Antigone Dilemma

Both the Ancient Athenians and the modern world have one thing in common: Victim-Blaming. When hearing a story of someone under societal oppression, we often wonder, "If I were that person, I would have done this instead." In the case of the Greek Antigone, instead of admitting that she buried her brother, what if she lied and said it wasn't her? Or what if she had tried to escape the city of Thebes entirely? Was the outcome of the play her doing?

 I wanted to explore this question in my Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game of Antigone. Victim Blaming is when someone misplaces the blame of the oppressor onto the very person they're oppressing. In the case of the play Antigone, the oppressor is not the recent king Creon, nor Antigone's brothers or father. It is the societal patriarchy as a whole that takes the form of the oppressor. To assume that Antigone could have had a happy ending if only she had made different choices undermines the very powerlessness the state forces onto her. We are blaming her on her actions, while we should put that responsibility into changing the oppressive system as a whole. 

My game tries to reflect this dilemma, Antigone's dilemma. Instead of living in the hypothetical, the player can make different choices that impact the course of the story. Yet in all outcomes, the result is the same. In all scenarios Antigone dies. 

It is not fate that is unavoidable, but rather the societal structure. But we, as people, have the power to change this society. Our modern society is not very different from the Ancient Greek's: we haven't escaped oppressive systems. But we have the power to change this society for the better. I hope my game can act as a mirror into our world, and through it, we can better the culture we live in today so that a dilemma like Antigone's may never have to happen again.

TRIGGER WARNING:

Some of the character dialogue contains sexist remarks. I added this to reflect how I believed the characters would have reacted, given their previous dialogues in the play. I also implemented those remarks to demonstrate the oppressive and generally patriarchal culture of Ancient Greece, specifically in Ancient Athens where the play was written. I thought it would be important to highlight those remarks in my game, and to attempt to bring these up into our modern discussion. That said, be advised that some of the dialogue spoken by the characters may be offensive, and play at your own caution.

CREDITS:

Producer/Programmer/Composer/Writer: Noah Schwartz
Character Artist: Ben Schwartz
Copyright:
 Character Dialogue for the route following the play 
(the route 'Bury Our Brother/Listen/Lift Head/Stay/Honesty') is
 by Elizabeth Wyckoff's translation of Sophocles' Antigone.
 
Music: Song of Seikilos. Composition taken and modified 
from www.mfiles.co.uk. 
URL: https://www.mfiles.co.uk/scores/seikilos-epitaph.htm