Antigone and The Waiting Years :

A Study of Authentic vs. Inauthentic Consciousness

         Jean Anouilh’s “Antigone” was written to make a statement to the people of the time, and can be considered an Existentialist text in that it directly addresses Antigone’s choices, which are made out of an authentic consciousness of herself.  The principal thesis of Existentialism is that the paths of our lives can be determined only by ourselves, and that only we can create any meaning in our lives.  To ensure that they are truly being, people must be conscious of themselves as they are, instead of as people see them or as they are expected to be.  The opposition of this is seen in “The Waiting Years”, in the passivity of Tomo, who lives her life inauthentically, obeying her husband and ignoring any possibility of actively changing her life.  The ending of the book reveals the absurdity, from an Existentialist point of view, of such an attitude.  Here, the meaning of the title is made clear, for Tomo’s years of waiting are to come to an end, her waiting having never been fulfilled. 

            The difference between “authenticity” and “inauthenticity” of consciousness is demonstrated in the difference between Creon and Antigone.  Creon is dedicated to his duty as king, while Antigone makes decisions based only on internal needs, regardless of all other factors.  Like Creon, Tomo is devoted to her role, as mistress of the Shirakawa household, and in an extreme of inauthenticity, denies herself any emotions or personality, soon losing sight of her own needs.  Toward the end of the book, this realisation hits her: “along with the idea that her life must triumph over Yukitomo’s, there came an icy sense of desolation at the coldness of a relationship that could foster such an idea, at its remoteness from all normal ideas of the bond between husband and wife.”  She had become too absorbed in household affairs and the upkeep of the Shirakawa name to recognise how much she lacked in life.  In addition, her obsession with maintaining status is at the root of inauthenticity; she is perpetually conscious of how she appears to people.  “She had a habit of running a hand over her hair from time to time even though, in keeping with the whole of her personal appearance, it was always immaculately groomed.”  Antigone, on the other hand, cares less for her physical demeanour, and it is her blatant disregard for status and the upholding of appearances that leads her to make the decisions she does.

            Before her death, it appears that Antigone wants to experience all aspects of being a woman.  When Antigone speaks with Haemon, and the audience learns that she had earlier dressed up for him, wearing Ismene’s makeup and perfume, in an attempt to seduce her fiancé.  A mother instinct, and desire to be a mother, is also visible in Antigone.  “You don’t know how I should have held him in my arms and given him my strength… [His mother] would have been strong where he was concerned, so much stronger than those real mothers with their real bosoms and their aprons round their middle.”  Anouilh is again referring to inauthentic consciousness, telling of women who merely step into the role of “mother” and act how mothers do, though Antigone would not have been thus.  Antigone is shown rejoicing in life and liveliness, finding everything breathtaking.  “It was beautiful.  The whole world was grey when I went out… It’s like a postcard.”  Life is wonderful to Antigone, and she is deliberately cutting it short at a point when it is most intensely beautiful to her.  This love of life illustrates Antigone’s authenticity, as does her determination to appreciate every aspect of it and her own self.  Rather than obeying the rules and doctrines laid out for her, she resolutely follows her own path to happiness.

Anouilh demonstrates the purity of Antigone’s choice to bury her brother by making it clear that all potential inauthentic reasons for her choice have been eliminated.  The choice came entirely from within herself, not influenced by, for example, any particular affection for Polynices.  As Ismene said, “He never loved you.  He was a bad brother.”  According to Creon, her brothers were vile people, who showed her no affection.  In addition, Antigone had no way of knowing which brother she was burying, for both bodies were unrecognisable.  Greek belief was that the souls of unburied bodies wander the earth for eternity, though Antigone herself says that she does not believe in ritual.  We can be certain that Antigone has buried the body merely for the sake of burying the body.  She made an authentic choice, based not on external factors such as a loyalty to a loved brother or religious beliefs, but on her own moral code of right and wrong, despite the knowledge that the attempt would be futile.  “What a person can do, a person ought to do.”

            In contrast to Tomo, Antigone is conscious of her emotions and lives life to the full, while remaining true to her ethical code.  She follows her emotional desires, acknowledges all her needs as a girl on the verge of womanhood, and attempts to fulfil them before her inevitable death.  The choices she makes are borne out of a full knowledge of who she is and what she wants.

            Tomo, however, represses her emotions.  In the beginning of the book, she craves love and attention from her husband, though she dutifully fulfils his desire for a concubine.  “Still stronger was the longing, whatever the sacrifice, to have her husband understand through and through the innermost desires and emotions of her heart.”  However, she later loses sight of this need; as time progresses, Tomo becomes more engrossed in maintaining appearances and the family’s status in a class-minded society.  The book ends as Tomo realises she has gradually forgotten her human desires, and asks that her body be “dumped in the sea,” a reaction to a sense of the futility of her life.  Tomo has, throughout her life, denied herself intimacy with anyone.  She has distanced herself even from her children: “so alert was Tomo to the danger of spoiling her that Etsuko tended to find her affection elsewhere.”  Though emotional underneath, Tomo has learned to keep her feelings rigidly under control.

            All that Tomo does is as a function of her position; she drifts through life, and makes decisions reactively instead of proactively.  She acts out of duty and her role in the household.  She is trapped in sordidness and immorality, and does not actively decide to induce any change.  Enchi communicates the submissive nature of women in Japanese society, through the evident lack of fulfilment in Tomo’s and Suga’s lives.  They spend their time waiting for something to change to bring them happiness.  “Unless she climbed and went on climbing she would never reach the top of the hill.”  This metaphor communicates Tomo’s sense that everything will, at some moment, make sense, and she will finally know what she had been waiting for.  This, for Tomo, will never happen, for ‘authenticity’ demands that she choose her path through life.

            Because she had barely thought about her own self at all, the approach of death surprises Tomo.  It is in her and Antigone’s attitudes to death, as well as life, that they differ greatly.  To Tomo, being too absorbed in daily life and the affairs of those around her, mortality is not even a consideration.  “The kindly, unthinking inquiry after her health that Kayo had just made at the gateway had come as a shock.”  However, for Antigone, death is a purpose and intentional Existentialist choice.  “[Creon] is bound to put us to death.  We are bound to go out and bury our brother.  That’s the way it is.”  Antigone knows that death will come and accepts its inevitability.  In contrast, Tomo’s shock at the confrontation of illness is caused by the natural assumption that she will outlive her husband, and lack of awareness of the actuality of her existence.  While Antigone consciously lives and consciously dies, Tomo is aware of neither.

        According to Existentialism, in order to truly live, one must be oneself.  In “Antigone”, in particular, characters are often shown to be either adhering to this belief, or deliberately rejecting it, conforming to an image that has been created of who they are supposed to be.  It is through this self-awareness, or lack of it, that the characters make their choices.  While Antigone acknowledges her self and makes choices based purely on her own reasons, Tomo is the opposite.  Though both women meet death, Tomo’s is the true misfortune, for her waiting is never satisfied, while Antigone’s death was her deliberate aim.