Compare And Contrast Antigone And Martin Luther King

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.

There may be many things for which a person is willing to fight. Nonetheless, there are very few for which a person will lay down their life. Freedom, justice, peace, and love are just some issues that most place a great value on. So, how far must we go to achieve these ideals that we so greatly crave in our world today? Some believe that passive action is the best and most moral way to achieve desired results, while others insist that forceful action quickly leads to a superior outcome. For instance, Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. each fought against different injustices by utilizing nonviolent, but direct action. The two greatly felt the need for change, accepted the responsibility of their endeavors, and sacrificed their lives

Moral? Or Immoral? Those are questions that unconsciously go through a human’s mind when he or she makes decisions in everyday life. Some, however, may wonder where the boundaries are set. Most people believe that they have these restrictions on what is moral or immoral based off of experience or just by a “gut feeling.” Through the texts, Antigone and a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” readers see the conflict that arises concerning the idea of morality. Both Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed their ideas on the topic; they agreed that the line was drawn when a direct family member or group of people were placed in danger or were wronged. The two characters’ actions were shaped by individuals like Kreon and the “white moderates” of the city of Birmingham. Antigone battled with Kreon to obtain justice for her late brother, while Dr. King criticized the citizens who were content with abiding to questionable laws to not break the peace. Their modes of action, however, were different. Antigone handled the disagreement by herself, while Dr. King utilized the power of many to make his point clear.

The first step in Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent campaign is collection of facts to determine whether injustices are alive, which is what Antigone does when hearing about the death of both of her brothers.

Antigone showed arrogance by refusing to obey the laws created by Kreon to focus her attention on giving her brother, Polyneikes, a proper burial. Kreon said that “it is now a crime for a Thebans to bury him or mourn him. Dogs and birds will savage and outrage his corpse – an ugly and a visible disgrace” (Puchner p.753 line 236-239) but Antigone did not care and continued on in burying her dead brother, Polyneikes. Antigone

In Sophocles’ piece, King Kreon prohibited the burial of Polynices, Antigone’s brother, because he was seen as a traitor to his country. Antigone blatantly disobeyed King Kreon’s proclamation because she thought that Polynices ought to be buried not only because he was blood- family, but because the gods law states that burial is a necessary ceremony. Her sister, Ismene, tried to warn her of the trouble she could find herself in, if King Kreon finds out that it was Antigone who had buried her brother, the traitor. (Blondell, 21). In addition, Antigone does not hesitate to admit to this illegal deed when the guards catch her in the act (Blondell, 37,38). While she acted out of respect for her brother and the gods, it was selfish in the fact that she was only thinking of herself. She did not hesitate to disregard King Kreon’s law and did not take any factor into consideration. Antigone accepted that her life was the price to pay for her civil disobedience, but her actions also, unintentionally, led to the death of two other people. Although, in the end, King Kreon sees that Antigone was right, the reason for which she had fought, and ultimately lost her life for, had no significant positive effect on anyone else.

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.

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.

In the text, Antigone wants to bury her brother, Polynices, after hearing about what occurred with their brother, Eteocles. Polynices and Eteocles had an argument over who should be the king and they ended up slaughtering each other to death in a battle for the throne. Polynices is looked at as a traitor. Antigone did not care and still wanted to bury him. The obstacle in the way her uncle Creon. Creon was the king and he proclaimed that the body of Polynices shall not be buried. Both Antigone and Creon followed separate rules and laws. That causes the difference in viewpoints between the two. With Antigone, she believes that it would be right to bury him, so she did. Once Creon found out, he was very angry. With the body of Polynices being banned due to the proclamation

Antigone believed that the actions she took were done for the right reason, because they adhere to the law of the Gods. In opposition to that, Creon believes that the actions he had taken were in fact the right ones, because he believed that Polyneices was a traitor to the land, and that anyone who should give him a proper burial would suffer the penalty of death. So, the actions that were taken by both of them individually were the right ones, in their own minds at least.<br><br>Antigone, in her plan to give her brother Polyneices a proper burial, kept in mind the consequences that she would suffer for having followed through with the plan. This doesn't necessarily mean that Antigone does not obey the human law that is set up by King Creon, it just means that this particular rule conflicted with the law of the Gods, something that Antigone believes highly in obeying, especially when it deals with her family. Antigone disregards the Olympian Justice that governs the land and also presides over the set laws that make civilized life attainable (Segal "Antigone" 172).<br><br>Antigone goes up against human law, by burying her brother Polyneices, knowing well that she will have to sacrifice her own life. She does this only because it is morally and ethically right, and this is why she stakes her life based upon her strong beliefs (Segal

     Antigone's decision to bury her brother caused harm to many people. First, she tried to convince her sister Ismene to help her. She did this by trying to make Ismene feel guilty if she did not; stating it was Ismene's brother too. She says after Ismene tells her she is on a hopeless quest "If you say so, you will make me hate you and the hatred of the dead, by all rights, will haunt you day and night."(Act I: Scene I: Line 57) This threat brings Antigone farther apart from the only living family member that she has left. She has her mind set so much on burying her brother that she will stop at nothing, not even threatening her opposing sister to do it. Since Ismene has been through the same

He started American Civil Rights Movement, in order to spread equality among the people of United States. There was huge protest against racial discrimination and social segregation in the southern part of United States. He explained Just laws and Unjust application of Law. Unjust laws are those laws which are not based on morality whereas unjust application of law refers to the law which is against justice, implemented on someone else. MLK along with few other people started a movement in which they violated unjust law and he did that by starting civil disobedience movement. While staying in jail Martin Luther king expresses his opinion on being criticized by the clergymen’s. He talks about the Southern Cristian leadership conference and its operation in south. Later, he gives the moral reason of staying in Birmingham, to fight against injustice. He took the path of non-violence to bring back the rights. There were four basic steps involved in this nonviolence campaign, collection of facts, negotiation, self-purification and direct action. He gave the difference between just law and unjust law, just laws are those laws which raises humans’ personality whereas unjust laws brings down an individual’s personality. A law is said to be unjust if a minority group has to obey the majority. In non-violence resistance he said that freedom is always demanded by the oppressed. He focuses on the creative

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

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

Civil law’s intent should work to govern a society justly while fostering a sense of fairness to all citizens. However, when civil law contradicts what is morally right, there are few that argue for justice and the higher good of all mankind. Although both Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. justified breaking civil law, King spoke for the whole of the African American race through his nonviolent protest striving to achieve equality for all African Americans, whereas Antigone acted for her affected family to show proper respect through civil disobedience.