Analyzing Antigone and Creon

Sophocles play titled Antigone, embellishes the opposing conflicts between Antigone who stands for the values of family, and Creon who stands for the values of state. Sophocles explores the depths of Antigone’s morality and the duty based on consequence throughout the play, as well as the practical consequences of Creon who is passionate and close-minded. Although Antigone’s moral decisions appear to be more logical and favorable than Creon’s, a personal argument would be that both characters’ decisions in society can be equally justified.

In the play, Sophocles examines the nature of Antigone and Creon who have two different views about life, and use those views against one another. Antigone who is depicted as the hero represents the value of family. According to Richard Braun, translator of Sophocles Antigone, Antigone’s public heroism is domestically motivated: “never does [Antigone] give a political explanation of her deed; on the contrary, from the start [Antigone] assumes it is her hereditary duty to bury Polynices, and it is from inherited courage that [Antigone] expects to gain the strength required for the task” (8). Essentially, it is Antigone’s strong perception of family values that drive the instinct to disobey Creon’s orders and to willingly challenge the King’s authority to dictate her role in society.

In addition, Antigone is a strong believer in the divine laws of the gods and that by following those laws the gods will give Antigone an honorable place in the afterlife. In a quote by Antigone to Ismene, “I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory…I have longer to please the dead than please the living here” (Sophocles, 1468). It is this unyielding belief that pushe...

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...se Creon was not yet the king of Thebes during the period of Oedipus’s ruling, and Antigone who was not yet a renowned figure acting independently in her own will without any dilemmas. It is until the story of Antigone when Antoine’s rights are desecrated by the might of Creon’s rule and that it led Antigone to bail and revolt against it. This is the dynamic that Sophocles sees in Antigone within the society of Thebes, and through the perception of Antigone’s heroic deeds, equal to that against the behavior of Creon, Sophocles exemplify to the audience the unbalance nature in society.

Works Cited

Braun Emil Richard. Introduction. “Sophocles Antigone.” 7th ed. New York: Oxford UP,

1974. 8. Print.

Sophocles. “Antigone.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature Reading, Thinking,

Writing. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford / St. Martins, 2011. 1279-280. Print.