Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tragedy Journal #12

Ugly vs. Beautiful
In the play there is this idea of ugly versus beauty and the conflict is used to illustrate the ideas that make a tragedy with the tragic heroes. The audience first sees how Antigone is this tragic hero because while Ismene appears to be outwardly beautiful, more beautiful than Antigone, Haemon picks her to love. In the reading tonight Antigone mentions on page 36 that that her "arms are covered with welts... But I am a queen" (36). The idea of something ugly like welts on her body creates ugly images, but she finishes by calling herself a queen, a woman who has the connotations of being beautiful. She is showing that it is what she does for her brother that makes her beautiful and not ugly. She also says that her "father was ugly too" (43) and from reading Oedipus the king it has been previously established that he was the tragic hero, and in that there is a level of beauty and respect. She is identifying herself like her father and saying that she wants to be considered beautiful for being selfless and knowing what the outcome of trying to bury her brother would be, but doing it anyways. In contrast, Creon finds her willingness to do this very ugly. For example when he says, "If you could here how ugly you are" he wants her not to think like a tragic hero because it undermines him. Antigone's conflict with her either being considered beautiful or ugly is the epitome of the tragedy; she may only be beautiful once all hope and other possibilities are gone, but even then, it is debatable that there is no beauty because both sides are valid.

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