Political Aspects In Theater

The theatre, being a place where entertainment and leisure is demonstrated, can also be a place of meaning, connotation, and implication. The question is, why use theater to convey such facets? The answer is simple: to learn justice, or iniquity in our society. Jean Anouilh's revised version of the tragedy "Antigone" deals with such a dilemma associated with the Nazi invasion of France during WWII. Anouilh, with such passion and ardor, made the play in order to advance political action in France during the year 1943.

The antagonist of the play was Creon. Just like Hitler, Creon was unjustly brought to rule over Thebes. The man was ever so loved by his people. His love for the law has left him with one thing: pride. With arrogance on his side, he was blinded and could no longer see compassion over the situation being that he only buried Eteocles in an honorable fashion and left Polynieces' corpse desecrated. Seeing this, the protagonist, Antigone, takes matters into her own hand and tries to bury her brother Polynieces, but is eventually caught, questioned, and killed by Creon

Now, in cases like these, people would view this as just another play. On the contrary, this play was a political statement made by Anouilh not just to entertain, but because he was inspired by an act of resistance during the occupation of the Nazis in Paris. Paul Collette, a man who fired and wounded a group of directors during a meeting, acted alone and with the knowledge of his inevitable death. Anouilh saw this as an opportunity to take matters into his own hands, and attacked the Vichy government with the play Antigone. Of course, the Nazis saw through this thin shroud and censored it until the end of the war. Anouilh saw Collette's action as the essence of tragedy and revived Antigone into a modern play.

I strongly feel that this play is definitely a symbol of fighting back and standing up for what one believes in. Collette represented Antigone