In this unit, we studied the play Antigone in comparison to previous plays that we have read before like A Doll’s house. The two plays shared a common theme of rebelling against societal norms for personal reasons. Antigone is a play located in Greece during the 14th century BC. We had group discussions, analyzed text from the plays and connected the context from the play to modern-day rebels.

In our discussions, we mentioned real-world rebellions that were similar to the rebellions from Antigone and A Doll’s house. Specifically, we discussed topic 4 which is cultural similarities and differences about the nature of rebellion. We included how rebellions start and last, history examples of rebellions and comparisons of modern-day rebellions and historical ones.

Paul Robeson website
In the morality and marginalization project, each group needed to research a rebel that demonstrated rebellious behaviors through the actions of sacrifices. My job in our group was to research background information and the first negative constructive for our rebel from a negative point of view. I found my job particularly challenging in ways that I needed to think of reasons why my rebel was guilty. I think this part was the hardest because of the difference in culture and time. Society differs from time and through time people can change what is considered “normal” or expected.
Unit question: How might an individual understand his/her own values and morality through the ways in which he/she is willing to question the status quo and face marginalization?
A person can test the importance of their beliefs by making sacrifices and by their willingness to question societal expectations knowing their punishment. Both plays displayed an act of rebellion to social norms as Nora and Antigone challenged society’s common way of thinking with personal beliefs, aware of their consequences.

In my untimed paper 2 writing, I wrote about prompt 3: How has suffering been described in two works you have studied, and how could this be said to give meaning to life? With the subject of suffering and life, I needed to analyze the actions in both plays to understand how each character suffered and what their meaning of life is. I learned that in A Doll’s house, Ibsen displayed Nora’s suffering with Torvald’s patronizing treatments and the meaning of life was her opportunity to find her own identity. Antigone suffered with the dishonor of her brother’s burial and her meaning of life was the satisfaction of honoring her family.