Role-Playing in Antigone and Africa

Running Head: CLASSICS AND THEIR USE IN THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS
Classics and their Use in the Contemporary Politics
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Table of Contents

CLASSICS AND THEIR USE IN THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS1
Response to Question 1..............................................................................................................2
Response to Question 2..............................................................................................................6
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................10

CLASSICS AND THEIR USE IN THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS2
Response to Question 1
Sophocles' Antigone is one of the early Greek classics and was taught and left to
public access in the ancient city of Athena. Among the contemporaries of Sophocles and him,
the quest to find the answer of man's nature and the reason for his existence was the most
prominent one. It was considered because the philosophers and tragedians of the fifth century
Greek considered themselves to be guardians of establishing morals and ethics in society.
They achieved their psychological satisfaction of conveying the ethical scale through their
drama and plays. Sophocles' Antigone is the last of the Theban plays (Wrigley, 2010). The
presence of the question of man's identity is more accurately portrayed with the political
show not just within the concept of administration or the ruler but to exert the question of
man and his fervent ethical combines intimate relationships such as between father and son in
case of Creon and Haemon and Creon and Antigone. It increases the stakes intensifying the
portrayal of politics and way it moulds the question of man in a way Sophocles can portray
him as a political animal, sui generis (Van Bever Donker, 2017).
The plot of tragedy shows a ruler who does not allow the cremation of a soldier who
has died in his land, which could be seen as retribution. However, when it is combined with
Greek mythology, one can understand the depth of the matter as it concerns the denial of the
burial services, which holds a significant role in society. Like various other ancient cultures,
Greek cultures also deems burial and the last rituals equally important as the rites of life
because the last rites of burial are considered as the preparation for the journey afterlife
which is the ultimate one (Gordon, 2012). The next series of action shows Creo amidst the
confusion which has brought upon him the destruction that leaves him and the city in ruin
even before he could realize and change his decision or compensate for it. The loss bore by
Creon is, however, the bigger one in the sense that within a small of the period he loses his
entire family as well as his kingdom.

CLASSICS AND THEIR USE IN THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS3
Bertolt Brecht and Athol Fugard both wrote tragedies in the period of epic theatre in
their consecutive languages and challenged the conventional understanding of rule in their
period. Fugard conveyed the apartheid time in which he lived and portrayed the changing
dynamic or the perception of change that the society has accepted in the political scenario in
his play The Island which follows a simple plot of an unknown prison and two prisoner’s life
and approaches towards their administration. In case of Fugard, one can see the appeal of the
play as the system of apartheid was inflicted on them where they suffered despite being in the
majority showing the system of slavery they were subjected to even after independence. It
was not possible for writers to openly criticize the government being condemned and
punished for it and to escape that he used the exemplary play from the Greek tragedy
showing the impact and grip of unchecked administration (Sarah, 2013). The plot is based on
two characters who are imprisoned in unnamed and anonymous prison which stands for
Robben Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela also served his prison term. The use of
the tragic form is not direct but in the form of play inside a play which is also observed as one
of the features of Brecht's epic theatre. Nevertheless, in the play, two of the convict's John
Kani and Winston Ntshona are made for sharing the same room and are bound to each other
through chains. It depicts the way the government made people realize their dependence on
others to institutionalize their governance and its acceptance in them.
The chains which were shown to be their weakness is used by Fugard to demonstrate
their effect when it comes to questioning the authority. The role-play or the feature of play
within the play conveys the sense of helplessness among the prisoners inside their rooms to
which they sealed. It represents their effort to escape the reality of life, which can also be
seen as the protest against the administration, which kept them chained together in order to
punish them. However, they use each other company to find the strength to bear the suffering
and their little role plays and acting's were a method of transporting themselves out of their