IB Criteria as Compared to the Proposed Topic to Base a commentary of Greek Tragedy Upon

A. Selection of Aspect and it's Treatment
I believe my topic is worthy of a 4 in this area, because it is independent in thought, and can be applied to almost any of the tragedies. It is appropriate to the assignment and has a specific focus to be based upon. Pride can be found in the plays and it's connection to pride is in integral to Greek tragedies, which bring a hero up only to have them fall even further.

B.Knowledge and Understanding of work
This warrants a 3. while currently it is appropriate, it does not demonstrate a profound knowledge of the text and needs to exercise a deeper involvement in what is hidden in the text. Some links are made but more original ones are required.

C.Presentation
4. although the outline has not been completed, it has a well thought out structure of alternating the topic with the works to show how it relates to each of the works, and to each other. There is no word limit to consider, but a statement of intent has been created to form the outline around.

D. Language
Not applicable until rough draft is formed.

The French Comparison

In Jean's Antigone there is the theme of happiness being a meaningless point to life, and that it's true purpose is self-fufillment. This existential view on life, commonly adopted during the 1940's after the World Wars. Unable to understand how so many people could lose their lives over something as futile as political borders and a lust for power, people found this view popular. It shows similarities to the theme in Oedipus the King of a lust for power causing tragedy. The two themes show how those who seek power and happiness, materialistic and abstract things, are the victims of the tragedy.

French Ambiguity

In the story Jean uses the word the word "understand" often in the argument between Creon and Antigone. Antigone wants Creon to understand that he is accountable for eveything that has happened, that it was not a matter of him seizing power when it needed to be done. It was not noble, but rather him doing what benefitted him. And Creon wants her to see that her brothers were both traitors and both wanted to overthrow the king, so really they both deserved their fate.

Words like happiness are ambiguous. Creon wants Antigone to just be subservient and so everyone will be happy. Antigone realizes that happiness is the fufilling feeling one feels when life is going well, and what Creon describes is appeasement and contentment. She's motivated to achieve the goals she set out to, and Creon is motivated to keep her alive so she may marry his son, but teach her not to be rebellious.

In our scene I play Oedipus when he is just about to realize who he really is and who his parents were. He is motivated to find his lineage, setting to rest the fears he has that the prophet's words will come true. By being so afraid of this destiny, Oedipus goes to all ends of the earth to figure it out. His relentlessness eventually leads to the truth being uncovered, and so Oedipus's motivation leads to his downfall, one element that makes it tragic. In it he says he doesn't care if he was a common slave, but the truth is far more horrible.

Antigone Journal 4

Lit Devices

Personification: "Have you ever thought about how beautiful a garden is when it is not yet thinking of men?"
The use of figurative language expresses the deep contemplation Antigone is feeling, since she is accepting the fact that she is going to die. She is thinking about how beautiful the world is since she won't be living in it much longer. The language expresses regret and sorrow towards her fate.

Simile: "watching over them like a mother hen"
Not only does this express the care the nurse shows for the two girls, whom she loves dearly and will have some effect on the story when Antigone has to die, but it dates the play. Such an expression wasn't used by the ancient Greeks back in the day, so it presents a more modern version in which the interpreter must choose an appropriate replacement to make it connect to the audience.

Imagery: "cold, black, beautiful, flowing water."
the lovely imagery of the water, expressed as so beautiful and pure, isn't allowed into the palace because it doesn't belong there, even if it's beautiful. Antigone is the water that is beautiful water that goes where it pleases, and it conflicts with the palace. Antigone is saying how she is destined to die because she doesn't fit in in the palace, so she willingly accepts her fate, but her sister belongs in this setting.

The French Effect

In this version of Antigone there are modern replacements for all common everyday things, like coffee, dresses, and make-up. War is mentioned in great detail in this book, talking about a great conflict that split up the nation. This could be an effect of World War 1, connecting with the audience about the tragedy of two brothers fighting against the other. Also, Ismene and Antigone don't have a fight at the beginning, possibly due to a female interpretation of the story, beliving it would be different.

Roles of Antigone: The Casting

Creon: Michael Richards/ Kramer
Appeareance: Same as in show but with golden toga
Reason: Could play an illogical character overcome with power.

Antigone: Keira Knightley
Appearance: sullen, depressed, mournful of her fate and her predicament
Reason: face can pull sadness off well

Ismene:Jessica Alba
Appearance: Youthful, young, beautiful
Reason: will play the sister who doesn't want to see her sibling harmed, but needs her as a companion, seems like dependent person.

leader: Tenacious D
appearance: togas and harps and lutes
Reason; Lyrics pertain to epic journey and legendary achievements.

sentry: Samuel L. Jackson
appearance: gold armor and a spear
Reason: Looks tough, could play the role of a guard, can be eloquent with words.

Haemon: Eric Bana
appearance; toga
Reason: can be rash and forceful towards creon, contradicting him.

Cathardic elements

Medea and oedipus are similar in the sense that both heroes lose their prestigious reputations, they bring about their own fate, and pity is evoked for both heroes predicaments.

In both plays the heroes are royalty, who are renowned for certain skills or achievements. when this reputation is tarnished, the audience feels pity towards the character, who was once so great, reduced to shambles. it helps purge the audience of their pity, as Sophocles would have believed.

In Oedipus, he brings about the realization of the horrible truth, that he had killed his father and wedded his mother, because his fear and pride compelled him to pursue Laius's murderer. Medea's anguish and death threats towards Jason and his new bride have her banished from the land, forcing her hand to do the horrendous act she had been planning.

As stated previously, pity is evoked when seeing the prestigious and honorable people, ones the audience could aspire to become, reduced to the level of an exile and lowly murderer. Seeing Medea's anguish, when all she had done wrong was love blindly, makes the audience sympathize for her, since they have all done the same, and she received a far worse punishment.

Antigone Lit Devices

1.Figurative Language: "I will raise a mound for him, for my dear brother." (63, line 95)
By using the word raise instead of something like lowered, she gives it a positive nuance, reinforcing the idea that giving her dishonored brother a proper burial is the right thing to do. Antigone is contradicting her sister, believing ther is a reason to bury him, and it is to appease the gods. yet again the gods play a significant role in plot.

2.Hyperbole: "great beam of the sun, brightest of all that ever rose on the seven gates of Thebes." (65, lines 117 and 118)
In this the sunrise is exaggerated to be the brigthtest there ever was, though this can't be true. it contrasts the idea that the moon is some enemy of Thebes, seeking to destroy it. By saying the sun is brightest today, they are celebrating beating the night, and the sun is a symbol of victory.

3.Hyperbole: "Ready to take up red-hot iron in our fists," 972, line 300)
the guard is expressing how ready the guards were to take a solemn oath that they did not dtouch the body. this lets the audience see how angry Creon becomes by hering this, and it foreshadows anitogne's tragic fate at the end of the play. Though we don't know the punishment yet, the audience can only imagine how horrific it will be.

Medea Journal 3

In the play Medea doesn't actually speak out to the gods in a manner that expects a reply, but more in a rhetoric sense, using them as an invisible audience so that she may voice her opinions aloud but not break the sacred 4th wall in theatre much like the chorus. Jason, a glorious and proud hero of high reputation, speaks in a manner that implies he is speaking in a literal sense to them. When he asks the gods to curse Medea for the deaths of her young children, he says it in a way that seems like he, on the other hand, expects some reply or results from his wish. This may have to do with gender roles, where the man can have audience with gods but she cannot, or it may simply have to do with the best functioning purpose of the character, Medea the loner in need of someone to voice her muderous thoughts aloud, and Jason someone to curse to. Medea uses the gods as an audience to speak to, and Jason uses them to express his unbridled hatred of Medea.