In ancient Greece, a common saying that all citizens had in their very core, a traditional Greek principle, was this: love your friends, and hate your enemies. This rule seems pretty straightforward and would appear easy to apply in real life. However, in the timeless play Antigone, Sophocles shows his audience a situation where this maxim does not apply. Sophocles concentrates on a complex story where the values and principles of the ancient Greek culture come into conflict. Religious or moral versus secular, family versus community, and living versus dead: all of these conflicting aspects are explored in Antigone. The drama Antigone places the culture of Greece on display by showcasing the many values that this culture held in reverence, including remaining loyal to family, honoring the dead, and honoring the gods.
In Sophocles’ renowned drama entitled Antigone, one of the main values that Antigone chooses to honor is loyalty to family, even when that means that she has to forgo loyalty to her city and community. Even though her uncle the king, Kreon, forbade anyone to bury Polyneikes’ body because he had been on the opposing side in the battle, Antigone felt a duty to her brother to bury him. When speaking with her sister, Antigone says that Kreon’s command “…threatens our loved ones / as if they were our enemies” (Antigone 14-15). Antigone refuses to betray her brother and thus breaks the law by burying Polyneikes. In doing so, she steps past what was considered normal
Antigone: Writing Prompt In the Greek play Antigone,the character Antigone decided to disobey her uncle’s law about burying her brother Polyneices. The law said that no one was allowed to bury polynices and to leave him to rot. Polyneices was also declared as a traitor,while her other brother Eteocles had a soldier's burial with military honors.
In Sophocles’s tragedy “Antigone”, loyalty is a big part of the story. Creon voiced loyalty to his people by keeping his word on the his laws. Antigone expresses loyalty to the family by giving her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial. She also would rather die than leave her brother unburied. She is able to truly defend her ethics to the King, Creon.
Around 441 BCE, the ancient writer Sophocles wrote the tragedy Antigone, a play about loyalty, betrayal, and pride. Throughout the scenes of the play, calamitous occurrences take part, mainly involving the two main characters: Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, and Creon, King of Thebes and uncle of Antigone. Antigone, an independent, uncompromising young woman, simply wants to bury her deceased brother who was recently killed in battle. However, Creon, seeing Antigone’s brother as nothing but a traitor to his country, enforces a law which makes it illegal to give a burial to the remains. Not only does Creon’s unyielding decision cause conflict between himself and Antigone, it will also prove to be a fatal decision.
In hope of obtaining the Good Life, people often have to deal with balancing the ideas of doing what is best for society and doing what is best for the individual. Both Sophocles’ “Antigone” and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” support the concept that to obtain the Good Life, a person must act for the benefit of society more than for the benefit of himself or herself. In “Antigone”, through Antigone and Kreon’s actions and the repercussions of their actions, Sophocles argues for the preservation of values of society over self-preservation and putting the beliefs of society over the beliefs of the individual. In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King argues against the individual’s tendency for passivity and idleness
" It has come to our notice that the war between Polyneices and Eteocles has angered the people of Thebes and has led Antigone to go against her uncle Creon the King. The new law states that Polyneices is to not have a burial, that no man is to touch him or say the least prayer for him." As soon as the law was established Antigone was infuriated. Antigone decided to tell Ismene her plan, she was not going to be stopped even if she died in the process of honoring her brother. Ismene was starting to think that her sister was going mad and wished to not be a part of her actions.
In this tragedy, there are two types of law: man’s law and the gods’ law. While these laws are supposed to coincide, King Kreon decides to go against the gods’ law and prohibit the grieving and burial of Polyneices, who is seen as a traitor. Antigone, justified in doing so, disregards Kreon’s proclamation and buries her brother anyways. She states that she must “perform this crime of piety; for I must please those down below a longer time than those up her (line 75).” By this, she means that it is better to not disobey those of whom she is to spend eternity with, regardless of when she dies.
This discrepancy reveals Antigone's role as a catalyst of the play's tragic vision. Antigone disobeys the law set by her tyrannical uncle, Creon, to maintain the laws that were, from her perspective, set by the gods. Creon forbids the burying of Polynices, Antigone's
The Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles takes place in Thebes during the aftermath of the reign of Oedipus. Kreon is the ruler of Thebes and the uncle to Antigone yet the familial bond is disregarded mostly due to the shame of the incestuous nature of Kreon’s nieces and nephews. After a civil war of Antigone’s brothers, which results in both of their deaths, Polyneices is left unburied; this is the beginning of the tragedy. Both Kreon and Antigone made many questionable decisions that led to the death and suffering of many but I sympathize with Antigone because her decisions were based on her emotions, morals, and the perceived god’s law.
The king had ordered that the remains of the ‘traitor’, Polyneices, not to be given a rightful burial. The king had proclaimed that whomever shall try to bury or utter a prayer in honor of Polyneices will be sentenced to death. The protagonist Antigone, who happens to be the sister of the fallen Polyneices, could not bear the fate that had fallen upon her beloved brother. She was steadfast in her belief that the dead were not bound by the rules that mere mortals impose and that a burial rite has to be bestowed upon the dead to honor the fallen and the will of their gods. She despite knowing the dangers associated with her beliefs acted upon them.
In the play Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates the conflict between family and God through the characters of Antigone, Ismene and Creon. Antigone being ambitious and strong willed throughout the play, fights for his brothers honor and proper burial while Ismene on the other hand, is more timid fears the consequences that may occur if the laws are broken. For Creon he is the King and holds most power, until the Gods feel he is incapable. Antigone, Ismene and Creon all use logical and emotional appeals to achieve a compromise to either bury Polynices or not.
In the play, “Antigone” by Sophocles, one of the main characters Antigone, shows us that through determination and bravery we can accomplish the things that scare us the most. Kreon, the new ruler of Thebes, has put a ban on burying Polyneikes, Antigone's brother because he betrayed the city. Antigone wants to go against Kreons law because of the respect she has not only for her brother but the respect she has for the Gods law. Antigone has learned what law Kreon has set for the people of Thebes, they were told that they must not bury the body of Polyneikes. She sets out to find her sister, Ismene, and tell her the upsetting news about their brother.
From world wars to present day national elections, pride can always be connected to many appalling, life-changing issues. Pride has always either been negative or positive, and it has been around forever. In the epic play Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates how Creon’s hubris allows for the downfall of himself and the killing of his family. Creon’s fatal flaw is his hubris. Creon not only loses his family, he also loses the trust of his people.
Before the discussion of the Interactive Orals, to me “Antigone” was only about the character of Antigone who buried her brother because of her loyalty as well as her Hubris eventually leading to her downfall. After a detailed discussion of the groups of several aspects of the play I have a deeper insight of what Sophocles actually tried to convey through his characters. To start off with we discussed the conventions in theatre which include all the elements that Sophocles might have considered. The actions of the characters were made to be very elaborate because the masks used covered the faces of the actors.
Antigone believes she should have the right of her brother’s burial. Creon states, “No one shall burry him, no one mourn for him” (Sophocles 2) illustrating that Polyneicis is irrelevant in the city of Thebes. The law in Greek society is a female should not have power or freedom over any circumstance. Antigone demands rights over her brother and will not accept
In Antigone, there was two brothers who shared being the King and one of the brothers, Polynices, wanted to start a war with the kingdom because he wanted to be the main ruler. Polynices and his brother Eteocles fight and they both end up killing each other. Their Uncle Creon, who takes position as King when they are both killed, decides that only Eteocles will have a proper burial and Polynices will be left to rot. Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles sister, thinks that Creon’s decision is unfair and takes upon herself to give Polynices a proper burial. When their other sister Ismene finds out, she is stuck between helping her sister bury their brother and following Creon’s demands.