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Antigone Comparative Essay

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Antigone Comparative Essay
English a lang & lit writtent task 2
Awethu Kakaza DP2
If Antigone had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ?

The adaption of the play Antigone by Jean Anouilh is proof that works of literature can successfully be altered for a new purpose. By taking a solid story that possesses merits that the author requires and melding them with new attributes, an author can craft a new tale that can display their message by using a bit of the new mixed with the old. The original story of Antigone was written by ancient Greek tragidarian Sophocles. It was the last of the three Theban plays that pertain to the Theban legend that preceded them and resumes from where Aeschylus’ …show more content…
Its purpose is similar to that of many plays, being that it was to entertain and enthrall its audience. The adapted version by Anouilh was created in the context of the anti-fascist French resistance in 1944 before premiering in Paris in 1944, censored by the Nazis5. Anouilh was inspired by the actions of Paul Collette, a man who had no affiliation to any resistance groups and acted on his own and was fully aware of his certain death, shot at a group of directors during a meeting. Anouilh felt Collette’s solitary act possessed the true spirit of tragedy and provided the initial spark for Anouilh to adapt Antigone6. Anouilh’s Antigone draws parallels to the French Resistance and the play’s purposeful ambiguity towards the rejection of authority which is represented by Antigone and the acceptance of it, represented by …show more content…
Antigone, translated by E. H. Plumptre. Vol. VIII, Part 6. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/8/6/.
"MonkeyNotes Study Guide Summary-Antigone by Jean Anouilh-Free Book Notes/Chapter Summary." MonkeyNotes Study Guide Summary-Antigone by Jean Anouilh-Free Book Notes/Chapter Summary. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
"Antigone: Sophocles & Anouilh." Prezi.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
"Antigone (Anouilh)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Feb.
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