Antigone, by Sophocles, is a Greek tragedy in which two main characters have conflicting ideas of justice. One is Creon, and the other is Antigone. Antigone’s main response to justice is through her family, in her eyes doing anything for her family is her way of bringing justice. When Polynices is killed and Creon refuses to bury him, Antigone pushes many limits to bury her brother. In order for Antigone to truly feel like she has served justice and honored her family, she must bury her brother and go against the state.
Antigone’s response to justice comes when her brother is being left on the city grounds, unburied, and being torn to shreds. She feels by burying her brother she was on the side of justice, even though she knew the consequences that were ahead. She wants to achieve this goal so badly that she’s willing to die to achieve it. “If that’s your saying, I shall hate you first,
and next the dead will hate you in all justice. But let me and my own ill counseling suffer this terror. I shall suffer nothing so great as to stop me dying with honor” (Lines 93-97) In this quote, Antigone has a very deep emotional response to justice,
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and she’ll go through great lengths to achieve her goal, and she’s always pushing the limits. Antigone’s understanding of justice comes from her piety.
She feels that going against family would mean going against the gods. “For me, the doer, death is best. Loving, I shall lie with him, yes, with my loved one, when I have dared the crime of piety. Longer the time in which to please the dead than the time with those up here. There shall I lie forever. You may see fit to keep from honor what the gods have honored.” (Lines 71-75) In this quote, Antigone explains how she thinks religious order is above the state. She perceives justice this way too, anything that will displease the gods can’t be tolerated, while anything that will please the gods must be embraced. She thinks by burying her brother she will please the gods, and because of this she must do it. This is how Antigone perceives justice and her understanding of
it. Antigone’s search for justice was successful. She buried her brother, but at the expense of her life. This is what Antigone always wanted, and the quote in the first paragraph explains that. She wanted to die for her brother, as the she believed she was pleasing the gods by doing this. In the end of Antigone, she kills herself in a cave after Creon sentences her to death. In a way, Antigone’s search for justice was successful because her main goal was proving that her view of justice was more correct than Creon’s. “Yes, I have learned in sorrow. It was a god who struck, who has weighted my head with disaster; he drove me to wild strange ways his heavy heel on my joy. Oh sorrows, sorrows of men.” (Creon, Lines 1270-1275) This quote was said by Creon after his son and wife committed suicide. Antigone justified going against the state because of her devotion to the gods. Creon blames what happened to him on a god, and Antigone’s goal was for Creon to realize he was wrong. Antigone’s search for justice was successful. Antigone, by Sophocles, was a Greek tragedy in which two individuals within the tragedy have two conflicting views of justice. Antigone believes that family is the most important call for justice. When her brother, Polynices, is left on the city grounds unburied, Antigone she feel she must honor him by burying him. This was Antigone’s response to justice.Antigone’s understanding of justice comes from her piety and devotion to gods. This fuels her to put her life o; the line to bury her brother. In the end, Antigone’s search for justice was successful.
“…a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions…These laws I was not about to break them… and face retribution of the gods.”(505-513) This provides a basis for Antigone’s hubris, her belief in God, standing for what is right, defying man’s rule. As the play progresses Antigone’s hubris becomes more apparent as she claims, “Give me glory! What greater could I win than to give my own brother a decent burial?”(562-563). This pride in committing a moral and God-willed deed reaches a point where Antigone thinks that it is
Antigone decides to betray Kreon’s law in order to honor the gods and their greater law. She says “you [Kreon], who are human/to violate the lawful traditions/the gods have not written merely, but made infallible,” defending her decision to bury the out-casted Polyneices because the law that prohibits it was not proclaimed by Zeus. When Kreon asks Antigone why she honors Eteokles (her other brother who also dies in the battle in Thebes) and Polyneices equally, she responds “Death is a god/who wants his laws obeyed,” corroborating the motive of why she upheld divine law over Kreon’s law (Sophocles 41). Even Haimon, Kreon’s own son and Antigone’s betrothed, supports Antigone by saying “the gods implant intelligence in humans/…that is the supreme one” (Sophocles 48). However, Antigone’s superior motive in giving Polyneices an honorable death is love. While conferring her plan with her sister, Ismene, Antigone tells her “He’s my brother an yours too/ and whether you will or not, I’ll stand by him,” indicating her love to her brother (Sophocles 22). In addition, Antigone is most direct with her intentions when she says “I am different. I love my brother/and I’m going to go bury him, now” (Sophocles 24). After Kreon asks Antigone why she dared to break his law, knowing the repercussions, she expresses that “if I had left my own brother stay unburied/I would have suffered all the pain I do not feel now,” further denoting her unwavering devotion to Polyneices even during her own conviction. Richard Emil Braun, an highly praised writer, also believes Antigone’s primary motive to bury her brother was love, as he says “The second burial of Polyneices shows that Antigone…did the deed, and not for money, but for love…Antigone was prompted by her love to fulfill a religious duty.” Civil disobedience to Antigone is
The play Antigone opens up with the dialogue of two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, with two completely different opinions. Antigone believes that as Polyneices' sisters, they are responsible for burying him properly, according to the god's rules. On the contrary, Ismene feels that they should not get involved, they are "women born, unapt to cope with men." (Sophacles, p.3) Antigone disregards this statement and still adamantly insists that they must bury him. She feels that by burying him, she will be following the gods, which is more important than following the ruler. As she says on page 3, “Loving and loved, I will lie by his (Polynices) side. Far longer is there need I satisfy those nether Powers, than powers on earth; for there for ever must I lie.” She believes that in afterlife she ...
Antigone, as a character, is extremely strong-willed and loyal to her faith. Creon is similarly loyal, but rather to his homeland, the city of Thebes, instead of the gods. Both characters are dedicated to a fault, a certain stubbornness that effectively blinds them from the repercussions of their actions. Preceding the story, Antigone has been left to deal with the burden of her parents’ and both her brothers’ deaths. Merely a young child, intense grief is to be expected; however, Antigone’s emotional state is portrayed as frivolous when it leads her to directly disobey Creon’s orders. She buries her brother Polynices because of her obedience to family and to the gods, claiming to follow “the gods’ unfailing, unwritten laws” (Sophocles 456-457). CONTINUE
... For Antigone, “if [she] dared to leave the dead man, [her] mother’s son, dead and unburied, that would have been [the] real pain,” not death (510-512). Her desire to free the spirit of her brother so that it can be at peace explains the true reason of her rebellious nature.
Antigone is a strong willed character who is not afraid to defend her beliefs. After learning that Creon has denied Polyneices of a proper burial she uses her free will to decide that she must lay her brother to rest, as she strongly believes he should be honored like the other fallen soldiers. Unable to
Antigone’s two purposes for giving this speech are centered on her two main audiences, Creon and the citizens of Thebes. In reference to Creon, Antigone’s purpose is to convey that even after being caught, she does not fear his power, or her punishment. She desires to show him that she stands by the justness of her actions and the injustice of her conviction. To display this, she refers to her death as unimportant because it is the direct result of what she thinks to be just actions.... ...
After studying the critical excerpts following Antigone, I found two to be beneficial to the understanding Antigone. When first reading this play I found I could relate to Antigone and the way she stood up for what she believes in. Going against any King during this time, and facing death, to act upon what she believed to be right was pure admiration in my eyes. There was one part of the play, however, that I had a little trouble relating to Antigone. Before she is led to the tomb of her death, Creon and Antigone have one final conversation where Antigone is explaining her reasoning for the defiance of her king’s laws. She speaks as if speaking to her dead brother Polyneices saying, “Had I been a mother of children, and my husband been dead and rotten, I would not have taken this weary task upon me against the will of the city” (Sophocles 1587). I believed Antigone to have stood up for the rights of what was right by burying her brother with the sacred ash and water, as any blood relative would in my opinion do for another; however, if this were the case then why would she have not done for her children or her beloved husband what she fought so hard to do for her brother?
Having already been through public disgrace, when her own father, Oedipus found out that he was to fulfill a prophecy; he would kill his father and marry his mother, and this caused Antigone to be full of resentment toward her city. Both of her brothers die in a battle and, Creon, the king of Thebes forbids the burial of one of her brothers, Polynices. This must have driven Antigone to follow her moral law. Considering the love she had for her family as well as her God, she felt that you react upon morals not upon the laws of man. That morale law was to honor her brother and give him the respectful and proper burial that he deserved just as her other brother was given. The love she had for her family was the only thing she had left to honor. Ismene, Antigone’s sister was more fearful of the king’s law then the way her heart was leading her. Her values were slightly distorted.
Antigone was willing to die and sacrifice her life so she could give the proper burial to her late brother Polyneices. By being a martyr, she knew that her life was not as important, so dying would not be such a problem for her. “And if I must die, now before it is my time to die, surely this is no hardship” (page 208). Not only did she accept the punishment that Creon had given her, but also the fact her brother had a proper burial and she has no regrets in doing so. “But if I had left my brother in death unburied, I should have suffered, now I do not” (page 208). This quote partially explains further as to why she did what she did. If she hadn’t buried her brother, her conscience would have been telling her that she did the wrong thing, consequently leading to her suffering. Having taken the dangerous action of burying her brother and going against Creon’s orders and knowing the consequences, she must have accepted the fact that her death would not mean much compared to what she was doing for Polyneices. “This death of mine is of no importance” (page 208). This quote shows her understanding and acceptance of the
Early in the play, Antigone felt dying for her brother was a noble action. Death to her was not an ending, but a new beginning in a better place. Antigone’s family had been cursed for ages; death was something that followed at their heels. The people of Thebes would always look at her with suspicious eyes. Her father, Oedipus, had caused these looks to be placed on her family forever. Then her brothers killed one another on the same day; her life in Thebes was not good. With such a bad life in Thebes, an honorable death must have looked very appealing to Antigone.
Antigone risks her own life to bury her brother, therefore, she goes against Kreon’s edict that Polyneices should be left unburied; she believes Polyneices deserves to reach the afterlife. Antigone tells Ismene, “I will bury him myself. If I die for doing that, good: I will stay with him, my brother; and my crime will be devotion” (Sophocles 23). Antigone is willing to risk her own life by disobeying the king’s authority; She stands up for her religious belief that Polyneices should be buried. Kreon tells Antigone before she takes her own life, “I won’t encourage you. You’ve been condemned” (Sophocles 57). Kreon believes that Antigone’s crime is severe, and righteousness should be used to justify her crime. At this point of the play, Antigone realizes she will be put to death, but she does not regret her act of loyalty. In Antigone’s last speech before she takes her own life, she exclaims, “Land of Thebes, city of my fathers… see what I suffer at my mother’s brother’s hand for an act of loyalty and devotion” (Sophocles 57). Here, Antigone addresses the nation’s leaders and declares that they should notice th...
She stands up for both the gods and her family. Antigone says to her sister, Ismene, “But I will bury him: and if I must die,/I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down/With him in death, and I shall be as dear/To him as he to me.” (Sophocles 55-58). Antigone believed that she was responsible for the burial of her brother, and if that meant she would be punished, she wasn’t afraid. In the “Introduction to Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy” author Mark W. Roche said, “That the hero must sacrifice her naive belief in a just world—by violating one good in order to preserve another—has extraordinary intellectual and emotional consequences.” He explains that the hero of the story would do something wrong in order to preserve something else. This shows that although Antigone was in the wrong when she buried her brother, she just did it in order to preserve her
Antigone uses the concept of death in many ways when unfolding the tragic story of Antigone and her rebellion. The most obvious way is how death is used as a form of capital punishment and justice against state-dubbed criminals and wrongdoers. The play first exhibits this notion when Antigone states, “No passing humor, for the edict says who’er transgresses shall be stoned to death” (Sophocles, p. 3). The head of the state, Creon, uses death as a form of justice for the man or woman who is to disobey his law. Creon also emphasizes this by threatening a guard when he is notified that his edict has been violated. Creon states, “Go, quibble with thy reason. If thou fail’st to find these malefactors, thou shalt own the wages of ill-gotten gains is death” (Sophocles, p. 8). Death is once again used as a threat and form of justice for people sinning against the state laws. However, death is not only used as a form of state justice, it is also portrayed as a factor in personal justification and completion. The notion that people are not whole or justified until they die is emphasized by Antigone when she states, “A sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth, but by the dead commended; and with them I shall abide for ever” (Sophocles, p. 4). Antigone says that through death, human life is justified and made complete, and that death is essentially the final form of justice for any human l...
Sophocles formulates a believable plot through Antigone’s social conflict. The conflict in Antigone centers in Antigone needing to bury her brother because of her belief that natural law is higher than the governing law, and does not want to have the god’s fury pointed at her. It also revolves around the fact, that family is significantly greater to Antigone than that of the justice system. Polyneices, her brother, was a traitor and died going to war with his own blood brother. Creon, her uncle and king, has made a decree stating: “I here proclaim to the city that this man shall no one honor with a grave and none shall mourn. You shall leave him without burial...” (222). Opposing the king, she neglects the decree. Since she broke the king’s decree, she is sentenced to die for being disobedient; moreover, Antigone proudly states her crime. There is no sign of remorse shown by Creon as he states, “No, though she were my sister’s child, or closer in blood than all that my hearth god acknowledges as mine. Neither she, nor her sister, should escape the utmost sentence-death” (530-33). Bobrick explains that Creon values the love for his land more than he values family, and this becomes a struggle for Antigone as it becomes a fight between obeying the laws of man, and the laws of the god’s. The second struggle that Antigone faces, comes when she realizes she is alone.