In the story of Antigone, two very headstrong people’s beliefs are matched up against each other. Creon, the king, made it law that no traitor to the Kingdom shall have a proper burial, instead they will be left laying on the ground to rot and to be eaten by the animals.
This was the case of Antigone’s brother, Polyneices. Antigone’s love for her brother was so great that she went against the law, even though she knew Creon’s punishment for breaking the law was public stoning, which ultimately resulted in death. Creon, who had an equal amount of determination, refused to back down from his law for his own reasons even after Antigone ignored it. He could not submit himself to the will of a woman. At that time, women were looked at as being in the same class as slaves. If he did, it would have showed weakness in him and the people would have overthrown him for letting a woman have that effect on him. So instead of the public stoning, Creon sentenced Antigone to die in a cave where she could starve to death. Instead of dying a slow miserable death, she committed suicide by hanging herself. As it turns out, this set off a string of events for the king that he could have never saw coming. The first of the tragic events that would unfold was the death of his son. Haemon was Creon and Eurydice’s son and was next in line to the throne with Antigone as his wife. Creon’s son was set to be married to Antigone, but after Creon sentenced her to death, Haemon turned on his father. He was outraged that Creon had taken away his future wife, in which he was very much in love with. He was so outraged, that he would even break the unique and special bond between father and son. Haemon felt incomplete without Antigone and could not stand being apart from her. He found away to solve his problem and get revenge on his father at the same time. He had taken his own life and at the same time killed the future of the family’s place in the throne. Creon was crushed at what his son did, especially hearing it from someone else. After hearing of Haemon’s death, Eurydice was completely devastated and felt somewhat violated. She felt Creon was responsible for the death of not only Haemon, but for Megareus who was killed some years before.
Free Essay: Formalistic Approach to Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown
Formalistic Approach to Young Goodman Brown
To understand Young Goodman Brown fully the reader must analyze the story using the formalistic approach. In class we described the formalistic approach as using allegory, historical background, allusion, and symbolism to interpret a work. When using these methods of interpretation, the story became clearer to me because I understood some of the historical background that the story was based on, as well as what some of the symbols meant, that I had previously been unaware.
“In allegory (a narrative containing a meaning beneath the surface one), there is usually a one-to-one relationship; that is one idea or object in the narrative stands for only one idea or object allegorically”(p.59). In Young Goodman Brown the allegory lies in the main character’s desire to walk down the evil path for a little while just to see what it is like, then come back to the good life. He plans to do this by walking with the man in the forest and then coming back to Faith, his wife, who personifies his faith. The tricky part about encountering evil is that one must veer from faith, again this is allegorical to his wife and his having to leave her that one night.
The historical background to this story helps to clarify why this story is significant and why some things happen during the tale. The Puritans believe in Predestination. I learned in American history that Predestination was the belief that certain people were destined to go to heaven while the others were destined for a place much less comfortable. The basis for whom went was up to God and it didn’t reflect on how righteous the person appeared to be on the outside. This becomes important in Young Goodman Brown because when he hears of and sees people that he believed were good people following the devil, he begins to doubt that anything is good. Another Puritan practice was to name their children after traits that they found to be admirable such as Faith, Patience, or Young Goodman Brown in hopes that that virtue would stay with them and be prevalent in their lives.
The use of allusion is also apparent in Young Goodman Brown. The main character’s wife is named Faith. This is an allusion to his own faith. For example, Mr. Brown loses Faith when he goes into the dark woods with the spooky guy that walks with a serpent-staff.