Antigone by jean anouilh

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This is a tremendously powerful reworking of Sophocles' Antigone written and first performed in German occupied France. Antigone decides to bury her dead brother despite the order of the city's conquerors not to do so. Antigone is morally right of course but she brings down tragedy upon herself.

Anouilh's very clear style makes this play a logical choice for any French Lit course aimed at Anglophones. It has great emotional impact and delivers a stark message to the young reader that being in the right sometimes bears a very heavy price.

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Daddydiggle2

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

واقعاً یکی از زیبا‌ترین اقتباس‌هایی بود که تا حالا خوندم. بیشتر به این خاطر که نیومده بود روی داستان اصلی سوار شه و حرف خودشو به کرسی بشونه بلکه فقط اون رو گسترش داده بود.

آنتیگون سوفوکل که چند هزار ساله داره موشکافی میشه و به نظر می‌رسه هر چیزی که میشه راجع بهش فهمید رو می‌دونیم، یه تقابل تراژیک می‌سازه برای مخاطب یونان باستان از دو اصل خانواده (به نمایندگی آنتیگون) و قانون یا دولت (به نمایندگی کرئون). کاری که سوفوکل خیلی خوب انجامش داده بود و الان ژان آنوی به نظرم تونسته بود ازش به خوبی تقلید کنه این بود که نتیجه نهایی این تقابل رو واگذار می‌کرد به مخاطب و ازش درس اخلاقی نمی‌ساخت.

اینکه ژان آنوی کار سوفوکل رو گسترش داد به نظرم تو این مورد بود که از این دو شخصیت دنیایی از مفاهیم رو ساخته بود. من از کرئونِ آنوی فقط حس مرد قانون رو نمی‌گرفتم و برام تصویر حیات و بقا بود که در مقابل مرگ قرار گرفته بود. احساس کردم تمام عمر کرئون رو از بچگیش تا جوونیش و پیریش تونستم ببینم و درک کنم جوری که مثه بچه‌ها از قشنگی‌های زندگی می‌گفت و مثه پیرمردا از عمر به باد رفته صحبت می‌کرد. حتی می‌شد سیر رشد تفکر بشریت رو هم ازش دید که ذره ذره به سمت عقل‌گرایی می‌رفت با مثال داروینیستی‌ای که از تولید مثل و بقا آورد.

در مقابلش آنتیگون انگار مثل خود مرگ سیاه بود و با هر حرفش بیشتر عمق تاریکیش رو نشون می‌داد. مثل خشک‌های مذهبی گوشش رو به حرفای کرئون بسته بود، مثه شاعرا و نویسنده‌ها تو عالم احساسات و عقاید خودش سیر می‌کرد و من این حس رو گرفتم که داشت از ترحم و دلسوزی برای خودش بیشتر از هر چیزی لذت می‌برد. جوری که تک و تنها بودنش دم مرگ رو تکرار می‌کرد و سعی داشت تا لحظه آخر بر خلاف جریان حرکت کنه برام درست شبیه فعل مردن بود که آخرین اعلام وجود ما تو عالمه و باید تا جایی که می‌تونیم پر هیاهو انجامش بدیم.

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Voremio

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

A perfect ode to the teenage spirit.

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venkii

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

The story and character of Antigone in general and this version of her tragedy in particular has a very special place in my heart. I first read it in high school with the rest of my sophomore English class, and it had an incredibly strong effect on me that I can only describe as lifechanging. I had been struggling through a very dark period in my life, and this play was one of the first works of classic literature introduced to me through school that was able to reach through the psychological confines I had put up around myself and throttle me back to awareness with the emotional significance of its words and characters. Antigone's gutwrenching fate was something I could focus my own emotional turmoil on in order to take a step back from the precipice of self-destruction I was headed towards. But it wasn't only that I saw myself in this tragedy, the truly lifechanging aspect of it was that it helped me to become aware of the cultural and political importance the play had in France when it was published, that my eyes were opened to the full scope of suffering and fight for survival under oppressive circumstances that greatly surpassed my own juvenile misery. And while in many ways I am still struggling through that same dark period as before, I truly believe Antigone had a hand in shaping the good parts of me, expanding my mind as both a reader and a person, and that is something I can say of very few works.

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deletemal

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Read this French text while listening to an English-language audiobook. (translated by Christopher Nixon).

Luckily for me I got the audiobook as when I turned to the print edition I had checked out from the library, it turned out to be in French!! My French isn't good enough to have read this alone but was good enough to attempt reading it with the help of an English translation in audio :) It was an interesting experience! The L.A. TheatreWorks audiobook doesn't include stage directions so I would pause momentarily while I read these.

One thing that I noticed is that while Creon talks to Antigone in the familiar (tu), she responds to him in the formal (vous). This difference gives a spin to their relationship which cannot easily be duplicated in English.

Reading this knowing that it was written & first performed in Vichy France gives certain phrases and actions a special significance. However, even without that Anouilh's version of this story had some interesting twists to Sophocles' original. Creon is a more ambivalent character; he seems more reasonable, more caring and less stubborn than the one in either the Sophocles or Heaney versions. Antigone's relationships with Haemon (Creon's son) and her sister Ismene are both expanded but her motivation for her actions in this version is much more murky. By lessening the contrast between the 2 characters you would expect that the tension would be less but Anouilh manages to make their confrontation even more heartbreaking as it has overtones of a family feud (and of course, if you read into it Creon as the French colloborator acting for the Nazis and Antigone as the Resistance fighter, then the drama is heightened even further).

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Noir_Alchemist

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Auf meinem Bücherregal neben Camus und Sartre ist Jean Anouilh dazugekommen :). Purer Existentialismus. Ich könnte mich theoretisch mit jedem Charakter identifizieren, außer den drei Wachen.

(Gelesen für Alex)

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