A Humorous Distillation of Antigone by Maurice Sagoff :: essays research papers

A Humorous Distillation of Antigone by Maurice Sagoff This poem is quite successful in getting the plot across to the reader. Unfortunatly, that is all he can get across because of his beleif that, "inside every fat book is a skinny book trying to get out." Sargoff cannot have character descriptions, themes, or any real detail in his "skinny book" because of his beleifs. Sargoff leaves off why Polynices should not be burried and why his brother, who is not even menchoned, can be burried. This is important to building the feelings of contempt towards Creon and an understanding of what Antigone is doing. Also, because this is a "Humorous Distillation," the tone of the play is lost. Instead of being a dramatic play about obeying a higher law, it is a comical, rhyming poem about what happened. This may cause it to lose the impact it had. Sargoff reduces important and pivotal points in the story to a sentence such as, "Creon wilts, and tries to bang a U-ee." This sentence does not tell of Creon's attempt to repent for what he! has done by burrying Polynices and then going to free Antigone. Even if Sargoff gets all of the plot across, that is not enough to tell the whole story. Aristotelian Unities Yes, Antigone does follow the Aristotelian Unities. The play occurs in the same place and roughly the same time. Things that happened before the play or outside of the place, was told by a messenger or a character themself. The action was all centered around Antigone's actions. Her actions were the sole cause of everything that happened. Greek Tragedy Antigone does follow the Greek definition of tragedy. Tragedy is a story or play that has a signifigant conflict of morals, with a noble protagonist displaying a tragic flaw that is their strength but leads to their downfall. The exposition of the story is when Antigone is talking with her sister and we learn of what has happened. The turning point of this play is when Creon tries to mend his wrongs by burying Polynices and freeing Antigone. Antigone herself is the tragic hero because she dies for what she believes morally right. Antigone's tragic flaw is that she has only sees her point of view which leads to her death. The denouement of this story is everybody dying and then Creon realizing what he has caused. The song of the story is attenden to throuhg the chorus' comentating on what is happening or