Honorable Deeds In Julius Caesar And Antigone

In the play Antigone, Sophocles writing can be very controversial. He explains different perspectives of justice through the fates of the characters in the play. Creon and Antigone both would claim to have the law and Gods on their sides. They bring acceptable evidence for their reasoning to be true for their thought of the right way to carry out justice. Creon is certain that his ability to be king will justify leaving Polynices unburied. On the other hand Antigone sees justice as the ability to bury her brother. Conflict explodes with their inability to compromise over what is the definition of justice. Justice has a different role to play in any individual’s life because gender differs from man to women and society sometimes looks down upon women. Justice should be served and women should have the same divine rights that men do.

In the earlier scenes of the play, Antigone’s reverence to family and the sacred ties of kinship are evident. Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, kill each other in battle. Creon, the king, decrees that Polynices is traitorous and therefore must not be buried or mourned. Antigone believes in loyalty to family over loyalty to the state. This loyalty is seen in the first scene when Antigone asks her sister, Ismene, to help her bury Polynices. Antigone says, “I’ll bury him myself. And even if I dies in the act, the death will be a glory” (1269). She views her defilement of the decree as glorifying. Antigone is aware that the penalty for her defilement is death and she is willing to die for her convictions. When Antigone is caught burying her brother, she is taken to Creon. When Creon confronts her and inquires why she breaks the law, she responds, “that to die is precious little pain. But if I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse—that would have been an agony” (1279). Antigone’s devotion to her kin is more important ...

In this case, in Antigone, Antigone saw that it was time to challenge these roles when it came to her family. Even when her brother, Polyneices, betrayed Thebes he had to have a proper burial because not only is that her brother, but the Gods she worshipped decreed that everybody had to have a proper burial. The problem is that Creon who is now king felt that Polyneices didn’t deserve a proper burial for betraying Thebes. So, he declares that it is unlawful for Polyneices to receive a proper burial. Because of the king’s proclamation of denying Polyneices the proper burial, Antigone rashly states, “Yes. I’ll do my duty to my brother— and yours as well, if you’re not prepared to. I won’t be caught betraying him (Sophocles, p. 4).” This presents how Antigone took the conscious decision to disregard the king’s orders and honor her brother who is a traitor, which is very ironic in itself. Antigone essentially tries to rationalize her crime by saying that she is honoring the Gods commands and honoring her brother though she might have awaiting charges. She forces herself to believe that she will be the one to die with honor because she believes that what she is doing is right where she says, “So leave me and my foolishness alone—we’ll get through this fearful thing. I won’t suffer anything as bad as a disgraceful

In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths. In the beginning Antigone is a close minded character who later becomes open minded. After the death of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will receive a funeral with military honors because he fought for his country. However, Polyneices, who broke his exile to " spill the blood of his father and sell his own people into slavery", will have no burial. Antigone disagrees with Creon's unjust actions and says, " Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way." She vows to bury her brother so that his soul may gain the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the law placed against burying her brother and her own thoughts of doing what she feels should be done for her family. Her intent is simply to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial so that she will follow "the laws of the gods." Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, "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." Her own laws, or morals, drive her to break Creon's law placed against Polyneices burial. Even after she realizes that she will have to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister, Ismene, she says: Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish plan: I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, It will not be the worst of deaths-death without honor. Here Ismene is trying to reason with Antigone by saying that she cannot disobey the law because of the consequences. Antigone is close-minded when she immediately tells her to go away and refuses to listen to her. Later in the play, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the consequences yet she is not regretful for her crime. She says her crime is just, yet she does regret being forced to commit it.

Antigone understands that honor and responsibility to one’s family have equal distribution in her defense. She clarifies that she doesn’t fear the condemning she is unfortunately sentenced to, but the penalties from the divine, if she does not act on the evil doings that besieges her poor life. She emphasizes on the notion, "But if I left that corpse, my mother 's son, dead and unburied I 'd have cause to grieve as now I grieve not" (Sophocles 123). It is obvious that Antigone is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that her divine duty is fulfilled even if it leads to her own death.to Antigone death prevailed to be a far more attractive option. Because of this Antigone understands the idea of the law and civil disobedience and what it can do to her if she does not adhere to it, but she has to make a conscious decisions based on the merit that divine law supersedes that of civil disobedience, and burying her brother is the right thing to

Family should come first and always stay loyal to them. Starting off with scene I, Creon finds out that someone has buried Polyneices when his law strictly forbids it. “Someone has given it burial that way, and gone…” (199). The readers know Antigone decided to yield to the law of the land and do what is right by her. Antigone tells Ismene, “I will bury him; and if I must die, I say the crime is holy” (192). She will do whatever it takes for her brother to rest in peace, even if that means death because Polyneices deserves as much honor as Eteocles, no matter the law.

Throughout the play Antigone is portrayed as a heroine for responding to her duty to bury Polynices. If she did not bury him his legacy would be tarnished. However, on the opposing side by not obeying Creon her uncle people may begin to question his authority if his own niece does not obey him. In the end Antigone chooses to obey the gods and “loving and loved [she] will lie by [Polynices’s] side,” (Sophocles 3). By burying her brother she not only obeys divine law but her familial duty to her brother. Antigone’s desire to obey the gods shows that she understands the importance of divine law.

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.

He would leave people under him to rule. Brutus wanted Rome to remain a republic. His love for his country caused him to take action. It would actions he would regret. The day of the assassination there was a meeting with the senators and Caesar. 6

Sophocles' Antigone, a tragedy, written around 441BC has been interpreted in various ways as a conflict between family and state. Both sides have a clear concept of where their duty lies and are resolved to follow its dictates. Creon, acting in the state's interest, finds it politically expedient to deny burial to the traitor Polyneices. On the other hand, Antigone acting in the family's interests claims that the right of burial surpasses any other considerations. To her, a proper burial is the unwritten law of heaven, so she performs the last rites over her brother's body and is condemned to death. Sophocles portrays two strong-willed people, Creon and Antigone, in conflict in the play.