Antigone

Justice is a word we hear today all the time. Left and right we hear of judges and citizens demanding justice. Is justice always the right way? It seems that justice is not always the correct solution to a problem, but a solution that is the easiest to make. The classic play Antigone is a perfect example of this. Antigone is classic tragedy at its finest. A simple civilized and humane right of burying a loved one is turned into a great loss. Creon’s inapt decision to hold his power and sentence Antigone to death causes him to lose the people he loves most. The “justice” of the play is simply Creon’s punishment for his cruelty to Antigone.

When Antigone learns that no one is to bury her brother, she immediately knows what she must do. She doesn’t even hesitate to her decision and she is fully willing to face the consequences to do what is right. She believes that what she is doing is just a humane right and she’s willing to die for what she believes in. She even tells Creon that what he’s doing is against what the gods wanted and that his laws were worthless. She states: “Not through dread of any human pride could I answer to the gods for breaking these.” It seems that gods are almost speaking to Creon through Antigone and warning him of his decision.

Antigone is almost hailed to a god like status, as Oedipus was before her. She is extremely strong and unbelievably willing to sacrifice everything in the name of honor and pride. She so easily makes her decisions and chooses to die willingly without a second thought. The minute Creon questions her on breaking the law, she states: “Die I must, -I knew that well (how should I not?)-even without thy edicts.” What is even more is that Antigone was a woman, a woman in a time of extreme male domination. This makes her even stronger of a person in the play and shows the growing strength of the gender that we know of today.

The blind sear once again plays the roll of an extremely reliable, but ignored person. He warns Creon of his terrible mistake but when Creon goes to change his wrongs, he finds out its too late. Creon is given more than enough warnings of his fate as Antigone states in the play: “And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.