Antigone Journal 4

Page 12

Ismene- His mob will come running, howling as it runs.
A thousand arms will seize our arms.  A thousand breaths
will breathe into our faces.  Like one single pair of eyes, a
thousand eyes will stare at is.  We'll be driven in a tumbrel
through their hatred, through the smell of them and their
cruel, roaring laughter.  We'll be dragged to the scaffold
for torture, surrounded by guards with their idiot faces all
bloated, their animal hands clean-washed for the sacrifice,
their beefy eyes squinting as they stare at us.

In the first sentence Anouilh uses imagery to describe how the city will react if they find out that Antigone buried Polynices.  He describes the "mob" by saying it will come "howling as it runs" suggesting that it will be sort of wild or dog-like, like a pack of wolves.  Anouilh gives the mob characteristics of a pack of wolves or animals in order to create a more barbaric tone.  In the next couple sentences, Anouilh juxtaposes a single pair of eyes to a thousand.  Using this juxtaposition, Anouilh displays the power of the law, and shows how people can tend to follow orders from a government without even questioning if they make sense or if they are just.  Anouilh uses sensory details in the next sentence, "the smell of them and their cruel, roaring laughter."  The sensory details of the sound of laughter being converted into a smell intensifies the mood and the reader gets a better sense of what the mob would look and sound like.  Anouilh repeats images of animals throughout this passage by using words like howling, beefy eyes, and animal hands.  This repetition, again, shows how people in the society can do things impulsively and create mayhem without thinking what they are actually doing.