"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

From the following list of assignments, please choose five you would like to complete and submit for credit. Each assignment is worth thirty points, about five points more than the average quiz. Be prepared to submit one assignment per class day beginning on November 26, 2001. If you need a reminder of the terms used in this sheet, please use the Handbook of Literary Terms found on pages 995-1006 of your textbook, Elements of Literature.

• Write three quotes from the play that you find important or intriguing. Please decorate or illustrate as you feel appropriate. Please include the scene or ode and the line number on the front of your mini-poster. Put your name, class and date on the back.

Materials:
Three 8 ½” by 11”sheets of paper (standard blank paper)

Markers, colored pencils, or crayons.

 
• The heart of Antigone is a moral dilemma (a problem where there is no good solution). The dilemma in the play requires a difficult choice between law and conscience, law and religious beliefs and law and loyalty to a friend or family member. Please write three or four sentences describing a moral dilemma that you have created on your own. Please only describe the moral dilemma. Do not try to solve the dilemma.

• Look at Ode 1 (p.705). Find at least two examples each of assonance, alliteration and internal rhyme. Please also remember that the strengths of this ode are sometimes due to Sophocles and sometimes to the translators rewrote the work from Ancient Greek to Modern English.

 
• Please find five examples ofdramatic irony. Copy the passage that contains the irony (or in the case where it is better to explain the situation, just explain what is going on in the scene), give the scene and the line numbers that contain the example, and explain what is ironic about the scene or passage.

 
• In one detailed paragraph, please explain how Ismene is a foil for Antigone.

• React to Haimon by writing a brief impressionistic poem—perhaps a haiku or a tanka (see page 570 in Elements of Literature. The poem can either praise Haimon for his bravery in standing up to his father or condemn him for his ineffectuality. Do not go into too much detail; the poem should present a single feeling. Please copy your poem onto a sheet of paper and decorate as you feel necessary. (Elements of Literature Fourth Course: Teacher’s Edition, pT718). Put your name, class and date on the back.


Materials:
Three 8 ½” by 11”sheets of paper (standard blank paper)

Markers, colored pencils, or crayons.

 
• Find evidence for one of the following statements and then write a one paragraph persuasive essay on the statement you have chosen:

Creon secretly fears Teiresias.
 
• Antigone died in vain.
• The gods influence human history at their pleasure. (Elements of Literature Fourth Course: Teacher’s Edition, p. T729)
• The gods have no influence on human events.
• Money is the prime motivation for Creon.
• Misogyny is the prime motivation for Creon.
  
  

• Teiresias is an interactive character, yet in many ways he stands apart from society. In one paragraph, list and explain as many ways as you can in which Teiresias is an outsider (Elements of Literature Fourth Course: Teacher’s Edition, p. T729).

 
• The following words come to English from Greek drama. Consult a dictionary for the etymology of these words and comment on the words you think have relevance to Antigone. For further guidance on etymology, review the Vocabulary activity on p. 715 in Elements of Literature.
Create a chart that includes: the word, the definition, the etymology, and the connection to Antigone, if any.
 
• chorus
• comedy
• episode
• exodus
• imitation
• melodrama
• orchestraproscenium
• prologue
• scene
• nemesis
• theater
• tragedy
• thespian
• satyr

• If you are artistically inclined, prepare a poster advertising a production of Antigone. In addition to including the necessary information about location, dates, and tickets, each poster should feature a striking visual that relates to a theme or conflict in the tragedy.

 
• In his Literary History of Greece, Robert Flaceliére writes, “what was genuinely new in the plays of Sophocles . . . was their greater emphasis on the development of individual character. . . . His characters are no longer simply the playthings of the gods. . . . The act in accord with definite ideas of their own. . . . All of Sophocles’ protagonists display . . . unshakable will power. . . .”

• In a one-paragraph essay, explore who you think was the best example of unshakable will power. Explain also whether you think Sophocles saw this “unshakable will power” as a virtue or a flaw.
  
  

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