Analysis Of Sophocles 'Antigone' Others And Responsibility

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Antigone “Others” and Responsibility

As we experience others we have an ethical responsibility attached to us. In this paper I will discuss John Russon’s main arguments about responsibility and experiences with others that are presented in his works Human Experience and Bearing Witness to Epiphany. After analyzing his arguments I will argue how Russon’s ideas are presented in Sophocles play Antigone, particular Antigone’s responsibility between her brothers and her city, and Creon’s failure to find the other. I will first talk about the main argument Russon presents in Chapter 4 titled “Others” in Human Experience. Within the work Russon claims, “The real substance of our lives is to be found in our dealings with other people.” (Russon 51) This claim is the central argument presented in the chapter “Others”. Russon states other people as the formation of our own identities. Our real substance in our lives comes from the people surrounding …show more content…

He writes, “Our own humanity involves having a sense of ourselves, and what this sense of ourselves amounts to is a recognition that “I matter in the world.””(67) If life is a quest of purpose we must realize we actually matter in the world. If someone lives life thinking they do not matter, then they will never find their purpose. By first coming to a realization and saying the words “I matter in the world,” allows us to come to terms with ourselves. The world we live in is a filled with endless possibilities and outcomes, no one should think they are insignificance. Our place on this world is not perfectly defined because we define it ourselves. Antigone realizes that she matters in the world. She is able to find her humanity. Creon on the other hand realizes his own humanity to late. He does realize he matters in the world, but he is unable to find his own humanity. He blinded by power and it ends up killing everyone in his family he

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