We all reach a point in our lives where we have a choice to make. Choosing a choice is like choosing between two paths on a journey; it will change our lives forever. To the left is a dark and dreary road. It is a dangerous and scary place to travel. On the other hand, the road is safe and sound to the right. A woman named Antigone in the story of Antigone by Sophocles has a decision to make in her life. She has to decide if burying her dead brother Polyneices is worth being stoned to death. Antigone takes the dark and dreary path and chooses to bury her brother. When she is brought to King Creon to explain her actions, she makes an argument to plead her case. In the argument between Creon and Antigone, Antigone's reasoning is clearly in the right, and Creon's is clearly wrong although their fates are both tragic.
Antigone has a very strong argument against Creon because she is able to back up her actions with very good reasons. Her reasoning is so strong that it in a sense overrules Creon's reasoning. In the beginning of the play Antigone has a conversation with her sister in hopes that she would join her. She says, "If you are worth of your birth [...]" (2), Ismene will help her bury their brother. Antigone believes that family should stick up for one another no matter what. Ismene refuses to participate because of the decree that Creon has made: anyone who buries Polyneices will be stoned in public. Antigone disapproves of Ismene's decision but accepts it. However, Antigone stands strong, and she "shall not prove disloyal"(2) to her blood. She will bury her brother no matter what the costs; she is ready to even die for her cause. Antigone doesn't just talk the talk but she walks the walk. She buries her brother Polyneices.
After Antigone buries her brother, a sentinel sees the burial and unburies the body. Antigone goes to bury the body again, but this time the sentinel waits for her and catches her in the act. Antigone willingly goes to see King Creon because she wants to confront him.
Within these lines, Antigone reveals that she holds herself sanctimonious over her king by admitting his punishment is “nothing” compared to the “agony” she will face if she leaves her brother unburied. She also conveys a nonchalant attitude towards the repercussions of her action when she mocks Creon accusing him of being a “fool.” Although Antigone is aware that others such as her sister, Ismene and her fiancée, Haemon—the son of Creon, may suffer because of her act of civil disobedience, she is unwilling to abandon her protest to negotiate in a peaceful manner. This conduct implies that she does not completely comprehend the seriousness of her action or understand the weight of her crime rendering her approach inconsistent with King’s theory.
Due to the actions she took based on her emotions, Antigone suffered a far worse fate than Ismene. During her conversation with Ismene, Antigone says: “Ismene, I am going to bury him” (Sophocles, 3). To this Ismene replies with: “Bury him! You have just said the new law forbids it” (Sophocles, 3). This is the first time we experience the difference in the sisters’ behavior. Antigone has decided to bury Polyneices, although Creon’s new law forbids it. She believed that the God’s proclamation means more than Creon’s, and tells Ismene: “I will bury the brother I love” (Sophocles, 4). Ismene, on the other hand, knows that this action is forbidden by Creon’s law and isn’t willing to break it. She says: “But think of the danger! Think what Creon will do! [...] Think how much more terrible than these our own death would be if we should go against Creon and do what he has forbidden![...]The law is strong, we must give into the law in this thing, and in worse. I beg the Dead to forgive me, but I am helpless: I must yield to those in authority. And I think it is dangerous business to be always meddling” (Sophocles, 3-4). Ismene clearly respects the law and knows the repercussions of breaking it, something that Antigone chooses to ignore.
At the beginning of the play, Antigone brought Ismene outside the city gates at night for a top secret meeting. Antigone wanted to bury her brother Polyneices' body because even though he died in dishonor he was her brother. Ismene refused to disobey the king which is also their Uncle Creon, and she failed to talk Antigone out of doing the act herself. "Consider, sister, how our father died,/hated and infamous; how he brought to light/his own offenses..Then, mother...did shame/violently on her life, with twisted cords. Third, our two brothers, on a single day...Each killed the other, hand against brother's hand." (Antigone, Lines 59-65) In this quote, Antigone justified her reasons for going against the law describing how her parents went through so much, how their father was banished and due to this their mother had committed suicide because her reputation went down to the drain, even after all that their two brothers went into battle against one another and died in the process. Ismene was sympathetic, but still she was noble and afraid of Creon so she did not offer her help to Antigone.
Antigone’s views of divine justice conflict with Creon’s will as head of the state. Two brothers fighting against one another in Thebes’ civil war died while fighting one another for the throne. Creon, who had become the new ruler of Thebes, decided that one brother Eteocles would be honored, while Polyneices would be put through public shame. The body of Polyneices was to not be sanctified by holy rites, but was planned to be left unburied on the battlefield for animals to prey on it. Antigone, the sister of the two brothers wants to properly bury Polyneices’ body, but in doing so she would by defying king Creon’s edict. When Creon’s orders the Sentry to find out who had buried the body of Polyneices, Antigone is found to have buried the body of her dead brother. Since she disobeyed authority, her and her sister are temporarily imprisoned. He then wishes to spare Antigone’s sister Ismene and bury Antigone alive in a cave. To some up the foregoing, in honoring her brother she is performing the role of woman and warrior...
What Antigone did goes against Creon and this is where his difficult decision comes in. “Creon represents the regal point of view, while Antigone is just the opposite. The primary conflict arises when Creon declares that no one be allowed to bury the body of Polynices, one of Antigone's brothers who was slain in battle. Antigone, who cares for her brother very much, wants to see him properly laid to rest, so that his spirit can find peace. Unf...
Antigone makes the decision to go against the king, Creon, and bury her brother. The king declares that this man, Polyneices, shall have no burial because he fought against his country; however, this decision goes
In Antigone, Sophocles illustrates Antigone to rise above her gender stereotype and do what is forbidden. Antigone is expected to sit in her room and wait for a man to tell her what move to make next throughout her life. After her brothers battle to the death, one is buried and one is not. Antigone does not stand for this at all and expects both of her brothers to be buried. When she is forbidden to leave her room and bury her brother, she does not agree. Antigone sneaks out of her room during the night to bury her brother. The next morning, Creon, who is the King of Thebes,
Antigone was not about to simply obey Creon’s absurd decree. She felt that her personal responsibility was to the gods and her family rather than the king. She then asked Ismene, her sister, to assist her with the burial, but was denied any help. Ismene justified her decision by telling Antigone that they were already punished and that there was no need to make matters worse for the two of them by defying Creon’s law.
One commentator has argued in "Antigone" that Antigone's "view of what is right is as twisted as that of Creon." Although I do not believe that either Antigone's or Creon's view is "twisted," I do believe that their fate is a direct result of their extreme pride and stubbornness. In "Antigone," Sophocles examines the conflict between the requirements of human and divine law that is centered on the burial of Polynices, Antigone's brother and Creon's nephew. On the issue of the burial, their views are opposed and they each believe that one is right and the other is wrong.
Antigone, as a character, is extremely strong-willed and loyal to her faith. Creon is similarly loyal, but rather to his homeland, the city of Thebes, instead of the gods. Both characters are dedicated to a fault, a certain stubbornness that effectively blinds them from the repercussions of their actions. Preceding the story, Antigone has been left to deal with the burden of her parents’ and both her brothers’ deaths. Merely a young child, intense grief is to be expected; however, Antigone’s emotional state is portrayed as frivolous when it leads her to directly disobey Creon’s orders. She buries her brother Polynices because of her obedience to family and to the gods, claiming to follow “the gods’ unfailing, unwritten laws” (Sophocles 456-457). CONTINUE
Antigone’s firm belief that her brother Polyneices should have a proper burial is established by her conviction in that the law of the gods is above all else. This law proclaims that all men be mourned and honored by family and friends through means of a suitable burial. Antigone’s need to put honor upon Polyneices’ soul is so grand that she ignores the advice of everyone around her, including her sister Ismene, who tries to pull her away from performing this criminal act because it will disobey the law set by King Creon, and lead to her demise. However, Antigone does not care about the repercussions because even though “[s...
Antigone holds her love of family, and respect to the dead, elevated beyond the laws of Creon, whom she believes, has no righteous justification to close his eyes to the honor of the deceased. In her determination to fulfill Polynices' rights, she runs directly into Creon's attempts to re-establish order. This leads to encounters of severe conflict between the dissimilarities of the two, creating a situation whereby both Creon and Antigone expose their stubbornness and self will.
Antigone is determined to bury her brother because of her loyalty to her family and to the gods. She believes that no mortal, such as Creon, has the right to keep her from her own. Even if Antigone must die during the burial, she will not disgrace the laws of the gods. She believes that she has to please the dead much longer than she has to please the living.
Antigone is much more controversial than Creon is. After Ismene tells Antigone that she will not help her bury their brother and reminds her that doing so is against the law, Antigone tells Ismene to “Tell [that I am burying Polynices], tell it! You’ll cross me worse, by far, if you keep silence—Not publish it to all.”
At the beginning of the play, Antigone is upset about a decree Creon, the king, made (190). The decree states that her brother, Polyneices, was not allowed to be buried, because Creon believes that Polyneices was a “traitor who made war on his country” (211). Antigone has a very strong love for her brother and the gods, therefore she believes Polyneices deserves a proper burial according to the laws of the gods (192). Antigone says to Ismene that she [Antigone] will go against Creon’s decree-which states that if anyone buries Polyneices they will be killed (190). Antigone is extremely angry with Creon for creating the decree, to the point where she decides to make a big deal about the burial, instead of lying low and doing it in secret (192). Antigone even tells Ismene to “Tell everyone!” that she [Antigone] buried Polyneices when everyone finds out, and not keep it a secret-although Ismene doesn’t listen (193). Antigone’s decision not to do the bur...