DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

Sophocles' Antigone and Amanda Knox in court.

We spoke in class about coming to terms with Antigone’s decision to give her life in order to uphold her brother’s honor- which is right? To die for a cause, or to live and fight for it covertly?

Today while perusing CNN news, I clicked on the update of the now infamous Amanda Knox Murder trial, and was stunned to see, in print, Knox’s final appeal for freedom, her claim to innocence. In a sense, her final battle cry. The farther I read, the more I thought of Antigone.

Although Knox pleads for exactly the opposite of Antigone — her life (freedom)– her public supplication is a reminder to me as a theatre artist that these tragedian speeches of such import are not so far fetched, even in a time when it seems our voices have become so mundane.

Without further ado, here is a side by side juxtaposition of Antigone and Knox’s speeches that appeal for their interpretations of justice:

Antigone (speech taken from the Jean Cocteau adaptation):

Jupiter did not issue that decree. Nor does justice impose such laws. I was not aware that your decree could make the caprice of man prevail over the rule of the immortals, over Unwritten Laws which nothing can efface. Such laws do not date from today or yesterday. They are for all time. No one knows when they were made. Ought I, then, for fear of a man’s opinion, to disobey my gods? I knew death would follow my act. I shall die young; so much the better. The real misfortune was to have left my brother without a tomb. The rest is all the same to me.

Amanda:

“I am not what they say I am. I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal…People always ask ‘who is Amanda Knox?’ I am the same person that I was four years ago, exactly the same person. The only thing that now separates me from four years ago is my suffering…In four years, I’ve lost my friends in the most terrible and unexplainable way. My trust in the authorities and the police has been damaged. I had to face charges that were totally unfair, without any basis. And I am paying with my life for something I haven’t done…I am innocent.”