Cold Sunlight

Analytical Essay # 60090

Drama and Theater > Greek and Roman
English > Analysis
Literature > Greek and Roman

Cold Sunlight

A look at the imagery of light and dark in Sophocles' "Antigone".

1,661 words () | 1 source | MLA | 2004 United States

Paper Summary:

This essay analyzes how Sophocles makes use of contrasting light and dark imagery to portray the Chorus' perception of not only the play's characters and events but of the conflicting laws of nature and government that they represent as well.

From the Paper:

"In Sophocles' play Antigone, Creon, the king of Thebes, is entrusted to the care of Antigone and Ismene, the daughters of the deceased Theban king Oedipus. Creon and the strong-willed Antigone clash, however, on the issue of the burial of Antigone and Ismene's brother Polyneices. Both Polyneices and another brother, Eteocles, died in the battle that ensued when Polyneices invaded Thebes and his brother's ruling party. Because Eteocles' side was said to have won, and because Polyneices was the exiled invader, Eteocles was to be given a hero's funeral while Polyneices was ordered to be abandoned in the open for the birds and insects to eat his corpse. Creon fully agrees with this assessment, because it aligns with the nomos, or the government's law, but Antigone despairs over the injustice of it-in her view, everyone should be given a proper burial, according to the physis, or natural law. This conflict between Creon and Antigone, and the narrating Chorus' opinions of both sides, is at the center of the events in the play. Sophocles makes use of contrasting light and dark imagery to portray the Chorus' perception of not only the play's characters and events but of the conflicting laws of nature and government that they represent as well."