The Final Post
Finally, we have reached a discussion on “Antigone” by Sophocles. I think this is a tricky piece for a few reasons: first, the moral dilemma that Antigone faces is very debatable… You can’t really argue that what she did was correct or incorrect or whether you would or would not do the same. Also, there are a few ambiguous motifs that come up quite a bit throughout the play; the one I will focus on is the infamous knitting.
The first thing that it reminded me of was Madame Defarge’s knitting in A Tale of Two Cities. Unfortunately, I read it in the 10th grade so I can’t remember too much about its significance other than the fact that it too represents fate. I remember writing a full report on how every stitch Madame Defarge knits brings the characters’ fate one step closer. So, knowing that a piece of literature that is just as popular as “Antigone” had the same motif and significance of said motif, helped prove to myself that the knitting in the play actually does represent fate. If that’s not enough though, the idea that once the knitting in the play stopped every character had died (including the knitter) should, at the least, hint at the knitting revolving around fate.
Back to A Tale of Two Cities, I realized that Charles Dickens could have very well been alluding to “Antigone.” If that is the case, then it is pretty much guaranteed that the knitting means what we think it means. There are an infinite amount of secondary sources that discuss the significance of Madame Defarge’s knitting, and they all come to our same conclusion. So, if Dickens was alluding to this play, there’s no way the knitting here doesn’t also represent fate.
The first thing that it reminded me of was Madame Defarge’s knitting in A Tale of Two Cities. Unfortunately, I read it in the 10th grade so I can’t remember too much about its significance other than the fact that it too represents fate. I remember writing a full report on how every stitch Madame Defarge knits brings the characters’ fate one step closer. So, knowing that a piece of literature that is just as popular as “Antigone” had the same motif and significance of said motif, helped prove to myself that the knitting in the play actually does represent fate. If that’s not enough though, the idea that once the knitting in the play stopped every character had died (including the knitter) should, at the least, hint at the knitting revolving around fate.
Back to A Tale of Two Cities, I realized that Charles Dickens could have very well been alluding to “Antigone.” If that is the case, then it is pretty much guaranteed that the knitting means what we think it means. There are an infinite amount of secondary sources that discuss the significance of Madame Defarge’s knitting, and they all come to our same conclusion. So, if Dickens was alluding to this play, there’s no way the knitting here doesn’t also represent fate.