preview

The Importance Of Power In Antigone

Decent Essays

Today, we see a lot of people in power. Some of those people know how to use their power. Others do not. Power in cases throughout history or in literature is good while other times that power is abused and turns out to be dangerous which leads to bad. However, today, we are seeing power in the “bad light”. With power being taken to another level for the worse or power that causes all out chaos, power shows the bad in people. Antigone is a great way to show how power is taken to another level for the worse. The king of this book, Creon, rose to the throne by the deaths of two of his nephews, who fought for the throne which led to their ultimate deaths and crowned Creon king. Creon, who had a favoritism towards Eteocles, one of the nephews, gave him an “honorable burial” while Polynices, another one of his nephews, did not even get a proper burial, therefore leaving Antigone, sister of Eteocles and Polynices, to go against Creon’s law which forbade anyone to even show the smallest amount of pity towards Polynices and try to give him any sort of burial. While she did not bury her brother, Creon did find out that Antigone happened to throw dirt on Polynices, which was a form of showing respect to him. Creon then took Antigone into captivity to punish her for breaking the law. Ismene, another character and sister to Antigone followed along with Antigone to carry out this task, was also taken into captivity, although she denied helping Antigone since she was afraid of Creon

Get Access