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The two passages from Antigone and The Tragedy of King Lear are apt for comparison because similar events occur, both scenes feature a strong female figure confronting a male authority figure and questioning their conduct. The two passages also represent turning points in the plays, which although separated both distance and time, both address similar fundamental conflicts between human nature and the state. Both these scenes are a result of bad decisions made by the respective kings. Through these passages we can compare the power dynamic within the argument, the role of both the Chorus and the Fool and try to ascertain what audience reaction was intended.
The passage from Antigone is important because the audience has not yet witnessed Creon’s decree that Polynices not be given full burial rites. This is the first indication of how serious and adamant Creon is about the consequences of the perceived treachery of Polynices. This is the last chance Creon has to to change his mind and he totally refuses, condemning not only Polynices but also Antigone, his family and ultimately himself.
Antigone and Creon argue over divine law versus man’s law. Antigone is representing divine law whereas Creon stands for man’s law. Antigone has defied the orders of Creon and buried her brother, Polynices, after his death in the civil war. However, because Antigone is effectively isolated due to her lack of power, this argument becomes a battle between the state and the individual; “None of my subjects thinks as you do.” (Antigone, 507), Creon tells Antigone, effectively ordering that she should think as her superior has told her. Creon in his stubbornness and desire to rule absolutely orders the execution of Antigone for disobeying his orders; this in turn sets in motion the events for his own familial and political downfall.
The argument in the King Lear passage differs in that it is a battle of respect versus power. Lear expects respect because of his former status and his family role whereas Gonerill exercises her new power over her father. Gonerill is enraged by the liberties she believes that Lear’s men are taking in her home; “But other of your insolent retinue/ Do hourly carp and quarrel” (King Lear, 1.4.161-2). Lear begins to realise his mistake in abdicating his throne.
There is a difference in the power wielded by the authority figure in each piece, Creon is a king and has the absolute power associated with this, or at least he has the arrogance and self-belief to believe he has; “She shall not flout my orders with impunity.” (Antigone, 487). Lear, on the other hand, has abdicated and given over his power to his two daughters. Though he has basically resigned his power he still expects to be treated as a king and is amazed that he is being talked to thus by Gonerill. So amazed in fact, that he feigns not knowing who he is:
Does any here know me? This is not Lear:
Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied – Ha! Waking? ‘Tis not so!
Who is it that can tell me who I am?
(King Lear, 1.4.185-9)
Lear has no actual power but he believes he deserves respect as he was once king and the ancestral respect as he is Gonerill’s father.
This difference in power means that the authority figure of Lear is in a similar position to Antigone, both believe they are in the right but they are powerless to do anything about it. The King Lear passage is important because this is the first time we are seeing Lear so powerless, he opened the play as a powerful character able to banish people and dictate the terms of his abdication. Whereas now, the audience is introduced to a weaker more vulnerable character, vainly trying to retain what he sees as his rightful ability to govern, but failing, thus engendering sympathy.
Conversely, Antigone is the lonely and powerless figure in the Sophocles passage. Antigone’s isolation is much more absolute than Lear’s however. The depth of Antigone’s loneliness and lack of power could be argued to be shown when Antigone makes her ferocious and obstinate speech against Creon’s orders. The Chorus are clearly on Creon’s side when they say:
She shows her father’s stubborn spirit: foolish
Not to give way when everything’s against her.
(Antigone, 435-6)
They accuse her of being both stubborn and foolish, thus it could be argued that the Chorus is on Creon’s side in this passage. However, the Chorus is all but silent during Creon and Antigone’s argument. This silence of the Chorus seems to confirm Antigone’s claim of “But fear locks their lips” (Antigone, 505). But also, this silence is withholding any approval of Antigone’s actions, the Chorus may be afraid to voice their discontent but they are not so cowed as to feel forced to vocally back Creon in the argument. Therefore the Chorus voice their disapproval of Creon by saying almost nothing. In King Lear we have a similar point to consider, what exactly are the knights and attendants, who entered with Lear at the start of the scene, actually doing? Are they providing a visual and audible confirmation of Gonerill’s complaints or are they silent?
The role of the Fool in King Lear is similar to that of the Chorus, Elizabethan drama seldom employed a full chorus and the Fool is an example of one person taking on that role. The is there to both take part in the play and commentate on it (Cuddon 1999, 133-34). In this passage the Fool is very much a part of the discourse. The Fool is loyal to his king, and his attacks are more barbed when he is insulting Gonerill; “The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,/ That it’s had it head bit off by it young.” (King Lear, 1.4.175-6). This attack on Gonerill also shows the Fool’s wisdom in knowing exactly what is going on and what will occur. The Fool in this passage differs very much to the Chorus in the Antigone passage , filling the silence of the argument between Lear and Gonerill rather than being a passive force like the Chorus are.
The attitude of the Chorus seems to change somewhat at the end of the passage when they question Creon about denying his son his intended wife; “Sir, would you take her from your own son’s arms?” (Antigone, 574), now they are appealing to Creon for Antigone’s mercy. However, they quickly back down after Creon’s blunt answer. The relationship between Creon and the Chorus is that of tyrant and the oppressed.
Although in King Lear the equivalent of the Chorus is the Fool there are still a lot of other players present on the stage in the Shakespeare passage. Lear entered near to the beginning of the scene with knights and attendants. Gonerill’s admonishments leads us to an uncertainty when reading this play, with the typical lack of stage directions we have to judge for ourselves what these knights and attendants are doing during this scene. Their rowdiness, or lack of, decides whether Gonerill’s complaints are in some way justified. Lear’s erratic behaviour certainly adds some merit to the idea that the retinue is misbehaving as a whole, when he does not take Gonerill seriously at first and instead chides her.
Therefore, “Shakespeare’s treatment of the tension between Gonerill and Lear is systematically ambiguous, evoking “contradictory responses” in the audience.” (Booth cited in Lusardi & Schleuter 1991, 65).
Shakespeare subtly shows the audience that Lear’s power is diminishing due to the delay in his being obeyed. Lear commands, “Saddle my horses; call my train together.” (King Lear, 1.4.208) but has to repeat himself, “Prepare my horses” (King Lear, 1.4.213). This time we do not have to worry about Shakepeare’s lack of stage directions, it is apparent from the dialogue that he is not being obeyed. Creon’s own power may be disliked but he is obeyed straight away. At the very start of the passage the sentry leaves to fulfil Creon’s wishes straight away and with no comment.
In both pieces we have the authority figure having his manhood threatened, this is something both are aware of in the passages looked at. Lear tells Gonerill;
Life and death! I am ashamed
That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus,
(King Lear, 1.4.251-2)
In Antigone we have Creon’s sarcastic but telling remark at Antigone;
Go then, and hare your love among the dead.
We’ll have no woman’s law here, while I live.
(Antigone, 523-4)
The first sentence is a bitter and sarcastic attack against Antigone whereas the second sentence is much more telling of Creon’s true feelings on the matter. Basically he does not want to be told what to do by a woman. Lear seems more worried about being seen to cry.
There is less of this uncertainty in Antigone. The audience is compelled to take Antigone’s side on this matter, siding with Creon is tantamount to agreeing to the desecration of corpses. The audience moves to side with Antigone because even though she uses divine law to justify her actions, her actions are actually far more human. Creon ignores the inhumanity in his actions and uses Polynices as an example of what happens if you betray the state. The audience is being compelled to side with Antigone through the humanity of her actions.
The single line arguments in Antigone differ wildly from the more protracted dialogue spoken in King Lear. The effect of the single line arguments is to create a feeling of a heated and ferocious argument taking place.
The two passages diverge in content once the argument has reached a peak. In Antigone the argument is interrupted by the arrival of Ismene. The two sisters then argue whether Ismene should share Antigone’s fate. The King Lear passage ends with Lear cursing his daughter before leaving to join Gonerill’s sister.
An audience’s reaction to Antigone as a character must be one of slight confusion. Sophocles has this character appear to all intents and purposes as if she stands alone against Creon’s judgment but the appearance of her sister, Ismene, changes this view of her. Ismene wishes to join her sister in punishment but Antigone refuses her. Ismene did not want to risk aiding Antigone before, but once the deed was done she tries to share the punishment with Antigone. Either recognising that what Antigone was doing was in fact right, or wanting to share in the “tribute of honour to him that is dead” (Antigone, 545). Antigone had initially stood alone against Creon because Ismene refused to help her, then stands alone because she refuses to condemn Ismene to death alongside her and, finally perhaps, to punish her for initially showing greater loyalty to Creon than to her own sister:
ANTIGONE: You shall not die with me. You shall not claim
That which you would not touch. One death is enough.
ISMENE: How can I bear to live if you must die?
ANTIGONE: Ask Creon. Is not he the one you care for?
(Antigone, 546-9)
What is an audience to make of Ismene? Do they believe she is sincere in her desire to join Antigone in punishment? Her appearance compels the audience to see just how strong Antigone is actually acting. The audience is being asked to sympathise with Antigone’s belief that divine law is greater than man’s law. Antigone is an easier character to sympthasise with as she alone against the odds and she is not politically motivated, Lear is a character that has only just banished his daughter for not praising him enough. His violent yet impotent outburst provokes pity for the ragings of an old man, rather than invoking fear or awe in the audience. In his outburst Lear is exposed for what he is, an insecure frightened being who is starting to lose his grip on sanity.
The argument between Ismene and Antigone over whether Ismene should join Antigone in punishment is significantly different from anything that occurs in the Lear passage. Normand Berlin argues that this passage is here to “force the audience to think of the terrible paradox of love leading to the denial of love”. (Berlin 1990, 299). No such conflict is addressed in by Shakespeare in the King Lear passage, which deals mostly with the fear of fading power.
Nothing shows Lear’s lack of power more than when he finally curses his daughter with sterility and laments on how painful it is to have a “thankless child” (King Lear, 1.4.280):
Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear:
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility,
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child. Away, away!
(King Lear, 1.4.230-244)
In conclusion, both passages are vital to the texts in different ways, both deal with conflict and the undermining of a central character, coupled with the exposition of central themes. However, the different backgrounds of the authors and the different mechanics with which they tackle the issues of conflict and power make for differing approaches, to similar ends.
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Originally Posted by Smith
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