Essay --

In Antigone, death is a central theme that is consistently present throughout the entire play. In this particular passage, the chorus proclaims that man’s access to resources will allow him to continue to exist; however, as long as man exists, so will death – a fate that no amount of resources can help anyone escape. In this essay, I will explore the correlation and significance of this passage, and more specifically, the correlation and relation to death, with particular characters of the play. These particular characters each have a different relation and perspective of death, however, as the story progresses, I will discuss why their relation, perspective and the way that which they acknowledge death itself evolves and changes so drastically. In the first part of the passage, ‘speech and thought’ and ‘mind for law’ refer to the attributes of man; what it means to be human. The passage is directly praising man for all the wonders of the human race; man who has taught himself, built a shelter, a city and created a law, man’s capability and skills to become accustomed to the land, to the very earth and nature itself, the world that they have been put in, man’s capacity to learn to adjust and survive and live in the way that we see fit. Antigone making the choice to go against the king, because of what she believes to be right, attempting to give her brother Polynices what she believes he deserves – this thought, ‘quick as the wind’, including every action she carried out after, was effortless and came naturally to her. The set of principals and values that each individual has and what they choose to believe in become like instinct; to fight for what you believe in b ecomes as natural as to look for ‘shelter from the arrows of the f... ...tten that he is not divine like the gods are. He is a man with plenty resources, and although by the end of the play, Creon is still living - he hasn’t escaped death. In the passage, note that while the chorus is listing the wonders of man, the accomplishments of human beings; each accomplishment is paired with an element of nature, wind, frost, sky and rain – and each accomplishment is referring to man applying control over nature, mirroring the confliction in the entire story. Creon represents the city, a man made empire, while Antigone stands for the gods, nature and herself. When Creon loses all the people that he cares for, nature seems to be punishing Creon for his disrespect. It appears that each step onward as we progress, we further distance ourselves from where we started, making each of our achievements and the wonders of man just as bad as they are good.