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Journal #12- Antigone

Anouilh create a tension between the contrasting idea of truth vs. lies when Creon talks about the story of Eteocles and Polynices.  When Creon starts out by revealing the true story of Polynices, Antigone immeditiately reacts by saying "That's a lie" (39). She immediately sets this border and concretes herself to the idea that her Uncle hates Polynices which is why he is attacking and blaming him. But as the story continues, and Eteocles gets revealed as a traitor too, Antigone begins to rethink her death and whether she really wants to die or not. The fact that the people of Thebes were told a lie about Eteocles and Polynices creates a tension between Antigone and Creon as the truth is revealed,  but it also creates a tension within Antigone herself in whether she should trust her uncle, or since he lied to the entire city of Thebes, he would probably be lying to her too just to keep is power and help his son. The idea of truth vs. lies creates a tension between Creon and Antigone because Creon is a King that should be trusted since what he says is what should be the truth, but he is revealing to Antigone a lie he created so that he can keep his power and loyalty and not show the entire city of Thebes that all his family members were traitors. This way, he makes sure that he reveals only Polynices was a traitor and represents himself as a great King that helped give Eteocles what he deserved as a great ex-king, and give Polynices what he deserved, which is rot without getting buried. Creon seems to be ashamed that he has to reveal this which creates this tension, but he does it in order that he keeps Antigone living for his son. Antigone on the other hand is somewhat shocked to hear this because she did not expect this story to be true at all. But a tension grows because she is not sure on whether this is a true story and its worth her while to listen to Creon and take back her actions, or what he is saying is something to keep Antigone alive so that he can have a future King when Haemon marries Antigone and they have a child.
Therefore the conflicting idea of truth vs. lies bombards the audience on what to expect happen next because we don't know who to trust or not to trust and what will happen or how will it change the characters thoughts or actions since a truth was revealed to them, but we are not sure if it is actually the truth or just a trick.

Journal #11- Antigone

The chorus started having a stronger and deeper role. In the beginning, it was just giving us an overview about what happened before, like a narrator, but now it had strong meaning behind what it says. The chorus brings in tragedy, and it is describing it as if talking to us directly and trying to make us feel what tragedy is like. I also feel like it is trying to give us a definition somehow to understand tragedy better, so that when we continue reading the play, we have a good idea of what tragedy is and be able to figure out what is tragic about the play. Anouilh uses a strong tone, that seems informative at some points, but also persuasive at other times. For example, when he says "Don't mistake me: I said "shout": I did not say groan, whimper, complain. That you cannot do." The chorus seems to persuade the audience to make sure they are doing what he is telling them to do. I think Anouilh does this using the chorus to somewhat show that he favors tragedy more, and wants the audience to receive the right type of interpretation of tragedies. The chorus seems to be saying that the play is tragic, and that we as readers should be able to understand that this is not a melodrama, but a tragedy. It is saying that once it starts, it continues on its own the tragedy begins to grow and keep going. So like how we started with Antigone revealing that she is the one that buried her brothers, and so the tragedy continues from there. Since the chorus also says that in tragedies, everyone's destiny is known, he is emphasizing that Antigone is a tragedy because Antigone knows her destiny and one that will end up in death because of her actions.

Journal #10- Antigone

Events before Nurse catches Antigone sneaking into the house:
-Antigone is sitting by herself, thinking that she is going to die. She will rise against her uncle, the King.
-Haemon is talking to Ismene, Antigone's sister. He is engaged to Antigone, but it happened in an off way. During a ball once, he was dancing with Ismene, but before the dance was over, he went and looked for Antigone and asked to marry her. But Haemene did not know that he will soon die because of this decision.
-Creon, is a King. When Oedipus was King, Creon was no more than a brother-in-law to the King, but now that he is the King, he is a strong King and does his job.
-Eurydice, Creon's wife, sits knitting all the time, until comes the time for her to die.
-The Messenger will soon come to announce Haemon's death. He has a premonition of catastrophe which is why he does not mingle with others.
-The guards sit and play cards, but are always on duty. They do anything they are told, even if it was the arresting of the King himself. They are afraid of their wives, but their children are afraid of them.
-When Oedipus died, his two sons, Eteocles and Polycines agreed that they share the throne of Thebes in alternate years. But when Eteocles refused to step down after his full year, a fight broke between him and his younger brother Polycines. They fought and ended up killing each other, in which Creon had to take over Thebes. Since Creon supported Eteocles, he gave him a proper and honorary burial, whereas Polycines body was ordered by Creon to rot without being buried and without anyone to go into mourning for him.

Anouilh explains the previous days events with the chorus in a normal tone as if they are just telling us a short summary about everything in the past. Although he explains them in short paragraphs, he gives the basics as to lead us towards what to expect. He does this is a way as to prepare us to what will happen. He is revealing the story in the beginning, but he is not revealing what will happen which makes the reader want to know how everything will untie. He also hits the main and important points in the beginning just to give us an overview as to what happened in the past in the kingdom, so we know the reason behind Antigone's want of burying her brother. This structure makes us interpret the characters differently as to who they are. With those little details, we tend to immediately have a thought about whether this character is bad or good. It also makes us also want to know a little more about the back story about each character and the reason as to why they did each thing, so it invokes us as readers to continue reading the book to know more about it. It also gives us a basic view as to what we expect the motivation of the characters to be, but it could be a way to play with our minds, and in the plot, have something else revealed that could shock us since we did not expect it to happen. For example, I see Ismene as this character that is jealous that Haemon chose Antigone rather than her, and is therefor trying to steal him away from her sister. I see Haemon as somewhat unconscious about the things going on around him, and just accepts what he is told. Creon seems like this person that is trying to gain as much power as he can since he is a king now.

Topic Sentence

The Mother is a highly demanding person when it comes to her desires, but a big part of her reaction towards what she does is due to her want of keeping her honor within her community. Her honor is represented throughout the novel by her decisions as well as the way she reacts with other characters.

Journal #9- Blood Wedding

Themes in Blood Wedding:
- The past
Looking back at the past is represented throughout the book and it brings in different ideas as to who the characters are and what their relationships are with other characters. The past of each character is represented differently and plays a role into how each character reacts depending on the view of their past. With the mother, the past is something that makes her angry and overprotective over her only son, and causes her to carry this feud her entire life. But on the contrast, when we look at Leonardo's wife, and she remembers her husband's past, it makes her upset to see that he still remembers his ex-wife.
-Desires
Desires of the characters is another big theme throughout the play. Each character has desires that are either to his or her own benefit or to the benefit of their family, yet there are those desires that they cannot fulfill. Like the bride, she desires to be with Leonardo throughout the play, yet the situation she is in does not help her fulfill her desires, until we see her run away with him. The mother's desires are those of wanting the best for herself as well as her son. Her choices throughout the book are to the benefit of her and her son.
-Control
There is this element and theme of control in the play within the characters, and this theme tends to play differently with the genders of the characters. The mother's control is one that she sees as best for her family. She controls her son because she wants to make sure that he will always have a good life in the future. She even controls what should happen and tends to be the one with the last word, since everything should go her way, and she expects everyone to respect her and her decisions. On the other hand, when we look at Leonardo's control, he seems as someone that is controlling his family and expecting him to listen to what he says and respect him, in order to achieve is dark desires. He is using the horse so much in order to  go and see the bride, yet when his mother-in-law hears him say he is using the horse, she immediately says it is fine, and he can kill it too. This shows that there is this force of control over his family, although not represented directly.

Journal #8- Blood Wedding

The set changes from this exciting and joyful wedding scene, to this dark, violent and intense forest scene, with woodcutters, the moon and death. With the new set, and the darkness of the play appears. There is a clear view of blood as a good way of revenge in a way, yet there is this fear on who will end up dying in the end, which we do know who it us, but in the first reading that was the feeling. There seems to be this strong feeling of revenge on Leonardo and the Bride for doing what they did, and so blood seems to be the only answer. Of course with the scene, Leonardo and the Bride show this affection between them, but it seems like not a very fun one, because they are both scared and know that it will not end up the way they wanted it to. With this scene, we can also see that the Bride is regretting what she did now, but is not convinced to let go of Leonardo yet. Overall, the set changes this atmosphere into a dark one, and creates an intense feeling of anger in the reader against the Bride and Leonardo as well as creates suspense for what is about to happen.