Tragedy Journal #11

At the start of the play, the chorus' main objective is to inform the readers. As was discussed in class, there is a great amount of background that is needed to understand the story. All of the characters have something that needs to be known. The story has to start somewhere, and 'the beginning' is not that place due to the background knowledge necessary. The Chorus also provided a level playing field on which the story was built upon. One of the elements of a tragedy that we have learned so far through the Interactive Oral and other discussions is that there should be reasons to side with both sides of the play. This is one of the reason's Anouilh's Antigone was able to be shown in theaters in Nazi occupied France. The Germans were able to see what they wanted to see and could connect with that side. Starting at page 23, there is a noticeable change in Chorus. It starts using more metaphorical language instead of giving relevant and necessary information. "The spring is wound up tight. It will uncoil of itself. ... The machine is in perfect order; it has been oiled ever since time began, and it runs without friction" (Anouilh 23). Through this shift in the language, the role of the chorus begins to tell of tragedies in general. There is a focus on the differences between a tragedy and a melodrama. Perhaps Anouilh was fed up with people thinking the two were one and the same. I feel through the Chorus, the author is able to put in his own opinions. The tone seems to stay somewhat the same despite this shift in language however. The atmosphere of the piece remains consistent. "No gravestone is to be set up in his memory. And above all, any person who attempts to give him a religious burial will himself be put to death" (23). The quote from the first section is dark and depressing in nature, just as later on. "Death, treason, and sorrow are on the march; and they move in the wake of storm, of tears, of stillness" (23).