Antigone by Sophocles

My classics readings took a deep turn into the past. I decided to read Antigone, which is, of course, a play from ancient Greece. It the last of a cycle about the great character of Oedipus. It focuses on his daughter Antigone.

The plot is simple. Antigone’s brothers have killed each other. The current king will only allow one to be buried. The other is left to rot in the open. He declares that anyone who mourns that brother will die. Antigone not only mourns her brother but buries him. She is banished to die. This is a problem because the heir apparent is betrothed to her. In the end, Antigone and the crown prince die. The king is left to deal with his foolishness.

I like plays. A few years ago, I read the complete Shakespeare, except for Two Noble Kinsmen (It’s in line on the go around). Greek plays are little different, however. They use choruses far too much. I find them distracting. This factor hurt the play to me. All in all, I am better for reading it. Antigone is certainly an early example of a woman empowering herself. It is a very early treatise about the foolishness immovable decision-making.

I liked this well enough to read the second play in the cycle, Oedipus at Colonus.

Darkly,

Vic Kerry

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

So this year, I decided to make my way through some classics that I’ve never read. I started with two works, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, and Elmer Gantry by Uptain Sinclair. Here is my take on Flaubert’s work.

I would say that this novel is a pile of Freudian claptrap, but it was published two or three years before Sigmund was born. So, I will just have to say it is a study of a 19th Century woman with borderline personality disorder. Everything about Emma Bovary makes this reader hate her. She choses to marry Charles Bovary because he can get her from her rural life, but then almost immediately wants more and causes herself “nervous” conditions to get more. It is a sad tale not for the titular character, but for Charles and their daughter. They are innocent victims of Emma’s raging psychological issues and attention seeking behaviors. One could argue that perhaps Emma had bipolar disorder, but she really never seemed to fit into a full-blown mania or, to me, even a hypomanic episode. She was manipulative and again attention seeking to the point of falling into hysterical nervous issues.

I suppose the power of this novel is watered down by more than a century of similar stories in books, television, and movies. The impact is just not there for me. Although I can see the classic nature of this novel. At time of publication, it was scandalous for its discussion of extra marital affairs. Again time has not fared well for it.

I also found the head hopping (going from one POV to another without a scene change) to be very distracting. At times, I lost whose POV I was in. This is something that has fallen from favor over the years as well, but was common back the time of publication so I can overlook that.

It was worthwhile reading this novel. I wouldn’t read it again though. If you like overly dramatic characters and stilted dialog, then Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is for you.  I’m still working Elmer Gantry.

So in the tradition of when I read the complete recognized Shakespearean plays. Here’s the running tab.

2014 Classics read:

1. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert.

Darkly,

Vic Kerry