Conformity and Rebellion in Antigone

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Recommended: Antigone's character development

Would you rather not have conflicts in your life? Antigone is a play, based upon conflicts between the characters. Antigone is the sister of Polynices, who is dead. Polynices is considered a traitor to Creon and he doesn’t bury those who are against him. As conflicts occur, Antigone, Creon, and the Chorus argue on whether to have Polynices buried or not. Conflicts are a necessary part of life because of the changes that we run in to. It is appropriate to rebel and create conflict when we believe in doing the right thing to do, but someone is taking the necessary tool away from us so we can’t accomplish those goals. Also, it is appropriate to conform when violence gets out of hand. The changes that happen make us, the readers better individuals and once we have the conflicts solved, we won’t repeat the same mistakes and then conformity is possible.
It is appropriate to rebel and create conflict when you believe in doing the right thing, but somebody takes away from you the necessary tool from doing so. The main conflict in the play between Antigone and Creon is the best example for this argument. Antigone believes that everybody deserves a proper burial. In her opinion, even if somebody is a traitor or dislikes Creon’s views, he or she deserves a proper burial. In this case, Creon decides that Polynices doesn’t deserve a proper burial because Polynices is a traitor to him. Antigone now wants to bury Polynices and doesn’t care about Creon’s edict. However, Ismene warns Antigone,” But think of the dange! Think what Creon will do!” (469). Ismene is telling Antigone that she is scared of burying Polynices behind Creon’s back, because if they get caught they will be punished greatly. Ismene and everybody else in Thebes are scared of Cr...

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...d how we can be better individuals from the original conflict. Choragos Is telling us if we want to be happy, we have to be intelligent.
In Antigone, it is appropriate to conform when violence gets out of hand. This happens when all of Creon’s love ones die because of how his stubbornness and pride. However, it is appropriate to rebel when we believe in doing the right thing to do, but someone is taking the necessary tool away from us so we can’t accomplish those goals. This happens in the play when Antigone wants to bury Polynices, but Creon is too powerful and causes fear upon all of the people of Thebes. We can learn from this play that conflict is necessary in our lives, because without it we can’t learn.

Works Cited

Sophocles. Antigone. Abcarian, Klotz, and Cohen, eds.

Literature: The Human Experience. 11th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2013. Print.

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