What is Justice: Humanism v. Law in Antigone

Humanity is often faced with ambivalence towards law; at once, we find it a necessity in attempting to deal with a world which is constantly in some type of chaotic turmoil, and also as a glaring flaw in our society, which can at times result in more chaos than was originally had. This conflict is no more obvious than in Sophocles’ Antigone. Antigone, the character, represents half of the struggle between what the law says is just and what we inherently deem to be morally upstanding – Creon represents the opposing side which views law and power as the ultimate dictator of life’s unraveling. Though Antigone is ultimately thwarted, she is on the side of justice rather than blindly following the law. Antigone’s empathy while breaking the law represents a pattern of sympathy for the civilly disobedient when they act in realm that seems to be reasonably just.

Humanism has made resurgence in today's society; however, it is founded on the archetypes presented in history, particularly on those of the Greeks which have only been amplified by the continuously tragic nature of their plays. While critics attempt to differentiate the intentions of Greek dramatist in creating an almost overly empathetic, martyr-like antagonist, it’s widely held that these individuals are not gleaming failures of what occurs when emotion and a sense of morality overcome the law, but instead represent the final culmination of these values – self-sacrifice. (1) Antigone continuously depicts these virtues in her actions when burying her brother, Polynieces; she accredits her morality to the gods rather than to man, saying, “My honours for the dead must last much longer than for those up here. I’ll lie down there forever. As for you, well, if you wish, you can sho...

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...g-doing, that Antigone vindicates both herself, her fiancée, and her brother, even in death.

Works Cited

Honig, Bonnie. "Antigone's Two Laws: Greek Tragedy and the Politics of Humanism." New Literary History 41.1 (2010): 1-33. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

Honig, Bonnie. "Ismene's Forced Choice: Sacrifice and Sorority in Sophocles' Antigone." Arethusa 44.1 (2011): 29-68. Project MUSE. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.

Johnson, Graham. "Sophocles' Antigone: Tragedy as Satire?" ESSAI 7.1 (2010): 73-75. College of Dupage. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.

Lines, Patricia M. "Antigone's Flaw." HUMANITAS XII.1 (1999): n. pag. National Humanities

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Sophocles. Antigone. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.