Brecht's adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone and Nazi symbolism

1 Brecht and Antigone Introduction Brecht’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone is mainly faithful to the original; however, Brecht updates the tragedy by the giving it in a modern setting: Berlin, 1945. The setting is symbolic in the sense that Berlin was the final battle ground where the Third Reich met its doom in WWII. Antigone is thus cast as a German, her brother Polynices as a German soldier. Brecht describes Polynices’ treason in terms of desertion: he is a soldier who has abandoned the battlefield, has been captured and executed, and now to spite him still further, Creon (who appears like a Hitler-type of dictator) forbids his burial. As in Sophocles’ original, Brecht’s Antigone will not abide this disrespect and is determined to oppose Creon’s dictate in order see that her brother is properly buried so that the gods may receive him in the afterlife. In both cases, the gods are on the side of Antigone and Creon’s pride is punished. Yet, while Sophocles’ play is primarily focused on the tension between the dismissive attitude of Creon towards the laws of the gods and Antigone’s respectful honoring of the law, Brecht’s play infuses a sociopolitical element to the material by casting Creon as a Nazi whose tyrannical behavior symbolizes for Brecht the abhorrent qualities of the Third Reich. The fall of Thebes serves as a symbol of the fall of Berlin and is thus used by the modern playwright as the just rewards of Creon’s perversity. The main question this essay seeks to answer is: How does Brecht update the Antigone play by Sophocles in order to address contemporary issues? By using careful dramaturgical analysis as the method of examining the two texts of Sophocles and Brecht, this paper focuses on answering this research question. What is found is that Brecht takes the same Antigone play, and adapts and heightens it ever so slightly by using a theoretical and dramaturgical framework to provide symbols, themes, stage action and subtle suggestions linking Creon to the Third Reich and Polynices to a kind of conscientious objector who is far more sympathetic in the modern edition: the end result is that Creon, like Hitler, is condemned for his totalitarian abuse of power and Antigone’s actions are cast in a kind of heroic devotion to the anti-war cause. Definition of Key Terms Adaptation. A work that is altered in some way to achieve a specific goal, an adaptation is different from a translation in that it adds or subtracts elements from the original and thus changes it in a real manner. A translation attempts to remain faithful to the original text in word, spirit and manner. An adaptation may also attempt to remain faithful to the spirit of the original, but the word and manner in which the work is adapted will typically take on a new form or direction so as to be meaningful in a new way to a new audience. Brecht’s Antigone is an adaptation of a German translation of the play (Jones and Vidal) and while the adaptation is close enough in spirit to the original drama to be considered faithful, some themes emerge that give it a contemporary significance amidst the modern historical events encountered by Brecht and his audience in the 20th century. Dramaturgical framework. The dramaturgical framework focuses on “drama structure, drama interaction and drama content” with structure referring to “the set of theatrical components: setting, actors/audience and performance, or the formal components of drama” (Moisio and Arnould 246). Interaction refers to the ways that characters communicate with one another and content refers to the text itself and the ideas that are communicated to the audience by the plot and action of the drama. Symbol. Characters and actions used to represent something else are symbolic. In Brecht’s Antigone, the actions and characters take on new meaning as the playwright infuses them with a modern symbolical significance. Stage action. Stage action is instruction that is written by the playwright into the script. These are directions that are to be considered as important as the dialogue of the characters themselves and often contain a significant meaning that should be rendered faithfully on the stage in order to convey the vision of the writer. Stage action is only minimally used by Brecht in Antigone, but when it is used it packs a very heavy symbolical punch. Suggestion. The power of suggestion is conveyed by connecting or associating ideas with other ideas that have been introduced into the mind. Oftentimes, suggestion is only subtly made so that the audience is not overtly aware of the connections that are occurring but senses them and feels them nonetheless. Theme. A theme is the subject of a work or idea that emerges throughout the work to hold a significant and meaningful position. A theme is typically explored through the action of the work and conveys an idea to the audience. The main theme in Brecht’s Antigone is the abuse of power by those in authority. Theoretical framework. A theoretical framework is used to engage with, further or challenge current knowledge by applying a theoretical concept to the subject under scrutiny. Brecht’s theoretical framework is rooted in political theory as the underlying approach to the subject is political as made by apparent by Brecht’s use of symbol and suggestion. The Politics of Brecht’s Antigone: Creating a Much More Sympathetic Polynices If Sophocles’ Antigone is a rebuke against those who would offend the gods, Brecht’s Antigone is a rebuke against the Third Reich—the political party of Germany during WWII. By associating Creon with the Third Reich, Brecht turns the king of Thebes into a Hitlerian dictator. The signal for this comes early on in the play in the Preface, wherein the two sisters are discussing the return of their brother from war only to find that he has gone AWOL and is now to be considered a traitor. The arrival of the SS Man confirms as much and the execution of the brother serves as the introduction to the play proper, which then follows largely the text of the original play by Sophocles, with subtle differences cropping up in order to serve the dramaturgical framework that Brecht applies. From the standpoint of political theory, Brecht uses the subject to draw comparisons between his own present day problems and the problems that the Thebans had: armed uprising, conflict, a suffering society, and an austere leadership that seems to forget its place and ignore its duty to its citizens as well as their duty to the gods. Brecht situates the drama in Berlin in 1945. Though never mentioned by name in the play, Germany is clearly the intended allusion here, as the stage description is clear: the action is set in Germany during the end of WWII. Yet, the drama is also subtly changed from the original. In Sophocles’ play, Polynices is leading an armed rebellion against Creon and the Theban state in order to lay claim to the crown. Polynices enlists support from Argos and other Greek city-states to oppose Thebes. Considered a traitor by Creon, Polynices is thus refused burial, an affront to Antigone who considers it immoral. In Brecht’s play, Polynices is no such kingly figure bent on taking the throne that once belonged to his father. Instead, he is a simple soldier, who flees the war when his brother is killed. Polynices is captured and executed simply because he refused to fight any longer in the war against Argos. Insult is added to injury when Creon then refuses Antigone permission to bury Polynices in accordance with the dictate of the gods. As Jones and Vidal point out, “whereas in Sophocles the treason is armed rebellion [by Polynices], in Brecht it is rebellion from arms” (Jones and Vidal 39). In other words, in Sophocles’ play, Polynices is an antagonist of sorts; in Brecht’s play, Polynices is a pacifist, whose pacifism is rewarded with death. Thus, the political context in which Brecht situates his play is clear: Polynices is a type of conscientious objector—objecting to a war that is destroying lives for no good reason; the soldiers are dying and the people left behind in the homes and villages are dying too—not of bullets but of starvation. Indeed, this is indicated when the two sisters are discussing the appearance of a sack in the play’s Prelude: one says to the other, “Sister, the sack in the corner there, what’s that?” and the response is, “Better that something’s there than something’s not” (Brecht 3). The surprise return of the brother is a matter of rejoicing—but so too is the fact that he has brought his army sack with him and in it the provisions that were meant to feed him on the battlefield. In WWII, ordinary Germans were cut off from the basic necessities because of the war and the fact that supply lines were being routinely bombed by the Allies in order to crush the morale of the Germans. Brecht demonstrates as much when he shows the sisters celebrating both the arrival of the brother and his food: “a joint of bacon, sister, and a loaf of bread” (Brecht 3). Brecht notes that the sisters’ fear of a stranger being in the home immediately vanishes for this sustenance is a welcome sight—and upon pulling out the victuals it suddenly dawns on the sisters that this food is courtesy of their dear brother: “Then we embraced each other and were cheerful for our brother was in the war, and he was well. And we cut and ate of the bacon and the bread that he had brought us to feed us in our need” (Brecht 4). The sisters are so consumed by their basic need of food in fact that they fail to register that the brother is nowhere to be failed. Even the screams do not clue them in. “Take more for yourself. The factory’s killing you,” says one sister to the other, an admission that the war machine touched even the lives of the women left at home by the men during WWII: they had to go and run the factories day and night (Brecht 4). The scream they hear freezes their blood, but they know enough not to go looking for trouble: “Sit still. You go and see, you get seen too” (Brecht 4). So instead they put away their dishes and get ready for work—and then they discover their brother’s uniform and rightfully surmise that he has quit the war: “His war’s over, he has quit…And we laughed and we were cheerful: Our brother was out of the war and he was well” (Brecht 5). But of course all is not well, for Creon will not allow deserters: all must fight for his objectives. Whereas in Sophocles’ play, Polynices fights for himself, in Brecht’s play, Polynices is expected to fight for Creon—for the Third Reich, but will not, because he has seen what war does and no longer wants to be part of it. The screams that continue are given more thought: the sisters decide that “they are tormenting folk for pleasure” (Brecht 6). Who “they” are is not clear: they could be the enemy or they could mean Creon and the Thebans. In any case, “they” are not people the two sisters would like to be around, nor anyone else for that matter, as they treat others inhumanely for their own pleasure. This is the effect of war: it turns men into vicious dogs and deprives them of their humanity. In this context, Polynices in trying to escape the war is simply trying to cling to his humanity, evident in the fact that he has thought of his sisters and their need and has been willing to bring them food. And in this way Polynices is made into a far more sympathetic character than he is Sophocles’ play. In the Greek version, Polynices is simply seen as someone vying for the throne left by his father years ago when, in disgrace at discovering his true identity, he blinded himself and left Thebes. Now his sons have gone into battle for that throne and his daughter Antigone is there to see to it that the dead Polynices receives his fair due—a proper burial that he might at least rest in peace in the afterlife. Sophocles casts the play under a cloud of doom, presented by Antigone in the opening lines: “Ismene, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest thou what ill there is, of all bequeathed by Oedipus, that Zeus fulfils not for us twain while we live? Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine” (Sophocles). After all, it was Antigone who accompanied her blind father out of Thebes, who guided him on his blind journey to nowhere. She suffered alongside his humiliation and misfortune—and now she intends to suffer still more in order to do justice by her brother. A New Identity for Antigone and for Creon: Policy as the Main Theme—Not Piety Brecht keeps this same cloud of doom in his adaptation—but he uses the suggestions and symbols presented in his preface—namely that Antigone is a victim of the Third Reich and that Polynices is a heroic objector to the war—to bring a modern contextualization to that doom. Brecht’s Antigone says to her sister: “In a long war, one man among many Eteocles fell, our brother. In the tyrant’s train he fell young. And younger than him Polynices sees his brother pulped under horses’ hooves. Weeping he rides from an unfinished battle…” (Brecht 9). Polynices, in short, has been crushed in his soul by the sight of seeing his brother crushed in body by the horses of the tyrant’s train—aka the army of the Third Reich, carelessly traipsing over the corpse of their fallen comrade. It is this inhumanity that serves as a woeful epiphany of sorts for Polynices and explains his motive for deserting. It is not out of cowardice that he flees but rather out of a sense of a need to fly from the horror of inhumanity—the evil of war—the absence of good all around him. And upon returning home, what does he see but “Creon there at the rear lashing them into the fight…” (Brecht 9). Creon is depicted as a tyrannical monster with a whip, beating the soldiers into battle, using the lash to compel them to go and die on the battle field. He does not treat his soldiers like sons but rather like cannon fodder. The image is grotesque but does not stop there for Antigone tells more—Creon “seizes [Polynices] splashed with the blood of his brother and hacks him to pieces” (Brecht 9). This is the king of the Thebans, i.e., the leader of the Third Reich as the symbolism of the SS officer in the Prelude suggests Creon to be. In Sophocles’ play, Creon is not described in such murderous terms as those by Brecht—the reason is that Brecht is projecting his hatred for Hitler and the Third Reich onto Creon. Creon is even called “my fuhrer”—the name used for Hitler in the Third Reich—by a guard early on in the drama (Brecht 15). That much is clear from the setting of the play and the stage directions which indicate that the Thebans are to be dressed like Germans, that the SS is responsible for the execution of Polynices, that Creon and the Thebes are literally the Germans and Argos serves as the symbol of the Allies. The theme that emerges in Brecht’s play is that Creon himself is the source of all that is wrong in Thebes: Creon is the symbol of totalitarian aggression. Jones and Vidal note that in Sophocles’ play, “the focus of the story is not policy, but piety” (39). For Brecht, the focus of the story—the major theme—is policy. Brecht is attacking the policy of the Third Reich, through the political framework that he applies to the drama and altering the way in which he wants the audience to interpret the story of Antigone. Brecht does not mischaracterize her piety but he does show more interest in accusing the bad policy at the heart of Creon’s rule as the reason that Antigone is in this position in the first place. Brecht himself was no stranger to Germany’s policy: he opposed it politically as he did socially (Jones and Vidal). With Antigone he is using his hatred for the regime as a source and it shows. Having left Germany before the war to avoid the rule of the Third Reich and having social proclivities, Brecht naturally allied himself with Germany’s opponents—and thus in a way he himself is like Sophocles’ Polynices, attacking the Theban (i.e., German) rulers. Viewing himself as an exile from Germany, like Antigone and her father were from Thebes, Brecht identifies with their “stranger” status, which is symbolized in his play by the fact that Antigone does not belong to Creon’s rule simply because she does not admit of it. She states, “Of all your words none please me, none will please me and so myself I am not agreeable to you although I am to others for what I did” (Brecht 21) and then goes on to add that the war being waged by Creon is his war—not a war for Thebes (i.e., Germany). She likens her country now to “a foreign country” and argues that “it did not content [Creon-Hitler] ruling over my brothers in Thebes [Berlin] a city of our own and sweet not living in fear, the life beneath its trees. You had to drag them to distant Argos to rule over them there too” (Brecht 22). Antigone then goes on to lament the power-drunkenness of Creon: “Who seeks power drinks of a salty water, he cannot desist but must drink it and drink it. My brother yesterday, today it’s me” (Brecht 22). In this manner, Antigone objects to the rule and policy of Creon, whereas in Sophocles’ play, Antigone objects to Creon’s disregard for the observance that should be paid to the gods. Sophocles’ aim is spiritual—Brecht’s is political, which is evident in the framework he uses. Castro asserts that Brecht’s use of political theory is what really drives the drama of Antigone for the modern audience that Brecht intended to reach: “it is politically and literarily possible to (re)invent her for strangers in the twenty?first century, that is, for those symbolically produced as not?legally locatable and who resignify their ambivalent ontological status between life and death as an alternative sociopolitical location of speech and action in equality with ‘others’” (307). What Castro argues is that Antigone’s defiance of Creon’s decree is less about piety, which is what it is all about in Sophocles’ play, than it is in Brecht’s—the reason being that Brecht is communicating to a modern audience using a sociopolitical framework to create what is essentially a new identity for Antigone, one that is rooted in rejection of the Third Reich, Hitler’s politics, and the policies of WWII. However, as Antigone is justified in her mission to bury her brother, the play does follow Sophocles’ in that Creon rues the consequences of his actions. By being so severe towards Antigone and her brother, the gods punish him. He thinks that he is victorious in battle against Argos (i.e., the Allies)—“there is no war now” (Brecht 31)—and believes that his inhumanity will go unpunished since he has won. However, his false sense of victory is soon stripped of him: the reality of the situation is revealed to him later. Argos has been victorious against Thebes—that is, the Allies have taken the field and Berlin is now in trouble: “Stiffen your neck, sir,” says a messenger from the battle: “I am sent here by disaster. Stop the hasty celebrations of victory too soon credited. In another battle, your army is beaten before Argos, and in flight” (Brecht 46). What does Brecht signify is the reason for this unexpected turnabout? The messenger tells all: “When you acted to punish Polycines’ flight and seized and hanged in public the many in the army this aggrieved and you yourself had hurried back to Thebes…” (Brecht 46). In other words, the messenger, who is not described as being an SS officer in the stage directions and thus is not filled with the same scorn that Brecht projects at Creon (and thus is able to speak the truth), attacks Creon for dispiriting his own troops for his callous execution of their beloved Polycines—a man who was one of their own. Furthermore, the messenger attacks Creon for fleeing back to Thebes and demonstrating his own weakness of character by not remaining on the battlefield, leaving his son to carry on his whipping of the soldiers, who are identified as “stormtroops”—a German soldier in WWII and another subtle suggestion that this is really all a story about Germany’s failed policy in WWII. The ending finds Creon in misery, just as it does in Sophocles’ version. The final humiliation is complete—the sought after victory snatched away at the moment of joy. Brecht locates the moment and identifies the cause: it was Creon’s execution of Polycines in public that brought about the end. The weary troops could take no more. Demoralized and awash in the blood of their brethren, they simply could not withstand another attack and so perished at the hands of Argos. In Sophocles’ play, the drama is focused on the tomb of Antigone where the heroine has taken her life, where her lover has fallen on his sword, and where Creon realizes his own “rash, foolish” ways (Sophocles). In Brecht’s play, Creon has no such epiphany but instead asserts that he himself is the victim of his people’s treachery: “One more battle and Argos would be in the dust. But all the bravery and uttermost that was mustered was only against me. So now Thebes falls” (Brecht 50). Creon plays the victim, never one to admit that he was wrong in his tyranny, which is how Brecht saw the Third Reich and the rule of Hitler in his own time. Conclusion Brecht used the political theory framework and applied it to Sophocles’ Antigone in order to criticize the Third Reich of his own country. He is faithful mainly to the original play, but his adaptation does create a new way to look at both Creon and Antigone in the drama, as well as the character of Polycines, who is made to be a much more sympathetic character in the play for deserting the war rather than for waging one against Creon as is the case in Sophocles’ original. Brecht thus updates the original play by using it as a means of criticizing the rulers of the Third Reich and their apparent disregard for human life. Antigone becomes the woman “who saw everything” (Brecht 51) and was able to make a stand of defiance before the inhumane, totalitarian rule of Creon. This research, however, raises new questions, such as: how many of Brecht’s other plays can be viewed as socio-political commentaries on the contemporary situation? Further research along these lines would help to add more depth to these findings. Works Cited Brecht, Bertolt. “The Antigone of Sophocles.” 1947. http://www.socialiststories.com/liberate/The%20Antigone%20-%20Bertolt%20Brecht.pdf Castro, Andrés Fabián Henao. “Antigone Claimed: ‘I Am a Stranger!’ Political Theory and the Figure of the Stranger.” Hypatia 28.2 (2013): 307-322. Jones, Frank, and Gore Vidal. \\\\\\\"Tragedy with a Purpose: Bertolt Brecht\\\\\\\'s\\\\\\\" Antigone\\\\\\\".\\\\\\\" The Tulane Drama Review 2.1 (1957): 39-45. Moisio, Risto, and Eric J. Arnould. “Extending the dramaturgical framework in marketing: Drama structure, drama interaction and drama content in shopping experiences.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 4.4 (2005): 246-256. Sophocles. “Antigone.” http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html