[Course Title] Antigone: Pillar Of Righteousness Antigone is the resolute and strong-willed daughter of King Oedipus. She is determined to give her brother, Polynices, a decent burial. She consciously risks her life with this action, which violates both Creons unjust decree, as well as the ancient custom of denying burial to enemies of the state. She obeys only the laws of the gods and the dictates of familial loyalty and social decency. Antigone is led by the demands of her conscience. Antigones protest against Creons decree merely underscores the fundamental truth that conscience is very often above the law. Antigone sets her intractable will against the forces of fate. It is her inner strength that enables her to resist manipulation by those who try to draw her away from her purpose.
Antigone possesses a well-developed sense of duty based on family ties. It is this which prompts her to decide that she must bury Polynices body. She is keenly aware of the fact that divine law ordains that a corpse must be buried with the appropriate religious rites. (The Greeks firmly believed that a soul could not enter the Underworld after death unless the burial ceremonies were properly conducted.) Furthermore, Antigone insists on giving her brother a decent burial because it is the last right that every human being is entitled to. It is a social obligation owed to the dead by the living. From the opening scene onwards, the audience sympathizes with Antigone completely. She permits no doubts to undermine her decision and allows no hesitation to deter her from her course of action.
The Essay on Sophocles Antigone State Law
... has a strong passion for giving her brother a respectful burial. Antigone stands up for her family but also her beliefs. ... my mother I would choose my personal conscience over state law. While Antigone and Creon assumed to know what God wants I ... moved audiences.' ; (23) This fascination was '[the] confrontation between the laws enacted by the state and society and those larger and ...
However, conflicts do arise, not from doubts within herself, but due to her relationships with the other characters that surround her: Ismene, Haemon and Creon. The first conflict occurs when Antigone asks Ismene to join her in burying their dead brother and Ismene refuses because she does not want to give up her life. In rejecting Ismenes argument for life, Antigone resists the conventional temptation of the pleasures of youth. Antigones confrontation with Creon is also the confrontation of the individual against the state. Antigone is able to question Creons laws because of her determination and courage. She is unrepentant, as she does not believe that she has committed a crime.
In the climax of the play, she chooses the divine laws of heaven over the laws of the state (as laid down by Creon).
She declares that the laws of the state are not binding in her case because they have been laid down by a man, and men are not infallible. Creon attempts to subdue Antigones stubborn spirit by condemning her to death, but Antigone retains her composure. It is only in the scene of her exit (the fourth episode) that Antigone breaks down, when she is led to her death. Sophocles shows here that Antigone, despite her courage, suffers the anguish of any normal human being. Antigone is willing to break the bounds of the laws of the state in order to do what she thinks is morally right. She believes that she owes a duty to her brother.
She describes her action as a holy crime, (Sophocles 96) emphasizing that the law of the gods must take precedence over the law of the king. Antigone believes that she owes obedience to the divine law that demands a ritual burial for any human being. In a way, Antigones desire to bury her dead brother is almost a death-wish. So that she can die an honorable death, she does not want her action to be kept secret. Antigone prefers to die nobly rather than live a life of timidity and subjugation to conventional authority. When King Creon admonishes Antigone on defying his laws, she replies that the law Creon has made is not the law of heaven, nor is it a law that is in any way just.
The Essay on Antigone English Creon Death Brother
... Creon. Antigone s obstinacy resulted in her tragic death. In a final twist of Sophocles tragedy, we learn that Creon would spare Antigone ... to die for her brother. Ultimately Antigone must die by the law of Creon. Creon sentences Antigone to confinement in a cave. While ... cause was, namely, the control of the state. Antigone understood the consequences because Creon had decreed that those persons who ...
She asserts that the gods have laid down laws for human beings to follow. Antigone does not believe that Creon, a mere mortal, can issue edicts that defy the infallible, unwritten laws of Heaven. (Sophocles 96) Antigone reminds him that the laws of heaven have been in existence from time immemorial. Nobody can claim to know when they were first framed and set down. Antigone does not want to incur the wrath of the gods by breaking their divine laws only because they clash with the man-made laws of the state. She is aware that she has to die one day, and it does not matter if she dies young. In fact, she prefers an early death, as she has lived a life of boundless woe. (Sophocles 96) Antigone is not afraid or saddened by the prospect of her own death. However, she declares that she could not allow her own mothers child (Sophocles 96) (her brother, Polynices) to lie in the open without a proper burial.
She taunts Creon by telling him that if he calls her a fool for committing the deed, then she is foolish only in the judgment of a fool, the fool being Creon. (Sophocles 96) Works Cited Sophocles, Antigone, trans. Jean Anouilh, Barbara Bray, Methuen Publishing, 2001, pg. 96..
