Antigone Moral Overtime Essay

Morality Overtime Overtime in the play Antigone by Sophocles the morals of the characters change over time, specifically Antigone and Creon. These two characters deal with issues that affect their values towards moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg was a psychologist that developed the Theory of Moral Development. The Theory of Moral Development was a six stage theory, that was based on the ways people follow social rules. This theory connects to the play Antigone by the characters ethics change as the play progresses. Kohlberg's theory elaborates on the way morals work throughout the play. Antigone the main character in the play went through the stages two and three of the moral development theory. This changed because Antigone was affected

In the beginning he would be a stage four because he chooses power over traditions according to Kohlberg’s law of moral development, a quote to support this would be “Now I hold sole power and the throne because I am the closest relative of the fallen” (Sophocles 170-114) Creon is choosing his power over mourning the death of his nephew, which is Antigone’s sibling, instead he chooses to rule the city instead of following the traditions of society. It is interesting to see that Creon is doing this because, he wants to let the city know even though it is his relative that died he still doesn’t care much. He wants to be seen as a powerful person instead of a weak person. As the play progresses Creon goes from stage four to stage three. A quote that shows this is “What do you say, my boy? Why do you tell me this news…” (Sophocles 1297). This is showing that Creon loves his family and is affected by the news that was delivered to him. This connects to stage three in Kohlberg’s Law of Moral Development is “Interpersonal Connections”, Creon is trying to live up to the ideals of what someone who just lost a loved one would do. This is telling readers that in the end you always go back to family no matter what goes