Antigone And Nelson Mandela Comparison

Both were oppressed by laws that they had no control over, and both fought against those laws with the reasoning that morality is more important than the words of men. Rather than obeying Creon’s decree, Antigone chose to display the respect she had for her brother. King placed his political and social goals for equality in America over his personal safety. Consequently, both Antigone and King paid the ultimate price for their actions and beliefs—with their lives. While Antigone’s motive for breaking the law was more personal, and King’s was more politically inclined, the ideas they shared in regards to the morality of breaking such laws were similar: a morally unjust law is not truly a law at

Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to obey the demands or certain laws of a government/ occupying power. Without resorting to violence or active events of conflict, it is typically used in the form of a peaceful protest. Civil disobedience has been seen in historical context as a main approach and philosophy of nationalist movements in Africa, India, and also in the American civil rights movement. It can also be a useful tactic in labor, anti-war, and other social movements occurring in numerous countries around the world. In both Sophocles’ Antigone and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, the author describes two very different displays of civil disobedience. Antigone disobeyed “man’s law” and buried her brother. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the other hand, fought to change the law for the rights of a large group of people. For this reason, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s efforts were more admirable than the efforts of Antigone.

6) however, like Gandhi, he encouraged the volunteers not to retaliate. Mandela spent 26 years and 8 months in jail as punishment for his protesting however, he felt that “no sacrifice was too great in the struggle for freedom” (Doc. 9). He spent time in jail with other protesters that all felt that “whatever sentences [they] received, even the death sentence… [their] deaths would not be in vain” (Doc. 9). Freedom for the South African people from apartheid finally came in 1993. To Mandela this was not just the freedom of his people but “the freedom of all people, black and white” (Doc. 12). “South Africa’s New Democracy” rose after years of continuous nonviolence from the populace.

     In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Creon was engaged in a conflict with Oedipus’ daughter Antigone. Creon and Antigone did not see eye-to-eye the entire play due to extreme differences. Creon and Antigone had many similarities despite their enormous discrepancies. Having as many differences as they did, it made them uniquely similar in numerous ways. The similarities that Antigone and Creon shared were independence, loyalty toward their views, cruelty and arrogance (“The Similarities”). The connection shared by Antigone and Creon showed that as hard as Sophocles tried to make them diverse, he made them unintentionally equivalent at the same time.

The fight for the good life begins with a single event. A word out of turn, an act of protest and overall, a continuous support of ones’ morals. Throughout their life, one is ingrained with morals up until the final breath they take. Antigone violates Creon’s edict and fights for the rights of her brother Polyneices and goes against the word of the law. Martin Luther King Junior (MLK) fights against racial inequality and lobbies racial views with acts of civil disobediences. Both Antigone and MLK acted against laws they believed to be unjust. Their own life experiences and the morals they grew up with influenced where the fine line of right and wrong stands. In Sophocles Antigone and MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I am going to

While both Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. fought for their religious and human rights, I believe that Martin Luther King Jr.’s ability to use both religion and nationalism gave him the ability to achieve his goal of civil disobedience in ways that Antigone could not. Martin Luther King Jr. used his religious background to give his claim greater influence in the deep south, calling upon every one of the Christian faith to rally behind a Reverend in trouble. His call to nationalism gave him the ability to have the nation standing with him against the leaders of Birmingham, evoking a sense of pride and unity in the nation against this injustice. Antigone used her civil disobedience to fight for her religious right to bury her brother Polyneices body. While Antigone remained nonviolent throughout her protest, her lack of negotiation with Kreon shows that her civil disobedience was misguided. Antigone failed to rationalize with Kreon, instead choosing to blatantly disobey without exhausting all of her options. Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of religion, nationalism, and negotiation are why I believe that his civil disobedience was more effective than Antigone’s.

Antigone’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character by his downfall because of Antigone braying her brother, Polyneices. Antigone said, “Let that be your excuse. I’m going now to make a burial mound for my dear brother.”(Line’s 99-100) Antigone is the type of person who thinks if one can get buried than the other deserves to be buried right along

Both Antigone in the play Sophocles Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther King in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” went against the “law” to do what they thought was right. Both heroes knew about the consequences that came with their actions. Antigone decided to bury her brother, Polyneices, despite the possibility of being killed. Similarly, Dr. Martin Luther King continued protesting and creating speeches peacefully in spite of him being sent to jail.

Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther king demonstrate that breaking laws that are unjust can be a good thing by bringing reform. Their nonviolent approach of civil disobedience till this day leave an impact on how we go about social injustice. Through their actions and words, both Antigone, and Dr. Martin Luther king demonstrate that they are not afraid to die for their beliefs and inspire us to take a passive approach towards the social injustices we are faced by in our community. I sympathize more with Dr. Martin Luther King because I believe that he took a more logical approach in stopping social injustice, as well as the fact that he is willing to put his life on the line for a whole community of people, in contrast to Antigone who is willing to die for solely her brother.

Although both Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s methods of civil disobedience have merit, I favor Dr. King’s ideas and objectives that focused on perusing change and gaining support for the greater good. Intentionally breaking the law and fully accepting the consequences, regardless of the situation, is no simple task. Antigone and Dr. King completed this task but for totally different reasons and in totally different ways as shown in Sophocles Antigone and Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Dr. King himself.

Martin Luther King Jr and Antigone were two people who used a nonviolent resistance technique to stand up for a cause they believed in. The technique they used is called Civil disobedience which is the refusal to comply with certain laws in a peaceful, non-aggressive protest. Both Martin Luther King Jr and Antigone were seeking justice for a cause without having to become physically violent with the opposing party. It took strength to go against their oppressors but they were willing to make self-less sacrifices. Martin Luther King Jr and Antigone provides many examples of how they used a similar approach to have a nonviolent confrontation.

Antigone defies the law of King Creon to honor her brother with a proper burial. She willingly goes against the King to follow the law of the gods’ regardless of the consequences, doing what she believes is right. Similarly, Martin Luther King travels to Birmingham to march and protest the injustices towards Black people because he believed it is the right thing to do. Although Antigone was not afraid to die for what she believed in, Martin Luther King’s method of civil disobedience was more effective because Antigone failed to promote negotiations and just accepted her punishment freely. King believed that to properly have a nonviolent approach towards injustice you must be able to speak peacefully to gain understanding for negotiation. Urging people to create tension in the form of civil disobedience to promote awareness of the injustices.

Civil Disobedience Essay While Antigone and Rosa Parks are different in many ways, they are actually very similar .Antigone is a fictional character from greek mythology and rosa parks was African-American Civil Rights activist, they are similar in why they committed civil disobedience, but different in how they were punished and how they committed the act. Antigone committed an act of civil disobedience by burying her brother Polyneices when her uncle Creon made a law against it. In greece it was a dishonor to you and your family if you were left unburied ,and it was also a religious law that everyone must be buried. Antigone was mad because her sister Ismene would not help her bury her brother, but she was not mean to her opponents.

Antigone and Martin Luther King, Jr. both fought against unjust laws, nevertheless, Antigone was sticking up for a proper burial for her brother, while Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting for the minority group to be treated equally to everyone else. Though both were fighting for what was right, Antigone was only impacting her brother’s life and Martin Luther King, Jr. was impacting minorities all over that were being treated with unjust.

On April 20, 1964, Nelson Mandela delivered a speech to the Supreme Court of South Africa. Mandela was being tried for sabotage, high treason, and a conspiracy to take over the established government; these charges were brought forth during a time a great discrimination against Africans, by whites. Mandela was a strong leader in the drive towards unification and equality, and to this very day is still acknowledged as a driving force to the end of the apartheid in South Africa. Like many great leaders before him Mandela relied greatly on political movement rather than rebellions or any other means of violence, as he described in more detail in this speech. The purpose of this