If it would mean you knew I loved you, I would die a thousand times and be happy.

 I believe that Antigone absolutely meets the criteria for being a tragic hero. She was a law abiding citizen of Thebes and part of the royal family, who found herself on the wrong side of the mortal law when she tried to honor her brothers death by giving him a proper burial.

Even in breaking the law set by Creon Antigone still proclaims that she is abiding a more important law, the law of the Gods. Antigone says “ These laws- I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man's wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods” (Antigone 496). This line shows the reader that even in her disregard for the king's laws she is still doing what she believed to be the morally right thing to do.

In her conversation with Creon, Antigone states “I was born to join in love not hate- that is not my nature” (Antigone 498). This serves to further illustrate that Antigone's intentions were not those of vengeance and vindication when she went against the king's laws and buried her brother but rather those of love because it was her “brother, not some slave that died” (Antigone 498). and whether or not he was seen as an “enemy” (Antigone 498) in the eyes of the king, in her mind “death longs for the same rites for all.” (Antigone 498).

I feel sympathy for Antigone because I feel if I was in her situation I two would want to honour the death of my loved one. I would have a very hard time simply standing by while the body of my brother was left to rot for all to see, I would feel the need to protect his dignity by setting him to his final rest in a peaceful and humanistic way.

I do not see Creon as a tragic hero because he had a choice about his actions, just as Antigone did, and he chose his path. When Creon announces his claiming the throne to the chorus he says “whoever places a friend above the good of his own country, he is nothing: I have no use for him” (Antigone 489). Creon says this even before he learns of Antigone's deed. This shows that he would have done what he did to Antigone to anyone, he was not considering the needs of his people as a true great leader would do.

 

“An extended metaphor is one where there is a single main subject to which additional subjects and metaphors are applied.

The extended metaphor may act as a central theme, for example where it is used as the primary vehicle of a poem and is used repeatedly and in different forms” (http://changingminds.org/techniques/language/metaphor/extended_metaphor.htm).

The short story “Stones” by Findley is a perfect example of an extended metaphor. The concept is first introduced by the title then further developed and extended as the story goes on in reference to the soldiers at war, the the empty shells of men that were returned to their families, the stones that were washed with blood on the beach, and the cold weight that buried the narrator's family alive. In my opinion the most compelling stone metaphor in this short story is right at the end when the narrator says “He felt like a powdered stone- pummelled and broken” (Findley 82). It struck me that this would not have been just in his death, but that he was broken long before then, just now his physical state matched that of his mental state.