Exploration notes on : Plots and Sub-Plots of "Antigone".

The play opens in semi-darkness (the sun has not yet risen). Last night the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices killed each other - one defending, one leading the attack on the city of Thebes. Their sisters Antigone and Ismene are discovered oustside the palace, where Antigone tells Ismene the news that only Eteocles is to be buried properly. Polyneices is to be left out on the battlefield as food for the crows and dogs. …

…a second blow falls. A servant comes out of the house,to say that the queen has taken her own life - in grief at the death in a single day of both her sons: Megareus killed in the fighting, and now Haemon. Creon is a broken man, accusing himself of murdering both his son and his wife. The play ends as the Chorus hope that Creon may have learned wisdom from all his suffering.