Point of View

There are several important components of this play’s point of view. The first relates to the time, place, and culture in which it was first written and produced – specifically, Ancient Greece, circa 440 BC. The culture at the time was in some ways very sophisticated (it practiced, for example, a form of democracy) while in other ways somewhat primitive, particularly in terms of its religious/spiritual practices – its belief in several gods, for example, and its overwhelming faith in prophecy. The culture’s sophistication and primitiveness are both evident in the play, in that Antigone’s defiance of Creon’s law can be seen as a form of democracy at work, while the responses of Creon and the Chorus to Tereisias, as well as Antigone’s invocation of the gods, can be seen as manifestations of the spiritual/religious beliefs of the time.

Another important...