Antigone asserts that divine law will always subjugate Creon’s laws. Creon issued a royal edict that declared Polyneices body was to remain unburied and anyone who buried it or performed the burial rites would be stoned to death. Despite the punishment, Antigone asks her…
In Sophocles' play "Antigone”, the ideas of obeying the law of one’s community and following ones own moral beliefs come into conflict. The plot revolves around two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices having killed each other in an attempted to gain rule and their Uncle Creon gaining power after their deaths. He orders Eteocles given an honorable funeral and Polyneices to be left in the streets to rot. Creon believes that Polyneices' body shall be condemned to this because of his civil disobedience and treachery against the city. However, the dead brothers’ sister, Antigone, believes this unfair to Polyneices and insulting to the Gods.…
Throughout history, there have been countless kings and rulers that have shaped government systems and history as a whole. The bad kings and rulers are often remembered as tyrants and unfair dictators. It is a fair assumption that throughout the play Antigone, Creon ruled with an “iron fist,” but undoubtedly over-exercised his powers when dealing with his punishment for Antigone for burying Polyneices’ body. He continually insisted that his law was in accordance with what the gods wanted. His stubbornness kept him from listening to Haemon, even though his son tried to persuade Creon from executing Antigone. Sophocles intentionally has Creon lose everything towards the end of the play to show the consequences of confusing his own law with what the gods would want. In his play Antigone, Sophocles shows the danger in being too stubborn and self-reliant a ruler, as well as mixing human law with divine law by presenting a proud, overbearing ruler in Creon.…
Antigone believed that not burying her brother Polyneices and burying her other brother Eteocles due to the command of her uncle Creon was a very wrong thing to do and being the loyal person she was she did not accept this law carried by her Uncle and disobeyed him with the mindset knowing burying her brother Polyneices was the right thing to do know the consequences that came with it.…
An infuriated Antigone intends to defy the law and bury her brother Polyneices. She says “I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory.” Antigone’s sister Ismene warns her against defying the city and thinks it is a losing battle.…
One of the illustrations of civil disobedience comes at the actions of Antigone. For many years, civil disobedience is understood as being the right to resist government against laws that citizens believe are morally incorrect. Antigone portrays this type of defiance towards King Kreon. She, in an act of disobedience, directly violates a command put by the king, which states that her brother Polyneices will not be given a proper burial. Since Antigone strongly believes this is morally incorrect, she attempts to still give honor to her brother by burying him. Antigone`s disobedience towards Kreon`s rules is portrayed by the following quote, “You must be as you believe. I will bury him myself. If I die for doing that, good: I will stay with him,…
The concept of justice is a tricky one and thus it comes as no surprise that the differing views on what is morally right between Antigone and Creon result in the tragedies of Antigone. In Antigone, Antigone and her sister Ismene return to Thebes after they discover that their brothers were waging war against one another to determine who would rule Thebes after the death of their father, Oedipus. When Antigone returns, she discovers that her brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, already killed each other. These deaths result in Creon becoming the king of Thebes. Upon his rise to the throne, Creon declares a law which holds that those who oppose the state cannot receive a proper burial with formal rites. King Creon specifically notes the importance of keeping the city honorable and thus enforcing this new law, “Such are the rulers by which I will guard this city’s greatness; and in keeping with them is the edict I have published touching the sons of Oedipus.…
In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone, on the other hand, believes her act of civil disobedience to bury Polyneices was justified due to her belief that the laws of the gods should be carried out above any man made law, including those declared by Kreon and that those who have passed away before her must be honored. In the beginning of the play, Antigone tries to convince her sister, Ismene, to bury the body of her brother. Ismene, at first, was skeptical, for she knew it was Kreon’s decree that no one shall bury Polyneices for he was a traitor to the state. However, Antigone thought otherwise. Antigone states, “I’ll lie there, dear to him, with my dear friend, when I’ve performed this crime of piety; for I must please those down below a longer time than those up here, since I shall lie there always. You, though, if you think it best, dishonor what is honored by the gods” (Sophocles 22-23). Antigone believes burying her brother is of higher standards than to follow the laws of Kreon, for the gods must be worshiped above all else and she follows her principles to the very end. A king may rule the land, but the gods rule all and it is this mindset that Antigone possesses that allows her to fulfill the gods’ wishes. Later in the play, when Antigone is questioned by Kreon himself, she denies nothing and bluntly states that his mortal laws are no match to the laws of the gods. She claims, “It was not Zeus who made this proclamation; nor was it Justice dwelling with the gods below who set in place such laws as these for humankind; nor did I think your proclamations had such strength that, mortal as you are, you could outrun those laws that are the gods’, unwritten and unshakable. Their laws are not for now or yesterday, but live forever…” (Sophocles 38). Antigone followed through her decision to bury her brother because the gods’ laws are eternal. It was Antigone’s strength to stand by her…
Civil disobedience is defined as a rising up against an established law in order to expose the lack of morality in the law. In Antigone it is clear that what the king was trying to do was unjust and unfair. Antigone was arrested for burying Polynices, her brother, after the king refused to bury him. If Eteocles, her other brother, could be buried with full military honors, then why could they not do the same for Polynices. Similarly in 1872 a woman named Susan B. Anthony was arrested because she "defiantly registered and cast a ballot" in Rochester, New York (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia).…
Not only is the Antigone an incredible work of drama and tragedy, it encompasses a great moral argument that has two sides; Antigone or Creon. It can also be said that the argument being made in either case is larger than the prerogatives of just these two people and more an argument between obeying the will of man or the will of the gods. Creon’s argument is for the former because of his motivation to let Polynices’s body sit in the sun and rot without giving the body a proper burial. The burial would also allow the soul of Polynices pass into the underworld in the eyes of the Greeks. Not only does this act go against the traditions of the Greek…
All though later punished for her denial of the law, Antigone ultimately made the correct decision. In Ancient Greece, it was a moral code to bury anyone and everyone, friend or foe. In the play Antigone, By Sophocles, Antigone has to choose between following this ancient duty or acquiesce…
What do you think are the circumstances in which the law should be ignored? In the story “Antigone”, Antigone herself gets in trouble by her uncle Creon for ignoring the law and burying her brother, who no one wasn’t allowed by the new king to be buried. The law can be ignored when you are doing it for the right cause and you are not harming anyone by doing so.…
Antigone says the gods want her to bury Polynices, which she does. While burying her beloved brother, she is caught by the guard, taken to the palace where she awaits her fate. When she's is being questioned by Creon for her crime she announces to Creon “take me and kill me-what more do you want?” (Line 266). She accomplished what she needed and buried her brother. She does this bringing out Creon’s determination to kill anyone who buries Polynices, Even if it’s his son's fiancee. So determined to stick to his morals he responded “Me? Nothing. With that I have everything.” (Line 267). When she announced what she did to Creon it brought out his determination to kill anyone who buries Polynices, and nothing would stand in the way of his punishment, even if it meant deeply saddening his son with his Fiance’s…
The tragic act of violation and large capacities for suffering are shown throughout this story. These elements are part of what make Antigone a tragedy and are manifested well.…
Antigone is a tragic play wrote by Sophocles about the conflicts between family members. Oedipus the king of Thebes and his wife both killed themselves due to a mistake that they made in the past. After Oedipus died his two son Polyneices and Eteocles killed each other to see who will be the next king. Both die and Creon, Oedipus’s brother in law, is the next in line to became king. The first law that Creon made since he became king is no one is allow to bury Polyneices body because he is a traitor to Thebes. Anyone who buries Polyneices will die. This law has everyone involved in suffered greatly. Creon has suffered enough for his actions and the Thebens people should not punish him any further.…