In the Greek tragedy Antigone translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, Antigone responds to Creon’s unjustified decree by honoring her brother Polyneices, after he dies. After Antigone’s father dies, her two brothers fight for the throne. King Creon, the new King of Thebes, sides with the other brother Eteocles and buries him with honor and for him to seek happiness after life. However, Creon leaves Polyneices to decay as a way to tell his people that Polyneices will be going to hell and find no happiness in his afterlife. Not only does Creon leave Polyneices alone to rot, he creates an unjustified decree to forbid anyone to show honor towards him in any way. Antigone opposes Creon’s biased decree. Antigone’s decision to defend Polyneices…
Creon, as the ruler of the land, is obligated to carry out social order. He has ordered that the body of Polynices should be left to rot because he was a traitor to the city. Antigone has disobeyed Creon’s orders by digging up her brother’s grave after his proper burial rites were forbidden. She has already buried her parents and brother Eteocles, who died fighting Polynices, and feels obligated to honor her brother’s life. Antigone is also determined to obey the gods, because it is against morality to leave any corpse unburied. She informs Creon that “Death longs for the same rites for all”.…
Additionally, violating the law brings harm to others. For example, in Scene 5 it states, "The burden you carry in your hands is heavy, But it is not all: you will find more in your house... The Queen is dead." (Lines 1000 & 1002). Due to Antigone breaking the law it lead to the death of many. Antigone's one decision to bury Polyneices consequently caused a chain reaction of negative outcomes such as harm to others.…
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.…
In Sophocles play “Antigone”, Creon the king demanded that his people obey his rules and order even if it’s wrong. He believed this because it stops chaos and keeps order, but when he puts out the law that whoever were to bury Polyneices body will be put to death and this upsets all of the citizens, including his son. A true ruler must give his people what they want unlike Creon did, Creon’s people and his son told him he was making the wrong decision. When the towns people act like the counsel listen to them. The play disagrees with Creon because while he was a feared and mighty ruler in his own eyes, his own people were scared and untrusting of his rules and decisions.…
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…
In the ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone, Sophocles’ character, King Creon will issue a law that no one will perform the burial rites over a dead traitor of the state. In advocating his law, he will deem Polynices a traitor. Antigone will unapologetically revolt against Creon’s law citing the rite's for the dead are the concern of the gods. Creon, believing himself to be omniscient in all matters of state and church ignores the coherent warnings given to him by his family and friend. Ironically, when he judges Antigone as a traitor to the state, Creon has committed the most grievous offense himself: treason against the laws of the gods,…
First of all, Antigone says to Creon “But if I’d allowed my own mother’s dead son to just lie there, an unburied corpse,then I’d feel distress.” (227-229). This quote shows how Antigone is doing the right thing by burying her brother and what Creon is doing to her brother Polyneices an act of injustice. This also shows how Antigone and Creon are different because she is being driven by the love she has towards Polyneices and Creon is being driven by the hate he has towards him. Second, Antigone says to Creon “But where could I gain greater glory than setting my own brother in his grave?” (570-571). This quote shows how Antigone is willing to disobey the law to give her brother a proper burial because of how much she loves him. This quote also shows how Antigone is determine to do what she thinks is right which is bury her brother Polyneices even though she would be disobeying orders. He doesn’t think women are the same as men because they disobey men’s…
No one should take the right to put one body to rest in peace upon his or her death. However, Creon is only trying to make sure enforcing this law that no one goes against his city and people, and doing this if they are real believers, they will think about it twice before trying anything against Thebes. In other words, a traitor of Thebes will never have a proper buried like the Greek believes. At the confrontation of Antigone and Creon, Antigone makes clear to Creon that the laws of heaven are more powerful than his laws and she was right, but Creon can't let something like this just slide, because like I said it will send the wrong message to the citizens of Thebes. It is not very clear that Antigone had no sorrow for what she did nor will she back…
In every person’s life there are laws that they follow, whether they are set by the authority in the country or their belief in a higher deity the laws one follows while leading their life can sometimes be in conflict. In Antigone divine and state law are incompatible forcing the characters to make difficult decisions. Antigone’s personal obligation to following religious rites and traditions puts her at odds with Creon’s insistence on enforcing his will as the king. Sophocles examines the conflict between rules and order to illustrate how adherence to the law of the state can be mislead. Through the conflicts between characters in the play, Sophocles exemplifies that in his best world divine or religious law is obeyed over the law of men or states.…
Creon admits that he is wrong for forbidding Polyneices to be buried. He caused unnecessary harm to Antigone and Polyneices who (as the greeks believed) was suffering in the…
He asks her more than one if she broke the law, and if she knew that she was breaking the law by doing so (138). Each time Antigone says that she is guilty and that she knew it was against the law. Creon gave her a chance to lie and say that it was not her but she does not deny her actions. This means that Creon must punish her for her actions. Instead of the original punishment, which was death, Creon order Antigone to be placed in a cave. He says, “Leave her alone at liberty to die, or, if she choose, to live in solitude, the tomb her dwelling” (152). This is extremely merciful for Creon to do. Instead of automatically giving her the death penalty, he has given her an opportunity to continue living. If Creon was the cold, heartless, antagonist that many people try to label him as then he would have hung Antigone on a cross rather than isolating her from the rest of the people. He had to punish her somehow, because she was guilty; therefore, he punished her as lovingly as he…
The play “Antigone,” by Sophocles displays an interesting storyline in which the main characters Antigone and Creon undergo various obstacles due to their actions. Throughout the play, Antigone attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother Polyneices. By choosing to protest and defy Creon’s rule, Antigone unquestionably breaks the law. However, her defiance does not seem like an act of civil disobedience against injustice because Antigone was acting in her own self-interest when considering dying for her brother.…
Feasibly, one of the most protuberant themes in Sophocles’ Antigone, is the concept of the internal battle between God’s law or divine law and human/man’s law.…