Sophocles Antigone-Re Evaluating Tragedy

Re-evaluating Tragedy

Fifth century Athens created the institutionalisation of tragedy as an art form throughout the polis. Originating as Dionysian celebrations through masks, dithyrambs and dance, tragedy developed into an architectural form for playwrights, namely Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, to encapsulate the struggle of the human condition in its attempts to reconcile good and evil existence.

Aristotle deconstructed tragedy and its form into the “imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude”. Consequently, there emerged the four intrinsic elements: the plot, the tragic emotions, the catharsis of fear and pity and the discovery of the whole structure of the artistic representation.

Compared to Aristotle’s stricter definition, modern philosophers developed the genre of tragedy into an intellectual

Yet Sophocles denounces their attempted catharsis as a futile delusion. This is paralleled in the dramatic irony of their Elysian allusions, which pre-emptively rejoices Antigone’s rescue. Through the climactic ode, Sophocles encapsulates the hierarchy of the polis against the cosmic order, as the conduit of catharsis through art does not implore active divine intervention but rather humanity’s contemplation of the existential realm. Thus, the calamity that is Antigone’s death pervades with a justified aesthetic pleasure, beguiling to Dionysian forces in its horror. For it is love in its chaotic ecstasy that leads Antigone to death and catharsis can only be achieved by conceding in wisdom to inescapable, indestructible death, paralleled in the last lines. Thus, tragedy as a Dionysian art opposing the Apollonian forces allows humanity to transcend inhibitions to unite with the true nature of human nature and its