Political Aspects in Theater

The theatre, being a place where entertainment and leisure is demonstrated, can also be a place of meaning, connotation, and implication. The question is, why use theater to convey such facets? The answer is simple: to learn justice, or iniquity in our society. Jean Anouilh's revised version of the tragedy "Antigone" deals with such a dilemma associated with the Nazi invasion of France during WWII. Anouilh, with such passion and ardor, made the play in order to advance political action in France during the year 1943.

The antagonist of the play was Creon. Just like Hitler, Creon was unjustly brought to rule over Thebes. The man was ever so loved by his people. His love for the law has left him with one thing: pride. With arrogance on his side, he was blinded and could no longer see compassion over the situation being that he only buried Eteocles in an honorable fashion and left Polynieces' corpse desecrated. Seeing this, the protagonist, Antigone, takes matters into her own hand and tries to bury her brother Polynieces, but is eventually caught, questioned, and killed by Creon

Now, in cases like these, people would view this as just another play. On the contrary, this play was a political statement made by Anouilh