"Like a conscientious workman, he does his job."
This is a simile used early on in the play, said by the Chorus about Creon. The simile aids in characterization as it helps the audience understand the nature of who Creon is. Although Creon is a king, Anouilh compares him to a workman which is a job that is associated with a lower social class and has connotations of someone who is hardworking and persevering. This indicates that the life which Creon lives is unlike royalty, he is not living luxuriously, instead, he looks at being a king as something that is tedious and must be done, it is work, it is not enjoyable.
"The cord was round her neck like a child's collar."
This simile was said by the Messenger near the end of the play to describe how Antigone had died. Prior to the usage of this simile, the cords were described as "red and golden", the colors of royalty. The colors of the cords of her robe add a sense of majesty to her death; because after all, she is still the queen. This is juxtaposed to a "child's collar" indicating the immaturity of Antigone. It sums up how her petulant nature and impulsive decision making was what led to her downfall. This is important as it links to Anouilh's message to the intellects of France. He wanted to critique the improbability of the cell method succeeding, they needed to work together, and think together as one rather than in separate units.
"Come on, cook!"
During the peak of tension between Antigone and Creon, Antigone calls Creon a cook. Although Creon is not a cook, it is a metaphor used to compare his job of a ruler and king to a someone who creates (or cooks up) false rumors in the "kitchen of politics". It is Antigone's way of discrediting Creon, to represent him as a liar. It was also Anouilh way to subtly hint at how unreliable Pétain was at the time.
"Life is nothing more than the happiness that you get out of it."
Creon has just recently convinced Antigone not to die. However, Creon continued to talk and it was this metaphor that caused Antigone to revert back to her goal of dying. By comparing life to happiness, Antigone was able to realize that Creon's version of what "happiness" represented was different to her own. This engages the audience because although (due to the elements of a tragedy) they know that Antigone will die, the glimmer of hope that she may live keeps the audience on edge. However, when she changes her mind and chooses death over life once again, the audience despairs.
The metaphor also characterizes Antigone. She is not one to be happy being told what to do, however that is inevitable in her life that is all planned out. Thus, she is unable to be happy in the life that she lives, but if "life is nothing more than the happiness that you get out of it", as Creon states, she can not have a life.
"there she is, clawing away like a hyena."
When the guards caught Antigone, they compared her actions of burying her brother to a hyena - a wild animal. This simile connotes to how crazy and absurd her actions were, and how uncivilized and wild she acted. It indicates how determined she was to obtain her goal, which characterizes who Antigone is, she is stubborn and is her mind is set.
It also highlights how thoughtless she is with her actions. She is compared to a wild animal which connotes a lowered brain capacity and indicates that her actions were not thought out logically. It lowers her image and draws away from the fact that she is actually royalty.
