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”.…
One of Antigone's flaws is her loyalty to the gods and, on the other hand, her disloyalty to the state. Antigone seems to value religion more than the law. At the beginning, Creon orderes that Polynices, Antigone's brother, must be kept unburied because Creon thinks that he was a traitor. This is offensive to Antigone, and she is willing to do anything to honor the gods and bury her brother, even if it means getting killed for defying Creon's laws.…
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.…
The play Antigone supports Creon’s claims that the rule of the king must be obeyed even if it is wrong in order to avoid anarchy and chaos. It is tragic that so many lives had to be lost. It is hard to be a king and maintain the rule of law. King Creon is a strong king that demands to be obeyed no matter what the cost. Tragically he lost so many that he cared for. First his brother dies, then his two nephews fight over the throne and end up killing each other. Eteocles was the king however his brother Polyneices fought to take his place. To no avail they both die. Eteocles was giving a proper burial for a king where Polyneices was just left to rot on the battlefield.…
In Sophocle’s play “Antigone”, a conflict grows between Antigone and Creon. A conflict between the two aforementioned people commenced when Creon discovered that Antigone had buried Polyneices. Crean says, “But this is Antigone! Why have you brought her here?”. The sentry bringing the news replies with “She was burying him, I tell you!” (732, 17-18). Secondly, the conflict between them grew when Antigone calls out Creon’s selfish behavior. She says, “Ah Creon, Creon, Which one of us can say what the gods hold wicked?” with Creon responding “An enemy is an enemy, even dead” (735, 115-117). Furthermore, the conflict ends when Antigone commits suicide. The messenger that delivers the message to Creon says, “We say her lyring; she had made a…
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…
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…
Continuing on, knowing the consequences of her act, she will bury her brother because it is the will of the gods that a family gives its members a proper burial. And because of this, she will face the punishment of death for disobeying Creon’s order. For fighting against Thebes, but Antigone being an honor sister will give him a proper burial knowing what he did. Creon by doing this will let the city know that by unburied Polynices action will show others to think before thinking in betraying their city if anyone had the intention to do it. Also since he's the king, he needs to gain the respect of the people. When at the same time it was…
After Creon lost both of his nephews he made a decree banning the burial of one of them. After his niece buried her brother, Creon was in a difficult position in which he had to decide if he was going to continue to be consistent with his law and punish his niece, or to go against his morals and change his decree. Creon desires to be a sovereign king, therefore, he chooses to punish his niece after she broke the law by going against the decree he made. Sophocles portrays Antigone as the protagonist, and Creon as the protagonist, but after a closer look, it becomes evident that Creon was trying to run his kingdom in a way that his subjects would respect him, rather than in a way that favours his family members.…
Antigone's reasons for burying her brother were strictly to demonstrate love, loyalty, honor, and respect for her family and for her brother to be accepted in the gods' land. However, the main reason that Creon is angered is not the fact that Polynieces fought against his city, and yet the insult and betrayal of his own niece, especially by being a female figure who disobeyed him in public; it is even worse because she is his son's (Haemon) fiancé, and, therefore, his ego is quite damaged. "Go down below and love, if love you must love the dead! While I'm alive, / no woman is going to lord it over me". The type of punishment given to Antigone was very severe and cowardly, in contrast to the main reason that caused…
Another quality of Creon that makes him a tragic hero is that he had bad judgment. Creon refused to have Polyneices buried because he felt that Polyneices was going to sell his people into slavery. Creon also punished Antigone for her “holy crime,” which was when she went against Creon’s edict for a virtuous reason. Because of Antigone’s crime, another one of Creon’s transgressions was accusing her sister, Ismene, equally for the crime and deciding to punish her too, by putting both Antigone and Ismene to death. Because he stood by his rule, Creon had some wrongdoings.…
Pride can be a very powerful thing. It can be very good in helping build self esteem but, too much pride will cause harm to his/her self or others close to them. In Sophocles play, Antigone, the Characters Creon and Antigone show very distinct types of pride which put them in very unpleasant situations. Creon's pride is excessive and causes him to become the tragic hero of the story. Antigone's pride got to her head which didn't allow her to think about how servere the consequences are.…
At the beginning of the play, antigone is irrelevant. She didn't care about dying or breaking the law. She did all of this for her brother. Antigone says,”Help me lift. The body up- my own brother and yours. I will! If you will not, I will; I shall not prove disloyal.” (Sophocles 2). This proves that Antigone will bury her brother with or without her sister's help. Even if it means breaking the law and getting punished for her act. Her sister does not want to go against Creon's law, so she doesn’t help. Antigone also says,” I say it; I deny it not.” (Sophocles 17). This confirms that Antigone is bold because Creon asks her if she buried her brother without her permission, and she does not deny it. She isn't scared of Creon. She broke his law…