Part 1 Summary

An introductory stage direction informs the reader that the play's setting has "no geographical or historical implications." Then a character named Prologue introduces the other characters, all of whom are already on stage. He describes some of their basic characteristics as well as their eventual fates.

Antigone is the dark, thin girl who is sitting by herself and wishing that she didn't have to die soon. Her sister Ismene is the happy girl, laughing and chatting with Haemon, Antigone's fun- and sport-loving fiancé. The older man is Creon, Haemon's father, who has just become King of Thebes. He was formerly the chief advisor to King Oedipus and to Oedipus' heirs, Eteocles and Polynices. The old woman winding wool is Antigone's and Ismene's Nurse; the woman who is knitting is Creon's wife. Prologue tells us that Creon's wife will go on knitting until it's...