The Poor Decision of Antigone to Bury Polynices

It takes a lot of courage to stand up and defend an action or idea that is forbidden by society. This is what Antigone does in Sophocles' story Antigone. She clearly disobeys King Creon's order that no person should bury Antigone's brother, Polynices, which is punishable by penalty of death. In this case, is Antigone's decision the correct one? Her actions affect many of her other countrymen negatively because they cause problems within the royal family, disagreement among the people and directly relate to the death of three people including her own.

By burying her brother, Antigone knowingly and willingly went against royal orders and in doing so chooses her own death. She knows as well as anyone in the town that death would come to all that disobeyed Creon's order. Antigone says to this "no one will ever convict me for a traitor,"(Act I: Scene II: Line 361) and decides to bury the body, this is quite ironic because by burying her brother a traitor is exactly what she is convicted of being. Antigone's actions went against her homeland. Creon had declared that "Our country is our safety. Only while she voyages true on course can we establish friendships truer than blood itself. Such are my standards. They make our city great."( Act I: Scene II: Line 382) He says this meaning that if everyone acted as a whole they would always prosper. If someone were to go against the laws and ideals put by Creon it would only cause dissension. When Antigone went against the law this was exactly what happened. Chaos would not have ensued if she trusted her king to be right in his decision, just as all the townspeople and her sister Ismene did.

Creon also had stated that one should not place a friend, in this case a brother, in front of one's country. One could say that Antigone is selfish in her pursuits of doing so,

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for although Polynices was Antigone's brother, he was planning to destroy Thebes if he was victorious in overtaking it. Further evidencing this idea, Polynices also killed Antigone's other brother Eteocles who was faithful to Thebes until his death defending it. Being that this is the case, why would Creon agree to a burial of a traitor who with a foreign army invaded his homeland, killing his own brother, and would have sold his fellow countrymen into slavery? Antigone response to this is that she wants to bury her brother because that is th...

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...ly had existed. Now her position is similar to Creon's during his opening speech, that the demands of the city take precedence over all others, both for the living and the dead. Once again it can be said that she shows weakness in the end when she decides to hang herself. She does not accept her full punishment of being forced to live in the tomb, but takes the easy way out and kills herself. This is almost an acceptance of defeat to Creon showing she was not willing to go forth with her punishment.

Antigone's decision to carry through with the burial of her brother Polynices brought forth no seeable good. Only more catastrophe and chaos struck a family to which they are no strangers. If Antigone had put the good of her countrymen before her deceased brother, the situation could have turned out to benefit all of Thebes. The city would have had its sense of pride back after fending off the traitor Polynices' army. Instead the hardships which have plagued Thebes for years continued on. Individualistic ideas and actions can be very beneficial in many circumstances, but when they put the well being of the community in danger, as Antigone's did in Antigone they lose there value.