Scene 3

Question 1

Antigone: Ismene! Ismene!

Answer 1

Antigone. Get in. What are you doing outside after curfew?

Question 2

Antigone: Why does suffering never end? It just goes on and on…

Answer 2

Calm down. Did something happen?

Question 3

Antigone: Yes, something happened. Of course something happened.

Answer 3

Don’t snap at me. I didn’t do anything.

Question 4

Antigone: No. You sit inside with your doors and windows sealed, blaring music to drown out the sirens. You have no idea what’s going on out there.

Answer 4

I do so.

Question 5

Antigone: I’m opening your windows, Ismene.

Answer 5

No, no…

Question 6

Antigone: Let the sounds and smells roll in-

Answer 6

Get away from the windows.

Question 7

Antigone: -so you’ll know what I know.

Answer 7

I’ll tell you what I know. I know the war is over and our brothers are dead.

Question 8

Antigone: Old news already.

Answer 8

I know Creon is king-

Question 9

Antigone: Yesterday’s paper.

Answer 9

I know people are hungry-

Question 10

Antigone: You call that news?

Answer 10

-and Creon’s troops are prowling the city-

Question 11

Antigone: Go on…

Answer 11

They’re rounding up traitors and troublemakers.

Question 12

Antigone: And-? Is that all you know?

Answer 12

I know you’re addicted to suffering. You go looking for trouble, then wail and moan when you find it. Well, I’ve had enough. The war is over, and I’m going to be happy.

Question 13

Antigone: I can’t un-see what I saw. I can’t un-know-

Answer 13

What is it you saw, sweetheart?

Question 14

Antigone: Our brothers.

Answer 14

Our brothers? Where?

Question 15

Antigone: They laid him in a cart, and took him away to be buried with honour.

Answer 15

And Polyneices?

Question 16

Antigone: Lies where he fell, like trash in the street.

Answer 16

They’ll come back for him, sweetheart. You wait and see.

Question 17

Antigone: No one may bury him, no one may touch him. It’s against the law.

Answer 17

What are you talking about?

Question 18

Antigone: I passed starving dogs, rooting for food. They’ll find him soon-

Answer 18

Quiet, love, shh… You’re not thinking right. You misunderstood. They’re coming back for Polyneices. When dawn comes, we’ll go out together and you’ll see, it was all a mistake.

Question 19

Antigone: So, Ismene, that’s the way it is. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Answer 19

If everything you say is true, there’s nothing I can do.

Question 20

Antigone: You can help me in my work.

Answer 20

What work?

Question 21

Antigone: Help me bury our brother.

Answer 21

We can’t bury him. You just told me it’s against the law.

Question 22

Antigone: Creon’s law. It’s nothing.

Answer 22

It’s not nothing. The law’s not nothing. You can die for it. That’s not nothing.

Question 23

Antigone: Ismene, our brother is rotting in the street.

Answer 23

Slow down, little one. Stop and think-

Question 24

Antigone: What’s wrong with you? I hear the birds screaming, and the dogs-

Answer 24

You need to rest.

Question 25

Antigone: No-

Answer 25

Rest for a minute, sweetheart. Just one minute.

Question 26

Antigone: I’m so tired.

Answer 26

I know. You’re so tired.

Question 27

Antigone: For a minute I’ll rest. But just for a minute.

Answer 27

Just for a minute. We’ll both rest. It’s been so long since I slept. I mean, really slept.

Question 28

Antigone: How long?

Answer 28

Long time. Before the war.

Question 29

Antigone: Before the war. When Mama was alive, and Daddy could see…

Answer 29

Yes.

Question 30

Antigone: I slept then, too. I slept and slept.

Answer 30

Curl up close, like on Mama’s lap. Such soft hair. Such a little package.

Question 31

Antigone: Mmm. Nice. Tell me a story.

Answer 31

What kind of story?

Question 32

Antigone: You know. How things used to be. Before.

Answer 32

Before. Once upon a time…

Question 33

Antigone: Tell me something I never knew.

Answer 33

Mama used to paint my toenails, the palest shade of pink. Then she’d put her face down close to my feet and her hair would tickle my ankles and she’d blow little warm storms of breath on my toes to dry them. We’d put our feet together, side by side, and mine were so small.

Question 34

Antigone: Where am I in the story?

Answer 34

After you were born, she’d hold you up so your tiny feet dangled next to mine, and then I knew how big I really was. I blew my breath on your toes then, and you pulled at my hair, and laughed. You never knew that before.

Question 35

Antigone: No, I never knew that before.

Answer 35

Now sleep.

Question 36

Antigone: Polyneices!

Answer 36

Go back to sleep, baby. Please.

Question 37

Antigone: Ismene, do you believe in ghosts?

Answer 37

Ghosts are just bad dreams.

Question 38

Antigone: I’m living in two worlds at once.

Answer 38

You live in the same world as everyone else.

Question 39

Antigone: I’m going to bury Polyneices.

Answer 39

No.

Question 40

Antigone: Watch me.

Answer 40

You can’t. Look at yourself. You’re not strong enough.

Question 41

Antigone: So I’ll do as much as I can, and when I can’t do anymore, I’ll stop.

Answer 41

Why start something when you know you can’t finish? It’s just looking for trouble.

Question 42

Antigone: Trouble doesn’t scare me.

Answer 42

You’re not the only sister who’s lost a brother, you know.

Question 43

Antigone: But this one is my brother.

Answer 43

And mine. All your dead are my dead too.

Question 44

Antigone: Then how can you just leave him there?

Answer 44

Because he’s dead and we’re alive. Feel that? Breath. Life. We survived. You and me, Antigone and Ismene. We’re alive. We can start again-

Question 45

Antigone: Oh, yes, we’ll start again, we’ll work, we’ll find lovers, we’ll be happy-

Answer 45

It could happen.

Question 46

Antigone: You know, Ismene, if you come crawling to me now on your hands and knees, begging to help, I’ll say, “No.”

Answer 46

Antigone-