Antigone Rhetorical Analysis
In Sophocles’ play, Antigone, Antigone’s brother, Polyneices dies a traitor to the theban people and the king, Creon, decrees that no one is to bury the traitor despite the necessity of a proper burial for passing onto the afterlife. Believing that Creon is unjust, Antigone buries her brother. When her death is sentenced, Haemon, the king’s son, goes to talk his father out of killing her and the conversation quickly turns into an argument. In an attempt to effectively persuade each other, Haemon and his father use many rhetorical elements such as ethos, pathos, and logos to strengthen their case. The dispute opens with a mostly pleasant tone. Haemon and Creon use ethos and pathos to flatter and guilt trip one another. Case in point, one
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As a result, throughout the middle of the scene Haemon persistently uses reason to tell his father that what he is doing is unjust. He tells Creon that the people in their town are “muttering and whispering about this girl and they say no women has ever, so unreasonably died so shameful (3.64-65.)” By telling him this he was trying to show Creon that everyone thinks he is unfair and what he is doing is not logical. Haemon continues to use this strategy and goes on to reason with his father that it is not good that he can never listen to what others have to say. Haemon knows that one person alone can not be right and uses the analogy that “in flood time you can see how some trees bend.” Haemon is wise beyond his years and his main strategy when trying to win an argument is to award his opponent with an excessive amount of knowledge. Creon finds Haemon's speech to be disrespectful and lashes back with ethos to put Haemon back in his place. He asks Haemon if he “considers it right for a man… to go to school to a boy (3.95-96.)” Which portrays the message that Haemon is way to young to tell his father what to do and that Creon has the right to do whatever he wants. When Haemon continues to push the idea that he needs to listen to more people, Creon blows up. He tells Haemon the “state is the king (3.107.)” Which is yet again another attempt to tell Haemon that
As a result, throughout the middle of the scene Haemon persistently uses reason to tell his father that what he is doing is unjust. He tells Creon that the people in their town are “muttering and whispering about this girl and they say no women has ever, so unreasonably died so shameful (3.64-65.)” By telling him this he was trying to show Creon that everyone thinks he is unfair and what he is doing is not logical. Haemon continues to use this strategy and goes on to reason with his father that it is not good that he can never listen to what others have to say. Haemon knows that one person alone can not be right and uses the analogy that “in flood time you can see how some trees bend.” Haemon is wise beyond his years and his main strategy when trying to win an argument is to award his opponent with an excessive amount of knowledge. Creon finds Haemon's speech to be disrespectful and lashes back with ethos to put Haemon back in his place. He asks Haemon if he “considers it right for a man… to go to school to a boy (3.95-96.)” Which portrays the message that Haemon is way to young to tell his father what to do and that Creon has the right to do whatever he wants. When Haemon continues to push the idea that he needs to listen to more people, Creon blows up. He tells Haemon the “state is the king (3.107.)” Which is yet again another attempt to tell Haemon that