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.
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