Journal # 1 - Antigone

Knowledge - What did Antigone do to her brother's body?
What did Creon decide her punishment would be?
Comprehension - To what extent was Creon's reaction rational?
How was Antigone's refusal to allow Ismene to die with her indicative of her inner feelings?
Application -What character do you most relate to?
Predict what will happen to Antigone at the end of the book.
Analysis - How does Antigone's foil with Ismene show what will happen later in the play?
Explain why Haemon begins his conversation with Creon as a supplicant?
Synthesis - Compare Antigone with Oedipus, her father.
What similarities can you find between Creon and Oedipus?
Evaluation - Would you have done what Antigone did?
Is Creon's death sentence the right way to punish this crime?

Journal # 3 - Medea

Both Medea and Oedipus use catharsis, however they show it differently in the two plays. In Medea, the catharsis of pity starts in the beginning with our pity for Medea's situation. However we also fear her because of her past brutality and the foreshadowing near the beginning. Oedipus, on the other hand uses a different kind of catharsis. Instead of making us feel pity for him in the beginning, we wish that we were in his position, everything seems pretty good in the beginning. However, as we learn of his fate, we begin to pity and fear him, however it's not because we pity his situation, it's because we pity the presence of fate in his downfall, instead of his own actions. In Medea, we fear Medea herself, whereas in Oedipus, we fear the use of fate against us from "the gods". This is the primary difference. The pity and fear are also purged in different ways in the plays. In Oedipus, the ending and his leaving are what purges the fear, while in Medea, our hatred for Medea's character purges the pity and fear. Because of the disgusting views of her actions, the pity is purged, whereas in Oedipus, we know that he would not do those things on purpose, and the pity is pured that way.

Journal # 2 - Medea

Medea often uses the gods Themis, the goddess of justice, and Artemis, the protector of women. These gods are often evoked in her long speeches, "O mighty Themis and Artemis..." (Euripides 38) Medea is very pissed off in this passage about her husband leaving her, so she evokes these gods, asking them why they have allowed her to suffer so much in the name of men. This is one example of how Medea uses the gods, she uses them when she is trying to make a point to others, trying to manipulate others, like when she talks about "Hecate, no: the goddess who abides in my inner heart" (Euripides 45), she is trying to persuade Creon to let her stay one more day, she uses the gods a a way to manipulate others into her own way of thinking, and to get them to let her weave her plots.

She also speaks of the god Helios often, this is usually when she tries to frighten people of her, she warns them that she is his granddaughter. This is why she is sucha powerful sorceress and why people fear her so often. So she also uses the gods to instigate fear of her into others.

Jason is rather different from Medea in the way he uses the gods. He uses the gods when he is truly asking for help or was helped from a situation, like in his conversation with Medea, stating that "Aphrodite and no one else on Heaven or Earth who saved me from my death", in this instance, he uses the god as a "replacement" helper for Medea, trying to convince her that she acted not on her own power, but on the power of Aphrodite. He calls out to help from the gods often in the end of the play too, once he finds out the horrors that Medea has commited, his asking for help and retribution from the gods becomes much more desperate and continuous.

Journal # 1 - Medea

The chorus plays a very unique role from the role of the chorus in Oedipus in Medea. The Medean chorus seems more close to Medea than the Oedipus chorus did. It uses more specific and endearing language, making it seem more intimate with Medea. The chorus in Oedipus was more of a "summarizer" so to speak, they sympathized with Oedipus, but his downfall did not seem to bother to them personally. Whereas in Medea, the chorus seems much more concerned about Medea's fate than the chorus in Oedipus. The chorus is a way that Euripides uses to create pity and sympathy in the audience, rather than a way to summarize plot, like in Oedipus.

Journal # 5 - Oedipus Rex

Sophocles creates fear and pity in the audience primarily by our similarities to the characters. The similarities and downfalls of Oedipus can be connected to by any human being. We all freak out when we find out horrible things, and we are all sometimes the victim of fate. This fear of fate and trouble creates that catharsis for us. The beauty in Oedipus is the purging of fear and pity in the ending of the play. He doesn't give us anything surprising or shocking, nothing happens that we wouldn't expect, and that is a beautiful reminder for the audience that life goes on. The catharsis of Oedipus is where we find this beauty. The fact that he falls to his own fated mistakes is the tool that Sophocles uses to create that fear and pity.

Journal # 4 - Oedipus Rex

Sophocles uses many images in the tragedy , Oedipus. The one that I most commonly found was the repeating image of blindness. Tiresias is a blind prophet, yet he sees all. Sophocles uses the image of being blind to show a wisdom when used in the physical sense, but a stupidity when used to show someone's mental blindness. When Tiresias calls Oedipus blind, he does not mean in the sense that he cannot see, but in the sense that he is blind to the truth. However, once Oedipus finds out the truth, this knowledge is too much for him to bear, and he creates physical blindness in himself. This shows that his wisdom/knowledge has become too much for him to bear, much like Tiresias' burden of knowing everything. Therefore, in Oedipus, we can see that Sophocles uses the image of blindness to demonstrate the pain one goes through when not blind to the horrible truth, but also the pain one takes in order to ease themselves of that truthful burden.

Journal # 3 - Oedipus Rex

The gender roles established in Oedipus are quite clear. In general, the men are the ones who have conflict in their lives. They rush blindly into argument and are the slowest to realize the truth. This case is especially evident in the exchange between Oedipus and Jocasta, she realizes before he does the truth about her marriage to him, while he takes much longer, and still hasn't found out. However, women are also more disrespected in society, although Grecian society was the best of its time for equality of the sexes, it still had a long way to go before it became the relative equality we have achieved in America. Jocasta seems like a strong example to women, she tries to do the right thing, but due to a lack of judgment, tragedy strikes her as well. This is rather similar to the situation Oedipus was put in during this play so far. The gender's don't seem to change when addressing the other gender. Men are slightly less aggressive towards women, but are still slightly disrespectful.