying her dead brother, Polynices, against his own decree. Creon first heard of this from the Sentry, who at the time, did not know who did it. The Sentry later informs Creon that it was indeed Antigone who committed the crime. After confronting Antigone, and ignoring Ismene’s desperate pleas for mercy, Creon ends the scene by having the guards escorting Antigone and Ismene into the palace. Since the plot scene is ending, and the chorus scene is starting, this cliffhanger sets the mood at this point in the story to be frustration and anxiety.
The readers are left hanging, not knowing what will become of the main protagonist, Antigone. This cut-off leaves a mist of mystery; the plot is now a thick fog, no one knows what or who is on the other side. It is all surprising and unexpected by now. Based on the scene, the tone at this point in the story is dramatic. The word choice displays the effect of many emotions, words such as grudge, courage, and cruelty show different types of passion expressed by the characters. Vivid verbs are also used to build suspense, since after all the mood is leaving the readers with a cliffhanger.
On more than one occasion do the characters talk about death, as if the words they are saying are the last words they’ll ever speak to one another. All these factors are building up to the climax, which is what Sophocles was trying to emphasize when writing the play. The first line of the chorus speech is about how there are some people who go through their whole life with anything but devastation. Repetition is used in this line to show just how lucky and blessed those people are.
The second line discusses how those few who are unlucky enough to not experience this same faith are cursed by the gods. “For others, once the gods have rocked a house to its foundations the ruin will never cease… “(657-659). This line is specifically towards Antigone’s family; ever since Oedipus and Jocasta got married, their family has been suffering from the wrath of the gods. Antigone and her siblings are cursed to pay for their parents’ dirty deeds. All their bad luck is at the fault of their parents, they are the ones to blame.
The next line is a simile, going on to explain what the curse is like. “… cresting on and on from one generation on through the race-like a great mounting tide… ” (659-661). Comparing the curse to ocean tides shows how the curse never ending and is everlasting. The tide gathers trash from the bottom of the ocean, and dumps it all onto Antigone and her siblings. The curse keeps rolling through each of the family members, making sure they each pay their share of the price that was their parents actions.
The last paragraph is more comparing the curse to the sea. … driven on by savage northern gales, surging over the dead black depths roiling up from the bottom dark heaves of sand and the headlands, taking the storm’s onslaught full-force, roar, and the low moaning echoes on and on” (662-667). The ocean is being described as dark and heavy, which is how the curse feels like. The curse wishes the worst upon people, all the worst possible actions that could happen, happen onto them. The curse never slows down or lessens at all, it just rushes forward at full-blast at Antigone and her family.
In these lines, it is mentioned with the ocean tides is a storm raging; the curse can been seen as a perfect storm. A perfect storm a scarce mixture of occurrences or occasions forming an uncommonly terrible state. In this case, the perfect storm is the curse, it makes all these horrible incidents come together to overwhelm Antigone and her siblings. In the last few lines of this paragraph, it describes the ocean’s and storm’s roars echoing continuously, which is another example of the curse constantly spreading to all the other members of Antigone’s family.
This curse is a plague that will not disappear until it has taken out everyone. The next line is talking about the history of the royal family. “… and now as in ancient times see the sorrows of the house, the living heirs of the old ancestral kings, piling on the sorrows of the dead and one generation cannot free the next-some god will bring them crashing down, the race finds no release… “(668-672). The chorus is describing a flashback of how the royal family has always experienced grief; the agony crosses the path of the kings and heirs of the monarchy, and it carries on with them into the afterlife.
The curse haunts the haunted, the irony in that is the sad truth out the curse. The curse first consumes their minds and sanity, next comes their life, and finally their ghostly souls; the only part of humanity left in them. The quote later goes on to repeat the fact that the curse cannot be broken and how every child in the family experiences it at some point in their life, either in the beginning of their life or in the end. In this case, the curse leads the members of the royal family to their death.
The god mentioned in the quote is the one extracting revenge and forcing punishment onto the family. This god will stop at nothing to prove their point, that Oedipus and Jocasta are the damned and sinful. The race is the curse and the no release is the way to end it all. The curse being compared to a race is quite effective in describing how Antigone and her family is being chance to world’s end to pay their dues, in this case the curse be even described as a bounty hunter sent by the mysterious god extracting revenge.
The following line reveals how there is hope left for the story’s ending. “… And now the light, the hope springing up from the late last root in the house of Oedipus, that hope’s cut down in turn by the long, bloody knife swung by the gods of death by a senseless word by fury at the heart. ” (673-677). The beam of hope was Antigone; she was the only person who still followed the law of the gods rather than Creon’s decree. Antigone was the last person who could show people that the gods’ law is the highest law that must always be followed, rather than a dictator’s rule.
It is known that Antigone was the gods’ last hope, since she was the youngest child of Oedipus. This quote is foreshadowing Antigone’s death, since the hope ends up being lost. Antigone’s life is going to be taken by the god of death, Hades. The knife is actually the blade of fate, and it is fate that Antigone dies. The god who casts the curse upon Antigone’s family is the one who holds fury in the heart, since the predicament all started with Oedipus and Jocasta. The line afterwards brings up Zeus, the god of the sky and king of Olympian gods.
Zeus, yours is the power, Zeus, what man on Earth override it, who can hold it back? Power that neither Sleep, the all-ensnaring no, nor the tireless months of heaven can ever overmaster-young through all time mighty lord of power, you hold fast the dazzling crystal mansions of Olympus. ” (678-684). The chorus is asking Zeus who can overthrow the curse or stop it. It goes on to describe how no matter how much time has passed and if the youth gains power, none of them can break the curse nor hold a candle close to Zeus. No one in the next generations could ever surpass the power of Zeus.
Zeus holds the most power out of all the gods on Olympus. He holds more power than ever his own brothers, Poseidon and Hades. What the quote is essentially saying is that the only way the curse can be released is if Zeus lifted it with his own power. Other than that, the curse will stay permanent. The next few lines describe how Zeus’ law is the highest of them all. “And throughout the future, late and soon as through the past, your law prevails: no towering form of greatness enters into the lives of mortals free and clear of ruin. ” (685-689).
This quote is about how Zeus’ law is the only law that mortals must follow. No matter how much time has passed or how much time has changed, mortal laws mean nothing compared to Zeus’ laws, including Creon’s decree. No matter how high a level of authority is placed, it will never come close to Zeus’ jurisdiction. Mortals will always be lower than the gods. No one is above Zeus’ law, even the gods on Olympus must follow it. The second-to-last paragraph is about how people must be mindful of their expecting too much. “True, our dreams, our high hopes voyaging far and wide bring sheer elight to many, to many others delusion, blithe, mindless lusts and the fraud steals one slowly… unaware till he trips and puts his foot into the fire. ” (689-694). This quote is discussing how having dreams, hopes, and wishes is good for the soul, ultimately it will crush spirits when it turns out not to be how it was predicted.
When it is revealed how the ending is different from the prediction, it hurts like no other pain. Those dreams blind people so they can no longer think clearly until it is too late. The last paragraph is about nothing is fair and that people blame it all on the gods. He was a wise old man who coined the famous old saying: “Sooner or later foul is fair, fair is foul to the man the gods will ruin”-He goes his way for a moment only free of blinding ruin. ‘ (695-700). The old man described in the quote is the truth, since he describes how people blame the gods for their selfish dreams and hopes. Their dreams are foul and it is fair if they are not fulfilled because is karma for people no longer believing Zeus’ law is the highest. Their unfulfilled desires is essentially their own fault for not following ancient traditions.
The purpose of the speech in light of the whole play is to show how Antigone was right all along and how the other characters should follow in her footsteps in order to break the curse. The chorus changed their attitude in comparison to Antigone and Creon who remained inflexible by viewing the situation from the point of view of the gods. The chorus was able to solve the problem by stepping back and taking into account all factors to find the solution. If the chorus didn’t do that, the truth of how the circumstance came to be would never be brought to life.
