Power Of Authority In Antigone

In the Greek play Antigone writer Sophocles illustrates the clash between the story’s main character Antigone and her powerful uncle, Creon. King Creon of Thebes is an ignorant and oppressive ruler. In the text, there is a prevailing theme of rules and order in which Antigone’s standards of divine justice conflict with Creon’s will as the king. Antigone was not wrong in disobeying Creon, because he was evil and tyrannical. The authors of “Antigone: Kinship, Justice, and the Polis,” and “Assumptions and the Creation of Meaning: Reading Sophocles’ Antigone.” agree with the notion that Antigone performs the role of woman and warrior at once. She does not only what a kinswoman would, but also what a warrior would do.

Standing for what you believe in and know what's right and wrong is important . In the play, Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates that through the conflict of the character. The play is a well-known tragic drama about the conflict between Antigone and her uncle Creon who is king of Thebes.Both character have different believes, idea and opinions regarding divine law and civil law. In Antigone the author Sophocles demonstrates the how important one's moral beliefs is, through the actions of the characters and how the beliefs impact the outcome of the play.The conflict between civil and divine law through Antigone and Creon, shows the important one's beliefs and how it impacts the outcome of the play. A reader can Identifying which law is more important in the play by looking at how the laws impact the characters and the outcome of the play. Both Antigone and Creon go at it expressing each others believes and whether one is right or wrong.Throughout the play civil law is more significant and powerful.

Antigone, a greek tragedy, by Sophocles, tells the story of the daughters of Oedipus and the dramatic fall of power in Thebes. The play focuses on the two dramatic characters, Antigone and Creon, who both could be evaluated by scholars as the “Greek tragic hero.” Through this heroism, these characters both showcases different types of power: political power and individual power. The character Creon utilizes his power through arrogance, while the character Antigone utilizes her power through defiance. Therefore, by displaying two unique approaches to power, Sophocles is able to demonstrate how power shapes the conflict between the characters and influences the outcome of the play.

Throughout the play, Creon shows many examples of how he is imperfect. One example would be how he believes that the state is primary to his family and relationships, “If this is your pleasure, Creon, treating our city’s enemy and our friend this way … the power is yours, I suppose, to enforce it with the laws, both for the dead and all of us, the living,” this quotation said by the leader of the chorus describes how the elder people of Thebes respect their family more than the state, but they held back on their opinions, knowing of what Creon, the leader, wanted to hear (235-240). Another example of how Creon shows the audience of how he is imperfect is when, Creon meets with Haemon. Creon argues with Haemon about how people should act towards the country which they reside in, “But whoever steps out of line, violates the laws or presumes to hand out orders to his superiors, he’ll win no praise from me. But that man the city places in authority, his orders must be obeyed, large and small, right and wrong,” Creon believes since he has the highest throne in his country, that he should be obeyed whether the circumstance (745-751). Lastly, Creon demonstrates to the audience that he is imperfect by wanting to protect his country too much. This is visible when Creon sentences Antigone to a slow death, because of burying her brother, who was outcasted as a traitor. Creon put the state over his family which will lead to the complete

In a similar way, Creon make decisions, that others disagree with, responsible for his tragic flaw throughout Antigone. Creon is now King of Thebes and laws declared by him are to be followed. He gets to make choices, whether right or wrong, and the society has to listen to his orders no matter what. Any violation against his law, results in consequences that are far too manageable. In scene 1, lines 242-244, Creon declares, “See to it then,/ and act as guardians of what’s been proclaimed./

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

Leaders or dictators, power can change a ruler's point of view and leave a violent impact on their city's. Power has a negative impact on others because power creates fear. Power is taken advantage of and people with high power misuse it.

Throughout life you always have your family to share the smiles, the tantrums, the unseen moments, and tears. As we make it through to adulthood, we all secure those special bonds that we have with our family, but obeying the law has been embedded into our minds since a young age so which is more important? The book, Antigone is a greek-mythology tragedy play written by Sophocles about a curse put onto a man named Oedipus where he is destined to kill his father, marry his mother, and bring unfortunates to his city. Antigone, the main character is the result of an incest marriage between Oedipus and his mother Jocasta, the play begins with Antigone attempting to convince her sister to bury her brother, Polyneices’ body, going

The laws in Antigone are important, and so are family members. Creon seems to rely on family very heavily. He states that “I have summoned you here this morning because I know that I can depend on you: your devotion to King Laios was absolute; you never hesitated in your duty to our late ruler Oedipus: and when Oedipus died, your loyalty was transferred to his children.” (Line 137-141) Creon also says “It is hard to deny the heart!” (Line 872), this is implying

Sophocles extrapolates the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy of the cosmic mythology into the societal realm of the tragedy. Through a polis entrenched in Apollonian simplistic uniformity, the opposition precipitated by Antigone underpins the political agon within the tragedy, exposing the instable dichotomy the foundations of democracy and legal justice. Sophocles heightens this by subverting the pluralist origins of democracy into the underlying agon, with Creon’s mechanistic individualistic desire for power manifesting in his attempts to overrule divine justice under the guise of public welfare and Antigone’s psychic collective anarchism under the authority of divine justice (“great unwritten, unshakable traditions”). Although Antigone

Ancient Greece was a male dominating society; Sophocles work Antigone portrays women as being a strong and capable of making wise decision. The Antigone is certainly a play of antitheses and conflicts and this state of conflict is embodied in the presence on stage of two protagonists each diametrically opposed to the other. Antigone is a beautiful play written by Sophocles. This is the play in which there is a mention of a beautiful girl who was between the law of family and the law of state. Her two brothers Eteocles and Polyneices were dead by fighting each other for the throne of Thebes. Creon the maternal uncle of Antigone becomes the king as a right of the nearest relation of the king. He ordered to the Chorus that only one brother who fought for the country can be honored and buried with all rites but another one would bared from all types of honor and left unburied for the prey of dogs, worms and birds. But against the order of Creon Antigone went and buried her brother with all rites that a man required after death. She poured three times dry dust on the body of Polyneices though there was a strict order of Creon that body hasn’t buried. After that Antigone was punished and lots of lives with her were killed.

In Antigone, Creon is the absolute ruler which undermines the potential of his power. In scene three, Creon demonstrates his authority in an argument with his son, Haimon. During the heated conversation, he gets offended and states, “The State is the king!”(Sophocles 221) This shows how ultimately all government decisions are his to make. This poses a problem as the decisions could be greatly biased and there is no-one of equal authority to question him; however, in some instances he does listen to other opinions. Antigone in her actions to bury Polyneices, disregards Creon’s laws and receives imprisonment as retribution. The choragus tries to reduce Antigone’s punishment by confronting Creon and questioning his actions. “Choragos: ‘ These Girls? You have sentenced them both?’ / Creon: ‘No you are right. I will not kill the one whose hands are clean’”(223). Even though Creon continues his punishment for

A female author named Patricia Cornwell said once ¨I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power¨ This very quote explain the topic of abuse of power in the play Antigone by Sophocles which comes up many times. The abuse by king Creon make rules that goes against the gods rule and the horrible punishments his family and the people of his village. This throughout the play lead to the theme ¨When you abuse your family and people their emotion will take its effect and make them turn on you.¨ This theme is shown through two different ways through the character emotion and how they reacted and the conflict that happens.

Sweeping dramas of rival families and of rival family members seeking control of a kingdom are very popular now. One obvious example is Game of Thrones, which continues to break viewership records and also engender controversy. Such sagas, however, are nothing new. Antigone, a play by Sophocles and the sequel to Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, provides an ancient Greek perspective on the themes of power, duty, and law while providing a moral lesson about the consequences of pride and dogmatism.

In the heat of battle two royal brothers fall, for the fate of Thebes hangs in the balance. The cause for this mayhem is because of simple childishness. When the prince's father, Oedipus, instructs his sons to take turns on the throne Eteocles refuses to step down for his brother, so in turn the other brother, Polyneices, attacks Thebes. In the war, the uncle of Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon, decrees that no one shall bury Polyneices or else, due to his treason against his home city. Antigone then makes a decision that shall emerge multiple times throughout the play, citizenship vs. family loyalty. Antigone chooses to bury her beloved brother, believing that the laws of gods over those of men, causing her to later become trapped in a tomb by the orders of Creon. Creon’s decision wasn’t without opposition, for his own son, Haimon, asked him to go with the wishes with the people and let Antigone go. Even the oracle Teiresias suggests that he releases Antigone! Without heeding the warning Creon continues the imprisonment of Antigone, and causes her to kill herself. After the death of Haimon’s fiancee, Antigone, Haimon kills himself, and after his mother discovering his death she kills himself. Then Creon sees the error of his ways and shows a common trend in the actions committed by the characters, family loyalty versus citizenship. Although this message is throughout much of Sophocles’ plays it is extremely prominent in Antigone, and this paper is going to illustrate such.