Creon's View Of Government In Sophocles Antigone

Eteocles and Polyneices, brothers of Ismene and Antigone, are in battle for the reign of Thebes. This is all occurring after their father, Oedipus’s, death. Both brothers die and Creon becomes the new king and decides to Bury Eteocles with honor and leave Polyneices’s, “For fowl to watch, gloating upon their prey!” (Antigone, p. 2) This was a huge thing for Greeks, since they thought that one could not go to the afterlife without being properly buried. Antigone, who feels the same love for both her brothers, decides to bury her Polyneices, even though Creon will put anyone to death that tries to. She tries to get Ismene involved, but she refuses to break Creon’s law. Antigone gets caught in the burying of her brother and Creon sends her to

Creon’s view of government was an idea that later influenced Thomas Hobbes, and an idea well opposed by John Locke. Thomas Hobbes’s view on government was that “Only a powerful government could ensure an orderly society.” (The Modern World, p. 55) For Hobbes, the government he wanted would have to be an absolute monarchy, which compelled obedience and enforced law and order. Creon was a leader who was so in denial that he could ever be wrong, to a point where if anyone tried saying something against him, they would suffer great consequences, usually sentencing to death. He was the one man in charge, where he contained all power and the rest lived how he wanted them to live, and not how the people want to live. Hobbes thought that people were not smart enough to make their own decisions. For example, Creon says “His (Polyneices) body shall be left devoured…Death is the penalty.” (Antigone, p. 9) In this example, Creon does not consider the people’s opinions on what is the right thing to do with Polyneices’s body and makes decisions without the thoughts of anyone else because he himself also thinks that people are not smart enough to make their own decisions, which is why he makes the decisions for them. As Hobbes thinks that people were greedy and selfish in their natural state, Locke seems to differ. Locke argued that to protect their natural rights, people formed their governments. Creon was one who used his

She is doing things in the favor of what is right and what is wrong and not what the king thinks is right or wrong. “Help me lift, the body up-.” said Antigone (Antigone, p. 2). This is where one of John Locke’s ideas play a role in the story. Antigone thinks that it is part of her natural rights to take and bury her brother, Polyneices, and if she was not to do so, she would be showing dishonor and respect to her own. John Locke thought, “They [people] had natural rights,” (The Modern World, p. 55) which these rights were given to everyone at the time that they were born. One example of this is that Antigone says “It is no shame to pay respect to our own flesh and blood.” (Antigone, p.20) She is willing to take any punishment, even death, because she knows she is doing the right