Examples Of Free Will In Antigone

“You may not die with me, nor call yours that which you did not touch. My death is enough” (Sophocles l. 561-562). All throughout the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone proves over and over that she is overruling nature to give in to her brain chemistry. While others let the chemicals working inside them take over, Antigone fought back to use her free will to make her own decisions. Antigone makes strong-willed decisions that do not waver as the plot continues. Antigone’s free will characteristics are best exemplified by her stubbornness, confidence in her morals, and her having been defiant since a young age.

In the course of the play, Antigone shows her stubbornness by refusing to change her mind. One instance of this is in the beginning,

462-465). In this scene, Antigone is standing before Creon confessing to what she did. She is asking him a rhetorical question of when his laws became more important than pleasing the gods. This shows where she stands religiously compared to obeying citizens’ laws. “The temporal lobe is involved in the theory of mind and its dysfunction is often implicated in violent psychopathy. The cingulate cortex mediates the conflict between the emotional and the rational components of moral reasoning” (Fumagalli, Priori). This excerpt talks about the temporal lobe controlling logical and theoretical thinking. There is also the cingulate cortex which is the most important part that Antigone was fighting against. She chose to stand by her moral decision than go with the rational choice of survival. “...experiments suggesting that in many instances, our brain decides prior to our conscious mind, and that we often ignorant of our brain’s decisions.” (Koch). Therefore, Antigone uses her free will and ignores her brain

Creon as well as the Chorus mentions that Antigone has been strong-willed and rebellious. “She’s clearly the fierce daughter of a fierce father; she doesn't know to bend with the wind” (l. 484-485). During this instance, the Chorus is talking to Creon about Antigone’s past. They said that she does not ‘know how to bend with the wind’. This means that she is adamant and refuses to change the way she thinks. Another example of this is when Creon is telling the fate of both Ismene and Antigone. “I declare that both of these children are fools, one just become so, one her whole life” (l. 577-578). In the latter part of the sentence, Creon is referring to Antigone saying ‘one her while life’. He is reinstating what the chorus said previously about Antigone being strong-willed for her whole life. Therefore, she could not be making choices based on her brain chemistry if they had been this way her whole life. Based on the amounts of varying chemicals in the brain at a certain time, choices are made differently. The chemicals are not always at the same levels throughout a person’s life. In order for a person to make consistent choices throughout their life, it would have to be free