Authorial Choices and Textual Features (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note
Antigone: Authorial Choices & Textual Features
In English A: Language and Literature, you are expected to analyse and evaluate how a writer achieves their purpose, conveys a message, or explores a theme. To do this effectively, it is essential to identify specific authorial choices and textual features, and to link them directly to evidence from the text and their impact on the reader.
Being able to understand and discuss Antigone requires familiarity with Greek tragedy, and the role of both the Greek Chorus and the tragic hero within Greek tragedy. We should also pay attention to the ways in which Sophocles’ play was different from other Greek tragedies. Because his audience would have been very familiar with the conventions of the genre, they would likely pay particularly close attention to the choices he made when he didn’t fully follow those conventions.
Below, you will find the following:
An overview of Greek tragedy
The typical structure of Greek tragedy
An overview of the role of the Greek Chorus in Greek tragedy
An overview of the qualities of the tragic hero
An overview of how Antigone differs from other Greek tragedies
Other notable features of the play
Examiner Tips and Tricks
When answering a Paper 2 question, it is important to discuss not only the author’s choices, but also their effects. Commenting on the author’s intention and how it shapes meaning can strengthen your score for Criterion B.
For example, noticing that a text subverts the conventions of a particular genre is a strong observation, but taking your analysis further involves explaining how that choice might influence the audience. Perhaps breaking a convention provokes discomfort, reflection, empathy, suspense, or moral questioning, depending on the context.
Essentially, whenever you identify an authorial choice or textual feature — the “what” of your observation — always ask, “So what?” Adding this question into your preparation and writing can help you build the habit of connecting authorial choices to their impact on the audience.
An overview of Greek tragedy
Understanding the key features of Greek tragedy allows us to see why events unfold in a particular order and to appreciate the purpose of each moment within the plot. It also helps us visualise the story more vividly, making the characters’ choices, conflicts, and consequences easier to follow and analyse.
Greek tragedies were not just entertainment:
They were a significant part of social and moral life
A teaching tool
An opportunity for collective moral reflection
Audiences attended these plays with very clear expectations — both of the genre itself and the role of the Chorus
There were a limited number of actors who took on a variety of roles through the use of masks:
Only men acted in Greek theatres, taking on the roles of both male and female characters
The use of masks means that expression had to be conveyed through voice and movement
Gestures would be very large and exaggerated so they could be seen by everyone in an audience made up of thousands of people
The structure of Greek tragedy
In a Greek tragedy, we can expect the following sections:
Prologue
This is where the conflict is set up
The audience is introduced to some key characters and the story that is unfolding, and gets some hints about the theme
Usually, this section involves a soliloquy or a dialogue between characters
Parodos
The translation of “parodos” is “way on” and that is exactly what happens in this section:
The Chorus enters and sings or chants something that offers the audience a bit of background, context, or thematic framing
This first entrance of the Chorus also helps establish the mood of the play
The audience is given clues as to what they can expect, both in terms of action, and in terms of their anticipated reaction
Episodes/stasima
Episodes are the main action scenes of the play, usually taking the form of dialogues between characters, where conflict, character, and plot are developed
There are usually three to five episodes in a Greek tragedy
Each episode is typically followed by a “stasimon”:
“Stasimon” means “a song sung stationary on the stag”
In the stasimon, the Chorus sings a song that reflects and comments on the previous episode
Stasima can:
Offer moral or philosophical commentary
Highlight themes
Suggest appropriate emotional responses
Foreshadow the fate of the characters
Make connections to historical events or other well-known stories
The Chorus doesn’t tell the audience exactly what to feel, but it models reflection and contemplation:
It then invites the audience to do the same
Climax/reversal
This is the turning point in the protagonist’s fortune
This is known as the peripeteia
Recognition
This is when the protagonist realises a truth about themselves or their situation:
It can be when they notice the error of their ways
This is known as the anagnorisis
Exodos
The conclusion, which usually involves some moral reflection
An overview of the Chorus in Greek tragedy
The Chorus was a fundamental part of Greek tragedy. A greater understanding of the play involves understanding the role of the Chorus, and thinking about the ways in which the Chorus in Antigone differs from the Chorus we see in other Greek tragedies.
The Chorus in Greek tragedy is generally made up of approximately a dozen socially significant figures, often elderly men
It is a collective voice representing the community, and it serves a number of roles:
The Chorus offers collective social wisdom, offering a kind of culturally informed perspective and reflecting social norms, fears, and values
It tends to represent more traditional values
It can offer commentary on what is happening, and often makes connections to other stories or historical events, providing context and background information to better understand the unfolding story
It sometimes advises characters, or foreshadows events
It acts as a moral and social compass, suggesting to the audience how they should react — emotionally and intellectually — to what is unfolding
It raises questions that the audience might have
An overview of the tragic hero
The traditional tragic hero is a fundamental part of Greek tragedy. Aristotle defined the tragic hero as possessing very particular features in their narrative arc:
Features of a tragic hero’s narrative arc | Explanation |
Noble stature | The hero is generally initially presented as good and prosperous, which makes their downfall all the more dramatic and tragic |
Hamartia (tragic flaw) | It is not an evil nature that brings about the downfall of the tragic hero, but instead some kind of weakness or error in judgement or pride (hubris) |
Peripeteia (reversal of fortune) | The dramatic and often sudden change from good fortune to misery |
Anagnorisis (recognition) | The moment the hero recognises their error in judgment |
Through watching the story of the tragic hero, the audience experiences a release of emotions, specifically pity for the hero and fear for themselves as they imagine and reflect on their own life |
Examiner Tips and Tricks
When analysing a play, always consider the role of dramatic irony, when the audience possesses knowledge that the characters do not. Consider how this dramatic irony affects the audience’s experience. Does it create tension, suspense, pity, or fear? When we know more than the characters, how does it highlight character flaws, moral dilemmas, themes, and conflicts?
Linking examples of dramatic irony to the impact on the audience demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the text. Additionally, linking these examples to the experience of the play’s contemporary audience allows for interesting insights into the role of political context and the greater didactic purpose of a play like this.
An overview of how Antigone differs from other Greek tragedies
The Chorus in Antigone is notably less decisive than in other Greek tragedies |
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Sophocles chooses Antigone, a woman, as his protagonist |
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Sophocles makes room for two tragic heroes in his play |
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Sophocles disrupts the timing of the peripeteia and anagnorisis |
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Other key authorial choices in Antigone
Characterisation through opposition
Each character becomes defined and understood in the ways that they contrast with another character:
This is often the character with whom they share a scene
Antigone is marked by decisive action and a self-defined identity in contrast to Ismene, who is cautious and hesitant and models social conformity
Antigone’s commitment to divine authority and moral responsibility is shown in contrast to Creon’s rigidity concerning state law and human authority
Creon represents authority, rigidity, power, and control, in contrast with his son, Haemon, who is characterised by his use of reason, flexibility, and dialogue
Tiresias’ spiritual insight contrasts with Creon’s political blindness
Each character is given a distinct rhetorical style
Antigone’s language use is direct, emotional, absolute, and uncompromising: “I will…”
Creon is authoritative, defensive and political, and speaks in decrees and commands
Ismene’s language use is marked by questions and qualifications
When Haemon speaks, he builds a case and appeals to reason and public opinion
This use of a distinct language style for each character is in keeping with Sophocles’ tendency to place dramatic focus on moral and psychological conflict instead of physical action
No character is fully and completely right
Each character has both a valid point but also some kind of flaw in their thinking
The Chorus acts as a mirror of, and model for, the audience, demonstrating how challenging it is to decide who and what is right
The use of dramatic irony
At many moments within the play, the audience has more awareness than the characters, and anticipates the consequences of a character’s choices that the character cannot see
This authorial choice engages the audience intellectually by making us think critically:
It also engages the audience emotionally through building tension, suspense and dread
The use of dramatic irony deepens empathy and encourages self-reflection and moral questioning
This choice highlights moral and psychological complexity by exposing the gap between human perception and reality
The audience moves from being spectators to reflective participants
Movement happens in language rather than space
The entire play takes place in a public, civic space, outside the royal palace
All the violence and death happen offstage, while onstage, there is only the reporting or discussing of these events
This choice shifts the focus from the action of that violence and death to the consequences and the aftermath
A single setting contributes to Sophocles’ focus on building psychological intensity and exploring morally complex issues
The palace represents power, so setting the play outside the palace already indicates some key ideas Sophocles aims to discuss
As the setting is a public space, the private matters discussed there are made public:
For example, the grief experienced by various characters within the play
We see the impact of this choice of setting from the very beginning, when Sophocles starts the play in medias res:
It begins directly after the battle in which Polyneices is killed
Symbols and motifs help support themes
References to blindness and sight highlight the struggle of characters to see the consequences of choices, even if those choices are made with valid motivations
Age becomes an interesting element:
Wisdom does not always belong to the older characters of the play
References to stone and walls highlights the rigidity of thinking of both Creon and Antigone
The repeated discussion of the body being covered by just a little dirt, as well as references to dirt, burial, and the body can hint at both the idea that truth cannot be covered:
It could also suggest that even small acts can bring about great consequences
Examiner Tips and Tricks
When responding to a Paper 2 question, always consider how the writer follows or subverts the conventions of a genre. In Greek tragedy, the role of the audience is central. Pay attention to devices like dramatic irony, the relationship between the Chorus and the audience, and the ways the audience is made aware of moral, social, or emotional tensions.
Explaining how these conventions shape the audience’s response can strengthen your analysis and show insight beyond the plot.
Sources
Sophocles (trans. P. Woodruff) (2001), Antigone, Hackett Publishing Company
Sophocles (trans. D. Franklin and J. Harrison) (2003), Antigone, Cambridge University Press
Sophocles (trans. R. Fagles) (1984), The Three Theban Plays, Penguin Classics, London
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