Chapter 1: "Antigone" by Sophocles
* Summary: Set in the city of Thebes, the play follows Antigone, who defies her uncle Creon's decree to bury her brother, Polyneices, who died as a traitor.
* Real example: In the play, Creon says, "What is right is right, / And wrong is wrong. / And if there is anyone who thinks / That he can change the nature of things / By his own actions, / He is a fool."
Chapter 2: "Medea" by Euripides
* Summary: Medea, a powerful sorceress, seeks revenge on her husband, Jason, for abandoning her for a younger princess.
* Real example: Medea laments her fate, saying, "O my children, my children! / Would that I had never given birth to you, / For then you would not have suffered such a fate."
Chapter 3: "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare
* Summary: Hamlet, a young prince, struggles with grief, madness, and the desire for revenge after his father's murder.
* Real example: Hamlet's famous soliloquy begins, "To be or not to be, / That is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Chapter 4: "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen
* Summary: Nora, a seemingly perfect wife, confronts her husband, Torvald, about his controlling behavior and the societal expectations that have forced her to live a lie.
* Real example: Nora says to Torvald, "I must work out who I am first, / And then I can be your wife, / Or rather your husband's wife."
Chapter 5: "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov
* Summary: A bankrupt landowner, Lyubov Ranevskaya, returns to her family's estate only to face the inevitability of selling the property.
* Real example: Trofimov, a young student and Ranevskaya's former tutor, says, "We have to go forward. / We have to build a new world. / A world of truth and justice."
