Question

prologue
scene: before the palace of creon, king of thebes
directions: as you read the prologue, highlight antigones motivations in __ and highlight ismenes motivations in __.
creon, new king of thebes and the uncle of antigone and ismene, and of their brothers polynices and eteocles. oedipus (antigone and ismenes father) unwittingly killed his father laius and married his own mother jocasta. when he learned what he had done, he blinded himself and left thebes. eteocles and polynices quarreled. polynices was driven out and he returned to attack thebes. in the battle, each brother killed the other. creon became king and ordered that polynices be left to rot unburied on the battlefield as a traitor.
antigone (enters, dear sister):
you would think that we had already suffered enough
for the curse on oedipus.
i cannot imagine any grief
that you and i have not gone through. and now—
have they told you the new decree of our king creon?
ismene (i have heard nothing. i know
that our sisters lost two brothers, a double death
in a single hour, and i know that the argive army
fled in the night; but beyond this, nothing.
antigone: i thought so. and that is why i wanted you
to come out here with me. theres a disturbing act
must do:
ismene: why do you speak so strangely?
antigone: listen, ismene:
creon buried our brother eteocles
with military honors, gave him a soldiers funeral,
and it was right (that he should). but polynices,
who fought at home (and died so criminally)...
they say that creon has sworn
no one shall bury him, no one mourn for him.
but his body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure
for carrion birds to find as they search for food.
that is what they say, and our good creon is coming
here to announce it publicly; and the penalty—
stoning to death in the public square!
these it is.
and now you can prove what you are:
a true sister, or a traitor to your family.
ismene: antigone, you are mad! what could i possibly do?
antigone: you must decide whether you will help me or not.
ismene: i do not understand you. help you in what?
antigone: ismene, i am going to bury polynices. will you come?

Explanation:

The problem is about analyzing the motivations of characters (Antigone and Ismene) from a literary work (the prologue of a play, likely "Antigone"). To identify their motivations, we examine their dialogue:

• Antigone's Motivations: She is determined to bury her brother Polynices, defying King Creon's decree. This shows her motivation is loyalty to family (honoring her brother's burial rights) and a sense of moral duty/justice, as she believes the king's order is unjust.
• Ismene's Motivations: Initially, she is hesitant, fearing the punishment (death) for disobeying Creon. She also expresses concern about the consequences of going against the king's law, showing a more cautious, law - abiding (or self - preserving) motivation, though later her stance may be open to change as the dialogue progresses.

For the highlighting task (the blanks in the directions), typically, different colors are used to distinguish the two characters' motivations. A common choice would be to highlight Antigone's motivations in one color (e.g., red) and Ismene's in another (e.g., blue), but since the problem seems to be asking for the "color" or "way" to highlight (the blanks are likely for color names or highlighting methods), and in literary analysis activities like this, different colors are assigned to each character's motivations. So we can assume the first blank (for Antigone) and the second blank (for Ismene) are for two different highlighting colors (e.g., red and blue, or any two distinct colors).

Answer:

The first blank (for Antigone's motivations) can be filled with a color like "red" and the second blank (for Ismene's motivations) can be filled with a color like "blue" (or any two distinct highlighting colors/methods to distinguish the two characters' motivations).