Power of Higher Authority in significant relevance to Antigone by Essay

Power of Higher Authority in significant relevance to Antigone by Sophocles and Another Antigone by A.R Gurney - Essay Example The modern adaptation for theatre by A.R. Gurney offers an interesting contextualization of heroine Antigone’s fight against authority. In both the cases, the theme is the same, one of confrontation of the individual will against a powerful authority figure. In Sophocles’ Antigone, this antagonist was Creon the King. In Gurney’s play it is the Professor in Classics Department George Henry Harper. But the nature of struggle of the two heroines is the same. This essay will argue that the depiction of the power of Higher Authority is crucial to the dramatization and moral deliberation of the two plays. Professor Henry Harper is equated to the all powerful Creon of Sophocles’ conception. To match with his role as an intimidator Harper is given a grizzly white beard by author Gurney. The University of Boston and its hierarchy of administrators provide the power structure for Another Antigone, with Henry Harper assuming a key position of power within in the Depa rtment of Classics. He is a tragicomic character in an academic environment that is struggling with reduced government funding and decreasing student enthusiasm. It is in this backdrop that Judy Miller plays out her tryst with power. (Diski 49) Miller, a candidate for valedictorian, presents her bold reworking of Antigone in blank verse form in the place of a formal term paper. Taken aback by this disrespect for rules, the professor exclaims â€Å"Another Antigone!" in reference to both the work being presented and its author. At this point a antagonistic position of the rebellious student and her convention respecting professor is established. In Sophocles’ Antigone, by contrast, the confrontation between Antigone and her uncle Creon (the ruler of Thebes) begins with the demise of her two brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. Since Creon was on the side of Eteocles during the combat between the two brothers, he decrees to honor him in death. In sharp contrast he decrees that Po lyneices be left rotting in the battle field sans a proper burial. This is the highest form of punishment in ancient Greek and its evocation is a measure of Creon’s hostility toward Polyneices. (Botton 20) In Creon’s own view, what legitimizes his decree is his authority as the supreme ruler of Thebes. He performs very little moral deliberation before setting his order to execution. It is unfair to compare Creon with Gurvey’s Harper, for the latter is not so much arrogant as formal and conservative. Henry Harper’s power in the University is nowhere near equal to that wielded by Creon, the emperor of Thebes. Hence, although the two authority figures share a position of prestige and power, their personalities and purviews are very different. The overbearing undergrad Antigone, Ms. Miller, has â€Å"as great an irrational self-confidence in her thespian powers as Shakespeare's Bottom, and when Henry Harper, that old Creon, refuses to give her play at least a B, she launches a campaign against him, including charges of anti-Semitism, that leads to a proper catastrophe.† (Disch 174) But in Sophocles’ classic, Polyneices’ beloved sister Antigone is a balanced, intellectual and humane person (as evidenced from allusions in the play). Her love for her brother impels her to bury him properly. Though this action would invoke the wrath of Creon and jeopardize her life, her humanity and love supersedes all other considerations. Antigone believes that though she may die as a consequence