In Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone and her sister Ismenes’s two very conflicting personalities lead to a disagreement over how their brother Polyneices should be buried. While they both believe that their brother should have a proper burial, they disagree on what to do about the lack of the burial. Antigone attempts to convince Ismene to help her break the law to give Polyneices a proper burial. However, Ismene feels that they are not in a position to make a difference. She states, “We are only women, we cannot fight with men, Antigone!” (Prologue.47-48). Ismene believes men to be stronger and more powerful than women. In her opinion, as women, she and Antigone are powerless against Creon’s laws, therefore it would be pointless to attempt to bury …show more content…
In response to Ismene’s refusal, Antigone states, “But I will bury him; and if I must die, I say that this crime is holy” (Prologue.55-56). She feels that not burying Polyneices is a holy crime in itself. Consequently, by breaking the law, she would be preventing a greater crime against the gods and her brother. Antigone is strong-willed and opinionated, as well as willing to stand up for her beliefs. Conversely, Ismene feels that breaking the law, even to do good, is not the right choice. When Antigone accuses her of not caring about the laws of the gods, she replies, “They mean a great deal to me, but I have no strength to break laws that were made for the public good” (Prologue.62-63). Creon’s law comes first, before the laws of the gods, perhaps because of the immediate punishment for disobedience. She is more fearful of the direct consequences of breaking the law rather than being concerned with whether the law is morally right. In contrast, Antigone has little fear of disobeying the law if doing so is a moral decision. Antigone and Ismene’s opposite personalities create tension between the two and make it difficult for them to understand each other’s point of
In lines 449-525, when Creon examines Antigone after the burial of her brother, Antigone plainly admits that she follows Zeus’ moral laws before Creon’s law, citing Zeus’ to be “unwritten and unshakable” and “forever”, which contrasts with Creon’s, which are ephemerally “for now or yesterday”. Antigone’s extremism typified in her willingness to die just to correct a single lapse in morality that exists within the law makes the importance placed upon founding law in morality as clear as it can possibly be.
For instance when Antigone tries to persuade her sister to bury their brother, Ismene believes she cannot break the law. In response, Antigone passionately declares, “Make your excuses! I shall go and heap up earth into a tomb and bury him, my dearest brother” (80-81). Her anger and disbelief that her sister will not help fuels this fiery argument, as it does when she speaks with Creon. Her rage and determined nature only ignites the disagreement between Creon further because he is of the same nature. If she instead remained a bit calmer, Creon and Ismene could have realized the truth to her beliefs without feeling threatened or personally attacked. Furthermore if Antigone had taken their adherence to man-made law into account, her argument would have been more effective and more appealing to her audience. Rather than attempting to understand her adversaries, she disdains their reasoning and only accepts her own, which only hurts her act of civil disobedience and its reasoning.
For Antigone, loyalty to her family was more important than any law. Antigone plans on burying Polyneices to honor the gods but Creon made a law that no one could bury Polyneices. Antigone wants Ismene to help her bury their brother but Ismene does not
Societies such as the ones we see in Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games, and even America are corrupt, sad, and disappointing. All of those societies have terrifying issues and have betrayed many of their own citizens many times. They have mistreated, hurt, and oppress their own citizens for years. The citizens deserve to live in a better, and newer society to live in. That is why Finnalaysia is the by far the best democratic society to live in. Finalaysia is the best society to live in because it has the best Law and Educational System.
I would agree with Antigone and say that Polynecies does deserve a proper burial. First, Polyneices is family and no matter who he chose to fight for, he should be respected and buried honorably. Secondly, Antigone speaks about the law of God being one of her reason for needing to bury Polyneices. From a religious aspect, Polyneices should be buried properly because it allows the spirit of Polyneices to be put to rest and not left forgotten. If it were my brother, I would have done the same thing because not only does it give respect to him, but it also allows for mourning and knowing that he was treated with respect till the absolute end. In the instance where there is one King who rules all, yes I do believe that it would be okay to disobey
Would you break the law knowing you could get punished for following your beliefs for someone you love, or follow the law knowing you won’t get punished. Well Antigone would follow her beliefs to do to what she think is right. And her sister Ismene would follow the law because she does not want to face the fact that she could be facing death if she gets caught. Antigone says that “But I will bury him; and if I must die, I say that this crime is holy.” This shows that Antigone is willing to do anything for her friends and family. She also shows that she is willing to do what is right even if she knows that she will get into a lot of trouble, even if it means death.
Finally on page 774, Antigone is still determined to give her loving brother, Polyneices, a proper burial when she says, “…as for me, I will bury the brother I love.” In this incident, Antigone is headstrong about giving her brother what he deserves, despite the fact that Ismene told her to obey the law. Antigone is acting as if she were a rebellious teenager because she is contradicting political laws to perform acts that would seem moral to her for the sake of Polyneices. Like the discussion Antigone had with her sister, she will remain being headstrong to whoever confronts her.
Many believe that the divine word holds more power than man, Antigone is one of these people and hold the divines laws higher than man's laws. On the other hand, Creon believes that holding power is the way of life and tries to uphold his laws over the deity laws. Creon does this when the brothers Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other and Polyneices is designated as a traitor. Creon decides to prohibit the people from burying Polyneices properly and follow the god's law to prevent more rebellions. Antigone on the other hand believes that a Creon's law holds no power over her from giving a proper burial. As Antigone is talking to Ismene she states "No one shall say I failed him! I will bury my brother -- and yours too, if you will not"( Sophocles ). This statement shows
The human struggle to defy what is intrinsically wrong but established as permissible is openly apparent in the initial scenes of the play strong-willed and brave-hearted Antigone reveals her plan to unlawfully bury her brother, only to be rejected and dismantled by cautious and law-abiding Ismene. Although Ismene is saddened by her brother's fate, nomos renders her helpless; social constructs have influenced her belief that their standings as women and individual citizens are no match for state law. Consequently, she is appalled that Antigone would even think of defying Creon, believing their brother's fate is out of their hands. She even warns her sister, "tis witless to be over busy."1 Her chance to rightfully bury Polyneices, and more importantly, to realize her innate responsibility to her kin, is temporarily barred by human-allotted law and practice.
We read that Creon has issued a law that if anyone buries the body of Polyneices they will be sentenced to death. Antigone plans to bury her brother regardless of the law set into place. She is going to try and do it in secrecy and to avoid detection. She asks her sister, Ismene, to join her in the burial, but she refuses. At this point in the play the you realize the fear setting in. Ismene believes
When a messenger comes to Creon, bringing the news that Antigone has buried her brother, he begins his arguments why Antigone has broken the law. He begins by stating that a man shows what he is made of by his "skill in rule and law." In other words, the law is everything and as a ruler, he must do everything for his country. He considers Polyneices an enemy of the city and a threat to the security of the city as well. Thus Polyneices will be called a traitor in life and in death and dishonored. The scene when Antigone and Creon face each other is the opportunity for both to defend themselves. Creon questions Antigone. She bases her responses on that the city laws proclaiming her as illegal are not the laws of Zeus or laws proclaimed by gods, but rather, laws made by a man that one day will also die. She will honor her brother's death because this is what the gods have proclaimed for all mankind. (lines 460-463)
Throughout the play, many characters dispute over which law is more important, divine law or law of the man. The most prevalent scenario is when Antigone and Ismene argue over burying their brother, Polynices, or not. Ismene clearly believes that the law of the states overrides divine law. In the play Antigone, she says “we’re underlings, ruled by much stronger hands, so we must submit in this” (Sophocles, Antigone lines 76-77). This is the mind’s way of saying that although religious figures are well-respected and looked to for support, they will never be as powerful as a political figure. Ismene realizes that not burying Polynices is wrong but the state will immediately destroy both her and Antigone. She knows
Moreover, Antigone and Socrates relied on the belief that what they were doing was in accordance with the divine and just. After she was convicted of her brother’s burial, in response to Creon, Antigone said, “Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakeable traditions.” (Antigone, 82). In this reaction to Creon’s claim that she was breaking the law, Antigone expressed her belief that the laws of human beings do not compare with those of the divine. It is clear that Antigone thought that what she did was the right thing to do as she was following the traditions and customs of the gods. By burying her brother, Antigone was simply honoring the desires of the divine through an act of justice. If Antigone had not given her brother a proper burial, she would have been
Antigone refuses to let King Creon dictate what she does with her brother’s dead body. Antigone states, “he has no right to keep me from my own” (Sophocles, 441 BC, line 48). Antigone feels that nobody has the right to dictate how she plans to bury her family member. In addition, Creon demands civil disobedience above all. Creon believes that the worst thing an individual can do is act against authority. In contrast, Antigone believes that state law is not absolute. Meaning one should be able to act against the law in extreme cases to honor the gods. Divine law could be proved valid, for example, “the fact that Polyneices’ dust-covered corpse had not been disturbed by animals could be taken as a possible sign that burial was accepted as valid by the gods” (Sourvinou-Inwood, 1989, pg. 142). Sourvinou-Inwood is stating that because the animals had not touched the dead body, it could be a sign from the gods that a proper burial should be in order. That Creon could have been wrong and the gods wanted Polyneices buried. Moreover, the Greeks supported absolute monarchs, however, simultaneously they also believed in divine law and had a profound amount of respect for the gods and their laws.
Being that Antigone is the protagonist, her character is important in the play. She made the decision to bury her brother knowing that it was against Creon’s law. Ismene refused to help Antigone, which left her angry, yet still determined to bury her brother. She knew that burying her brother could lead to her own death, but she continued to show courage, strength, and determination throughout her role. In the beginning, Antigone says, “Dear god, shout it from the rooftops. I’ll hate you all the more for silence/ tell the world!”(17,100-101). This was said to Ismene, when they were discussing burial plans and Ismene was telling Antigone that she was against the plan. Antigone’s dialogue shows that she is not worried about being punished or worried about who knows what she has done. It is clear that Antigone is sincere about honoring the gods, her actions show that she feels that she is pleasing the gods and that is all that matters to her. “These laws/ I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods.”(30, 509-511). This demonstrates how she feels about man’s law vs. divine law. In the plot, there was not one time where Antigone denied