Journal #12 Antigone

Ugly vs. Beauty


"Yes I am ugly! Father was ugly too. But Father became beautiful. And do you know when? At the very end." - Antigone pg. 43

Anouilh creates tension between the idea of what beauty is and what being ugly is when he describes the character's personalities. Not their actual physical appearance. For example in the quote above Antigone is talking to Creon about her father. Creon is telling Antigone the truth about her brothers and Antigone basically says that the only way she can be happy is at the end of her life. But the important part of this tension that Anouilh creates is it's applicability to the situation of the world during this time period. I saw this as Anouilh appealing to the Germans and basically saying that the ends justify the means. Antigone talks about how Oedipus became beautiful once he was at the end of his life and he could no longer doubt killing his father and sleeping with his mother. Likewise I think that the Nazis could use the same argument to justify their treatment of the Jews. Basically the German people or Nazis would become beautiful once they exterminated the Jews despite how horrific of an act it would be. That's probably a bit of a stretch so I guess a better application would be Germany winning the war would make the beautiful. Even though it would cost lives Germany needed more living room and to gain back what it had lost in World War One. Again the ends would justify the means, and beauty comes from the end, ugliness from the means. Oedipus became king but he had to kill his father and marry his mother to do it. So all in all I think that Anouilh created this tension in the play to appeal to German readers as well as French readers.

Journal #11 Antigone

The role of the chorus has changed quite significantly from last night's reading. The first that stood out to me what that the chorus was actually addressing the reader (or viewer) by saying "you". I don't recall that occurring in last night's reading to it is interesting to me that Anouilh would have the chorus begin to address the audience at this time. It made the chorus more personal so it felt like I had to look at my own experiences with what the play is discussing, whereas before I occasionally made connections to my own life. Also the chorus changed in that it wasn't discussing events that occurred during the play rather it was talking about what makes a tragedy a tragedy, kind of like what we have been doing in class, so it was nice to take a step back from the play and see Anouilh's opinion of tragedy. The chorus takes somewhat of an authoritative tone towards the reader, it didn't really as questions, more so told it like it is. It specifically tells you what tragedy is, and what tragedy is not, so it adds to the overall power of the chorus because when it becomes a reliable source in the beginning it will likely remain a reliable source throughout the rest of the play, so the reader/viewer can trust the chorus. Unless the reader/viewer has trouble with authority, in which case he or she may not like the chorus for the rest of the play. The chorus comments on tragic elements of the play by dictating what is tragedy and what is not tragedy.

Journal #10 Antigone

List of Events
Antigone sits by herself and thinks about how she is going to die, although she would rather live. She is also thinking about rising up against King Creon alone.
Ismene is chatting with a guy and smiling, because she isn't going to die
Haemon is the guy talking to Ismene, even though he is engaged to Antigone. Haemon went to a dance and Ismene is beautiful so he danced with her for awhile, and then after the dance he found Antigone alone and he proposed to her. She said yes and this was a death sentence for Haemon
Creon is sitting on the throne thinking. Earlier when his brother-in-law Oedipus was king he would spend his time in antique shops. Then Oedipus and his sons died so Creon became king and when he goes to sleep he wonders if it is worth the trouble.
Eurydice is Creon's wife, she doesn't do anything but knit, then she goes into her room and dies
The Messenger has a premonition that Haemon will die and eventually it comes true so he stays silent
The Guard have wives and children and are troubles by the same things that trouble everyone. They would arrest the King if they were ordered to.
When Oedipus died it was agreed that his two sons would alternate ruling the throne annually. The older brother refused to give up the throne, so a civil war ensued. 6 foreign princes defeated at 7 gates, the brothers killed each other. So Creon became king. Creon ordered a ceremony for the older brother Eteocles and ordered that the younger brother Polynices be left to rot. Anyone who tried to change that would be put to death.


Reflection
Anouilh's structure and diction is very calm and soothing, almost casual. When I read it in my head it sounds almost as if Anouilh is sitting by a fire just telling a story. This changes my interpretation of characters, motivations, and events in several ways. For the characters is makes them appear to be more human than other plays that we have read. Mostly because they seemed relaxed like I would be on any given day, I don't imagine them stressed and running around trying to solve problems which would be hard for me to connect to because day to day I am usually not stressed or running around. As for the motivations of the characters it makes their motivations again seem more human to me. By keeping them casual they no longer are characters in a play that I know will end poorly rather they are people that are facing real life problems. Real life meaning for that time period, I don't think we have to worry about the problems Antigone is facing anymore, but either way it makes their motivations more real. The events seem to be more real as well. Instead of being something the author made up to make the plot interesting, Anouilh's casualness leads me to believe that these events actually occurred in this story. Not like I think that they actually happened but it's more believable in this story than some of the events that occur in other stories when the author is not casual.

Topic Sentence

In Blood Wedding, written by Federico Garcia Lorca, Bride's desire for control in her life ultimately leads to her suicide in which she takes total control of her life by ending it, this need for control is a result of the arranged marriage.

Journal #9

List of themes Lorca creates in the Blood Wedding

Nature and how it contrasts the characters
Nature plays a huge role in the Blood Wedding specifically the moon, and this interested me a lot because to me nature is something that is almost entirely out of our control so to see the characters trying to control each makes for an interesting story. The moon especially to me is just intriguing that I just want to sit and think about it more and more why Lorca chose it. And also why a woman is supposed to play it

Gender roles and their significance to the events that occur
Kind of going off of that last theme with nature is why the moon is supposed to be played by a woman. I guess thats one thing that I ignored previously which is who is playing the roles. Lorca could be sending a message with who gets casted. But anyways the theme part I think that Lorca is criticizing roles set by society in general not just the role women have and why as a result people die. Like it's the death of societal roles in some way

Age and it's effect on the character and the events
One of the interesting things to me was the use of vineyards and grapes to connect families, and from my understanding of wine the older the better, so I think that it is almost as if Lorca is trying to show that the elderly people in the play are better. Although some of the older characters do a lot of manipulating. So I don't really know where that is going but I think for sure the vineyards play into a theme of age and it's significance to the characters

Journal #8 Blood Wedding

Literally the atmosphere becomes murky in act 3 when compared to act 2. In act 3 scene 1 the atmosphere is described as murky. As a reader this makes me think that the plot is supposed to get more confusing, or the characters are about to become more confused. Or I am about to get confused. That's what murky makes me think of, gets me set up for confusion. Anyways the part that I found was interesting between act 2 and act 3 was that both being at night. I think that it is very significant that they both begin at night or a couple of reasons. The first is that night is usually when people sleep, I don't know of many nocturnal people, and sleep is a biological need to perform well, so the fact that Lorca is depriving these characters of sleep may lead to the confusion. Who knows, maybe the bride wouldn't have run off if she had a good nights sleep. Maybe Leonardo and the Bridegroom wouldn't have killed each other if they had had a good night's sleep. This makes me wonder if maybe Lorca has sleeping problems. Maybe he had insomnia and spent countless nights just staring at the moon and it haunted him. So he wrote a book in which the moon is an actual character, reflecting his own life. I guess on large scale the changes in the set change the way I see the play, but what they really do is make me think about Lorca's own life. And through thinking about Lorca's life I think about the atmosphere of the play. So it's kind of the long way to it. Anyways overall I think that the set changes make everything more confusing because the atmosphere is "murky" and I would love to see it performed live.

Journal #7 Blood Wedding

Lorca adds a lot of youth to the second act and I think that it serves several purposes to add youth. The first being from a business perspective. By adding youth, the youth of the population will feel more of a connection and then will be more likely to buy it. It's a smart idea to add youth to the play because he more copies he sells the more money he makes, and who wouldn't want more money? Another reason why I think Lorca added youth is because he is dealing with some topics that seem kind of cliche in some ways, but Lorca writes them in a different manner. So the youth is just kind of a subtle reminder to the reader that Lorca is dealing with old topics in a young and fresh way. Otherwise without the addition of the youth the reader might just think that people falling in love and then dying or committing suicide is boring because there is a million books about people that fall in love and then die. Basically I think Lorca added youth to remind people that he wasn't being cliche. The overall impact that the addition of youth has on my reading and interpretation of the play is it makes me make more connections to the play than I normally would. When I was little and I read books with older characters I really felt like I had no connection to them and some of the meaning was lost. But now that I am older I feel like there is more of a possibility of the characters being more like me. Especially when I read Shakespeare, most of the characters like Romeo and Juliet were young, around my age. So I think Lorca added youth so that younger people can feel more of a connection and get more involved to come to conclusions.

Journal #6 Blood Wedding

The character that seems to be the most miserable is Leonardo. However I would like to clarify that this doesn't mean he has experienced the most misery, it just means that he is the most miserable. For instance I think that the Bride is going through more misery than Leonardo, but Leonardo lets his misery affect him more than the Bride lets her misery affect her. Leonardo openly expresses his misery to the other characters when he says "Two oxen and a tumbledown hut are almost nothing. That's what hurts." (pg. 46) his pain is understandable though, not being able to marry the person you love because of social status would be a pretty lame situation to be in. Does he need to act out in such a way though? I don't think so. I think his misery should be channelled into doing something effective and worthwhile for society rather than just wallowing in self pity. That is why I think Leonardo is the most miserable character. Like I said earlier though, that doesn't mean he is experiencing the most misery. I think that the Bride is experiencing the most misery. When she says "And it draws me under, and I know I'm drowning, but I follow" it shows to me that she is experiencing a deep pain and yet she is continuing on with her life and trying to move past it. I have more respect for the Bride because she is at least trying to make a positive out of a negative whereas Leonardo is just being a square. Having said that though I do respect Leonardo for trying so hard, because if the world didn't have any Leonardos we wouldn't have very many hard workers. If it was a world full of Brides we might not progress as far as we should. What stops the characters from pursuing what would end their misery is societal limitations. It is not appropriate for a man to go after an engage woman. I have no idea why Lorca would do this, honestly I am pretty sure it is because he read a news article with this story in it so he wrote a play.

Journal #5 Blood Wedding

It seemed to me that the Wife and the Mother-in-law were characterized a lot by the dialogue the use and how poetic is sounded. I found this interesting for several reasons. First of all I thought that it was very stereotypical to make the lady characters more poetic because that is as stereotype that exists in America today. However I am not sure that it existed in Lorca was writing this, so it is entirely possible that during his time women were thought of as not being able to write well. If this is true then Lorca would be critiquing the society he was living in. If this is not true then Lorca would simply be emphasizing what the culture already believes. I don't know enough of Spanish culture to make a guess. This effects my opinion of the women of the book because they seem more educated when they talk in a poetic style. It feels to my that when someone speaks with a sense of poetry that they not only know what they want to say but they manipulate it in a way to convince other people. So in a sense I distrust them a bit, but at the same time I trust them more than I would a different character. The thing I noticed is that they seem very caring and concerned about the well being of the Boy like I think would be stereotypical of a mother. Unfortunately I do not know enough about Lorca's home life to know if he had an effective mother or not. So I think this is what he thinks of as a good mother and whether or not it reflects his life or is a critique of bad parents I do not know. Overall though it makes me trust the character more because it makes me think of my mother and that makes me feel a stronger connection to the character.

Journal #4 Blood Wedding

The symbol of black clothing

When the neighbor walks into the house to talk with mother and she is described as "dressed in black with a shawl wrapped around her head" (pg. 6) When the pair talk they discuss how the neighbor's son's hands had been cut off by the "machine" and I think Lorca specifically chose to have the women dressed in black to reflect her emotions about her son's incidents. I find this interesting because I thought someone said in class that white was worn for sadder occasions and black was for happier occasions (I am not entirely sure) but this would be an example of when black clothing was worn at a sad occasion. Also the mother had just been discussing her husbands death with the bridegroom when the woman entered so I think that black clothing shows up as a symbol of misfortune from the beginning of the play whether or not it is supposed to be a happy color in spanish culture.

The symbol of grapes

Grapes come up early in the first scene when the bridegroom asks for a knife to cut some grapes. From there the mother goes into some sort of mental break down about how knives kill things. Later on however the bridegroom talks about how he saved up enough money to buy his lady friend a vineyard. I thought that it was interesting how the grapes are used to put the mother in a position to recall the memories of her late husband but then they come up again to give her a vision of her son's new family and how the family name will continue. I am not sure how important family names were during this time, but it seems like in the first scene the grapes are the connection between the family name dying with the death of the husband and the beginning of the new life with the bridegroom and his family.