Being able to be a brave and narrow-minded is not an easy or usual characteristic. But, author Sophocles seems to portray this characteristic flawlessly in the play Antigone. In Antigone, King Creon decides Eteocles should have a proper burial while Polyneices should just be left to rot after these two brothers have a brutal fight and anyone who buries Polyneices should be punished. But, their sister Antigone opposes this and decides to go against Creon’s word and buries Polyneices. When Creon finds out he goes through an internal conflict trying to decide if he should punish his own niece or let the situation goes. The play has many tragedies that happen in a domino effect and change Creon’s view. In the play, Creon and Antigone often have contrasting viewpoints in certain beliefs and situations. With Creon being the Antagonist and Antigone being the protagonist, the two have clashing beliefs in. The main conflicting beliefs are in their views of laws, the burial of Polyneices, and conflicting personalities. By example, Creon and Antigone have conflicting viewpoints in their beliefs of laws. Antigone believes moral laws developed from gods while Creon believes in moral laws developed from him. Creon says, “It seems that prophets have made me their especial province, all my life long I have been a kind of butt for the dull arrows of doddering fortunetellers! No, Teiresias: If your birds - if the great eagles of God himself should carry him stinking bit by bit to heaven, I
To illustrate, Antigone articulates to Ismene that Creon lacks the power to prohibit her from burying Polyneices (Prologue, line 35). Disregarding Creon’s powers, Antigone extends both her immaturity and recklessness in amanner that both generates a hazy impression of Antigone’s plausibility and discredits her personality because of the seldom conflict between the king and women in Ancient Greece. Furthermore, characters such as Eurydice and Jocasta, who experience much more tragedy, diverge from Antigone in the course of their reactions. While Jocasta and Eurydice grieve for their loved ones and succumb to the sorrow, Antigone’s reaction exists at the opposite end of the spectrum where she acts with the sole intent to spite Creon. Continuing, Antigone dictates that she is “not afraid of the danger; if it means death, / It will not be the worst of deaths - death without honor” (Prologue, lines 80-81). Recognizing her inevitable fate, Antigone makes little effort to alter her actions or consequences. Her proud acceptance of her death, which she claims to be one of honor, projects her arrogance and stubbornness toward her situation. This immediate compliance fails to reflect the true outlook and reaction toward approaching death both today and in her time. Additionally, the diatribe provided by Antigone to the chorus near her death sparks much criticism when she asserts that she prays Creon’s punishment equals her own when the truth of her actions emerges (Scene 4, lines 67-69). Antigone’s blatant assault on Creon’s life conveys her ignorance, which also transmits the impossibility of her individuality. Sophocles employs Antigone to generate the generalized perspective of tyranny Conversely, many individuals justify Antigone’s reckless behavior
The conflict between allegiance to the ruler and faithfulness to family honor and the gods is a distressing problem for Creon and Antigone. They each express and are committed to extreme opposite views on where loyalties should be placed. Creon’s strict definition of citizenship calls for the ruler to come first, a commitment to the city’s laws that causes him to believe that Polyneices forfeits burial rights because he attacked the city. Antigone, however, is devoted to the gods and family above obedience to the ruler and believes loyalties to both gods and family outweigh loyalty to the city, and so disobeys Creon and buries her brother. It is the responsibility of all citizens to figure out whether Antigone is guilty or not guilty of the
Antigone takes place just after a war between Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices. Eteocles fought on the side of Thebes whereas Polynices resembled an invader. Afterwards, Eteocles is buried and seen as honorable. However, Polynices is denied a proper burial because he is considered a traitor to Thebes. In this play, Sophocles uses Antigone and Creon as foils by characterizing Antigone as a martyr and Creon as a tyrant to urge the reader to realize that one’s own morals are more significant than the decrees of any government.
Antigone and Creon were having an argument over the burial of Polynices and during the argument Antigone tries to show Creon the wrong of his ways. Antigone tells Creon “Isn’t a man’s right to burial decreed / By divine justice? I don’t consider your / Pronouncements so important that they can / Just . . . overrule the unwritten laws of heaven (Sophocles 12).”
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
In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, King Creon created a law that denied proper burial rites to anyone who invaded or betrayed the city of Thebes. Antigone defied this law by burying her brother, Polynices, after he was harshly accused of being a traitor. Both Creon and Antigone showed a tenacious passion toward their perception of justice, unwilling to accept that honoring the law and honoring the individual conscience were both justified in different ways. The stubbornness that they shared led them both to meet their downfalls, which conveyed the idea that being too proud to accept guidance from others ultimately leads to dire consequences.
Is Antigone ignorant or wise about her choices and reactions to Creon? Some people say she maybe be wise for burying Polygonises out of God's law instead of Creon’s law. Antigone is indeed a wise and faithful woman for burying Polygonises because of her beliefs; she is also bold about her beliefs because of her bold statements about Creon’s law (with him being the king).
I'm doing this essay on the story antigone by sophocles. Antigones' brother polyneices rebels against creon and the city of thebes while her other brother etheocles is a leader in the thebian army. the two brothers battle and kill each other. creon decrees that if anyone buries polyneices they will be killed. creon only buries ethiocles because he is a respected leader in then thebian army but he leaves polyneices body laying on the ground to be eaten by wild animals. antigone gives polyneices a full funeral ceremony and buries him but she gets caught by a guard. antigone is then brought before creon and interogated. he decides to go ahead and kill her, but antigone is creons' son haemon's bride to be. after he has antigone killed his son tries
Antigone’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s throughout the play. For example Creon thinks that it is wrong to break the law that humans made but Antigone thinks the only law she needs to follow is made by the gods. Referring back to first the quote I used “Zeus did not announce those laws to me. And Justice living with the gods sent no such laws for men.” This quote is
The play Antigone by Sophocles is a play like no other. There are three major themes or ideas which have a very important role in the play. The first major theme is fate, on how the play comes about and the turn of events that come about throughout it. Another main theme or idea is the pride the characters have and their unwillingness they have to change their minds once they are set on something. The last major theme is loyalty and the practical problem of conduct involving which is a higher law between the divine laws and those of the humans. It is an issue of which law is the "right" law, and if Creon and Antigone's acts are justifiable or not. The issues that Antigone and Creon have between them
In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone sees herself as loyal, strong-willed, and brave throughout the whole plot. The young heroine views herself as loyal when she buried her brother, Polynices, knowing that the king, Creon, ordered the death of anyone who even showed grief for a death of a traitor. Antigone answers her sister, Ismene's, question of if she would go against Creon's proclamation, "My own brother and yours I will! If you will not, I will; I shall not prove disloyal," (Sophocles 2). She believes that Polynices, traitor or not, deserves a proper burial. Along with loyal, Antigone also finds herself strong-willed. Even when she is caught, Antigone stands by her beliefs and does not deny what she has done. Creon states to a senator,
Though the choices that Antigone and Creon face in Sophocles’ Antigone differ, their decisions often end up pitted against each other’s, inviting comparison. Since I am juxtaposing the characters’ degrees of rightness, I believe that the rightness of the reasoning, not just their ultimate stances, should be examined. The entirety of his or her argument, not just the conclusion, must be taken into account. I’ll also note that my perspective of rightness could and does conflict with that of the gods in Antigone and Sophocles. Furthermore, “rightness” has an element of nuance to it because of the word’s multiple definitions and their connotations.
Along with the contrasting conflicts the main characters, Oedipus and Antigone, are also very different in regards to their behavior and how they handle situations. Antigone is much more level headed than Oedipus. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus immediately kills a man just for being in his way and forcing him off the road a bit. Antigone on the other hand, does not take any physical action toward Creon despite not giving her brother a burial. Another difference in character is Oedipus’s defiance to the gods and the oracle while Antigone obeys the laws of the gods. Oedipus, to the people of Thebes, claims if they pray to him he himself would rid the city of the plague; making an implication that he is above the gods. Antigone however, wishes to obey the laws of the gods and demands her brother be given a proper burial. A closing example of the difference in how each character is rendered is how Antigone knowing breaks the law (defies Creon) for what she believes is right while Oedipus breaks the law without knowing; Antigone is
The main difference between Antigone and Creon is their different stances on law. Antigone values moral and religious laws while Creon, values the laws of the state. In Scene II, Antigone is asked why she broke the law to bury her brother. She says, “It was not God’s proclamation. That final justice that rules the world below makes no such laws… [the laws of God] are not merely now, they were and shall be operative forever beyond man utterly.” Antigone’s disregard
Antigone is a tragedy with the opposition of state laws and religious laws. The main protagonist is King Creon ruler of Thebes, who has recently stepped up to the throne, after his nephews Eteocles and Polyneices had killed each other in a war over the throne. Creon declares, that his nephew, Eteocles shall receive a proper burial for defending Thebes, while Polyneices's body will be left to rot for attacking Thebes. This idea is greatly opposed by Creon's niece Antigone, as it goes against what she believes is morally right, and that Polyneices was a person and deserves to get a proper burial like everyone else. Despite being the antagonist Antigone is the hero of the play. This is because she is doing what she believes is the right thing to do, she claims, "Say that I am mad, and madly let me risk the worst that I can