Dramaturgy Four

In the article “Another Antigone”, Saxonhouse looks at Eudipides exploration/use of the character Antigone in a form we’re not used to seeing. We see a unsettling alternative to the familiar, one that rubs harshly against Sophocles’ influential story. Antigone in Euripides “Phoenician Women” goes through the exploration of “…troubling epistemological disruptions that allow Antigone to become a political actor…” (Saxonhouse, 475)

Euripides play though a more psychological exploration of Antigone, he does explore the political stand of Thebes after Oedipus’ discovery of his incestual relationship with his mother. With both of Antigone’s brothers going to war, Polyneices showing up with an Argive host to demand the throne from his brother Eteocles. Antigone has been kept hidden in her maiden room, till she eventually casts off any shame or respect for the hierarchy that has kept her hidden. And she eventually gains the strength to rise above gender restrictions that kept her repressed throughout her life. (Saxonhouse 479-480)

Seeing a different side to Antigone allows us to approach our production with a wider view, allowing us to find a more dimensional world. We can look back and find where Antigone came from. Also Euripides gives us a better view of the political turmoil that Thebes was going through.

Saxonhouse, Arlene W. "Another Antigone: The Emergence of the Female Political Actor in Euripides' "Phoenician Women"" JSTOR: Political Theory 33.4 (2005): 472-94. Print.