5
QuizMultiple Choice

Comparing Archetypes in Literature — Quiz

Question 5 • Literature and Composition II

This question has two parts. First, answer Part 1. Then, answer Part 2. Part 1 Read the excerpt from “The Royal House of Thebes,” Antigone and Ismene heard with horror what Creon had decided. To Ismene, shocking as it was, overwhelming her with anguish for the pitiful dead body and the lonely, homeless soul, it seemed, nevertheless, that nothing could be done except to acquiesce. She and Antigone were utterly alone. All Thebes was exulting that the man who had brought war upon them should be thus terribly punished. "We are women," she told her sister. "We must obey. We have no strength to defy the State." "Choose your own part," Antigone said. "I go to bury the brother I love." "You are not strong enough," Ismene cried. "Why, then when my strength fails," Antigone answered, "I will give up." She left her sister; Ismene dared not follow her. Some hours later, Creon in the palace was startled by a shout, "Against your orders Polyneices has been buried." He hurried out to be confronted with the guards he had set on the dead body and with Antigone. "This girl buried him," they cried. "We saw her. A thick dust-storm gave her her chance. When it cleared, the body had been buried and the girl was making an offering to the dead." "You knew my edict?" Creon asked. "Yes," Antigone replied. "And you transgressed the law?" "Your law, but not the law of Justice who dwells with the gods," Antigone said. 'The unwritten laws of heaven are not of today nor yesterday, but from all time." Ismene weeping came from the palace to stand with her sister. "I helped do it," she said. But Antigone would not have that. "She had no share in it," she told Creon. And she bade her sister say no more. "Your choice was to live," she said, "mine to die." As she was led away to death, she spoke to the bystanders:— . . . Behold me, what I suffer Because I have upheld that which is high. Ismene disappears. There is no story, no poem, about her. The House of Oedipus, the last of the royal family of Themes, was known no more. Which archetype is best reflected in Antigone’s decision to bury Polyneices?

Answer
A
sage
B
tragic hero
C
rebel
D
warrior
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This question has two parts. First, answer Part…