Antigone...?

Question

1. What is the dramatic purpose of the prologue?

Answer 1

We studied this subject at school. If you're reading the original version, then it follows the tradition of Antiquity. All plays had a prologue (sometimes more than one) back then.

In a tragedy, the point of the story is not to create suspense or to surprise the audience with the ending. The spectator already knows who's going to die, or at leats that an important character will have an unfortunate fate. It's announced in the prologue. The point of the play is to show how fate always takes its course and nothing anyone does can change the outcome (which everyone knows from the beginning).

The first prologue is meant to introduce the play, the themes of which it speaks, the characters, and the main situation. It also give an ominous warning, so the readers/spectators can begin to guess who the victim will be.

The prologues that follow (because there is often a prologue at the beginning of every act) are meant to recap, and make sure that the readers/spectators are still following the story line.

The author can also use it to justify certain aspects of the play or to implicitely convey a message to the specrtators, since it's a play, it would be the only way for the author's own voice to be heard. He can't always get the message across through the dialogue. It might not always fit, and the moral isn't always enough to convey his opinions on certain matters.

If you're reading a more modern adaptation, maybe Jean Anhouil's? Then it probably serves that last purpose. Of course, it also aims to keep some antique traditions alive, and to help clarify some points and notions, but modern writers often aim at conveying a certain message and their writings often have a more implicite purpose then just to entertain. They often have some political or social criticism hidden in their works.

I haven't read the original version of Anitgone myself, but generally speaking, that's the purpose of a prologue. But then it all depends on the actual play. So try to apply it to the play you're reading.

I hope that was helpful.

Answer 2

Here is something that may answer your question:

In Attic Greek drama, a character in the play, very often a deity, stood forward or appeared from a machine before the action of the play began, and made from the empty stage such statements necessary for the audience to hear so that they might appreciate the ensuing drama. It was the early Greek custom to dilate in great detail on everything that had led up to the play, the latter being itself, as a rule merely the catastrophe which had inevitably to ensue on the facts related in the prologue. The importance, therefore, of the prologue in Greek drama was very great; it sometimes almost took the place of a romance, to which, or to an episode in which, the play itself succeeded.