How Is Civil Disobedience Shown In Theban Play Antigone

Neyma Orozco
Professor Jolliffe
English composition 1302-610
09 April 2016
The Necessity of Civil Disobedience The practice of civil disobedience has always been a topic of controversy. Some people oppose it because they believe that it instantly causes anarchy and disorder. However, if we look back at our conflictive history, we will find that many of the social problems that the world has dealt with were resolved by using direct action. Important world leaders like Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. used civil disobedience as a strategy to win liberty and equality during the 1900s even if they risked their own safety. So, when is direct action necessary? Civil disobedience is necessary when the moral beliefs of individuals are

In this Theban play, the main character Antigone suffers understanding between what is morally right and wrong after she discovers that one of her two brothers, Polynices, was left dead to rot on the surface of the Earth by her uncle Creon’s decree. Unlike her sister Ismene, Antigone acts before thinking of the consequences that she will bring to herself if she decides to defy Creon’s law. This is best shown when Ismene tells Antigone not to risk her life as she has a whole life ahead of her. Additionally, Ismene pleads her sister to be more reasonable about her decision as it will hurt many others like her fiance, Haemon. “Antigone be reasonable. It’s all very well for men to believe in ideas and die for them. But you are a girl… you have everything in the world to make you happy… and what about Haemon?” (Anouilh 25). Despite listening to her sister’s advice Antigone hurries to give Polynices a proper burial, firmly believing that her uncle's’ orders are a defiance of the laws of God and man. By this point Antigone decides to do what she believes to be the right thing, which is an important characteristic of civil disobedience. It is equally important to note that even after she finds out that her own uncle is to blame for the disrespect toward Polynices’ body, she never recourses to violence. Rather than avenging her brother, Antigone only goes as far as insulting Creon. “Look at yourself, Creon!...

The civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. was famous for using civil disobedience as a technique to promote racial equality. Many of his non-violent protests were led by this form of resistance, for example, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Antigone from Sophocles’ play Antigone went against her uncle Creon’s orders to bury her brother’s body, something she believed was the right thing to do. At last, the cases of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, who became criminals after leaking top-secret information about our government, are great examples of how civil disobedience is still used today in the era of the internet. Instead of labeling direct action as an act of anarchy, we as imperfect beings should understand that as long as legislatures keep making unjust laws, there will always be somebody that defies them using this essential freedom of expression in order to maintain peace and