Rhetoric And Rhetorical Devices In Antigone

The play Antigone is about a family with some major family problems. The two main characters are mostly Antigone and Creon, who is also Antigone’s uncle. At the start of the play Creon becomes the new king and decides that Antigone’s brother Polyneices should not have a proper burial, because he rebelled against the city. This makes Antigone mad and she decides that she is going to bury Polyneices. Creon finds out that someone buried Polyneices and says that the person should be put to death, because they broke the King’s new rules. After some confrontation from Teiresias(a prophet),and Creon’s son Haimon who is also set to marry Antigone, Creon decides that he is wrong about putting Antigone to death. By the time he realizes this Antigone is already dead, and because of Antigone's death Haimon kills himself which causes his mother to also kill herself.

Rhetorical devices are very important to the development of this play because it make the audience think about what the characters mean, or what they are about to go do. Haimon the King’s son has a long talk with his father about the decision he has made about putting Antigone to death.

The first devices he uses are rhetorical questions. The first rhetorical question he uses is from line 72 “What could be closer?”, and he also uses another one in lines 72 through linen 73 “Must not any son value his father’s fortune as his father does?”. He uses these while talking to his father to make him really think about what he is telling him, and to make him a little bit angry.

Haimon also uses the euphemism and metaphor in lines 80 through 82 about a tree bends to keep it safe, which is a nicer way of saying Creon is a stubborn old man and needs to change his ways. Another device Haimon uses are metaphor. Some metaphors he uses are in lines 80-the start of 86, and line