Hamlet And Antigone Analysis

Hamlet and Antigone are very different plays, though both have elements in common that can tie them together. Antigone was a product of the ancient Greek’s classic theater and it followed their rigid rules of action, time, and place, and what it accompanied. The play, having to take place during the course of a single day, is about one thing, and takes place in one location. The play also was a part of a set consisting of the three tragedies and a satyr play. Hamlet on the other hand, despite being written in England during the Renaissance when playwrights and the theaters were trying to imitate the habits of their Greek predecessors, was written in an entirely different style. It took place over the span of several days, though the end goal was the …show more content…
Perhaps the theme of civil disobedience that is at the forefront of the show’s message is the reason that the play continues its popularity with each theater-going generation. In any case, Antigone is a great example of the play style of the ancient Greeks. It follows the aforementioned Three Unities (time, action, location), it has a tragic hero, and provokes catharsis. The story is about, simply, of the daughter of Oedipus (see Oedipus Rex for his story) Antigone and what befalls her. The story starts out with Antigone returning from burying her brother Polyneices who has died in a civil war with her other brother Eteocles. However, by decree of her uncle Creon, Polyneices was not to be buried due his misdeeds. During the course of the story the audience is exposed to ideas of right and wrong and whose duty it is to decide, whether it is right to follow the will of man or the wills of the gods, what to do when those wills are opposed to one another, and of the duty of devotion to one 's