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Role Of Justice In Antigone

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Mankind is often faced with ambivalence towards law. People believe that is necessary to deal with the world when it is constantly involved in some form of chaotic turmoil. However, this can be considered as one our main glaring flaws within our society because humanity tends to do more harm than originally created. This conflict also arises in the play, Antigone, by Sophocles. Antigone, the character, imitates the struggle between what she deems to be morally upstanding and what the law actually says is equitable. On the other hand, Kreon represents the opposing side because he views the rules of government and power as the ultimate advisor in life’s unraveling. Though Antigone is ultimately hindered, she decided what was truly just rather …show more content…

Socrates was one of the main leaders of ancient Greek philosophy. His declaration that honor is an ideal for which to "live and die" represents how justice was held with the highest esteem in ancient Greek Society. As you might expect, the cataclysm in Antigone treats the integrity of justice by characterizing two opposing concepts of law and pitting them against one another. However, the tragic play does not come out with a verdict deciding which perception of law is correct, but it does raise doubts with the idea of the constitution of justice. The events that happen before the beginning of the play are crucial to understanding the ideas of play. Kreon, Antigone’s uncle, is the new King of Thebes. Both of Antigone's brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, had lost their lives while they were fighting each other for the crown after the former king, Oedipus, died. To teach a lesson to his people, Kreon had decreed that Polyneices traitorous body shall remain unburied and without any burial rights. In spite of Kreon’s ruling, Antigone buries her brother to save his soul. With this decision, the two main characters of the play, Kreon and Antigone, showcase the opposing perceptions …show more content…

As Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance says, “… and justice for all.” Justice is not defined by the people in society. What we do know is that under divine law or God’s law, justice is a virtue that is shared by all. Works Cited “The Pledge of Allegiance.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm. Sophocles, and Owen McCafferty. Sophocles Antigone. London, 2008. Sophocles, and Richard E Braun. Sophocles Antigone. Oxford University Press, Inc, 1973. Plato, et al. Republic. Harvard University Press, 2013. “The World's Most Trusted Dictionary Provider.” Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford Dictionaries, www.oxforddictionaries.com/. Henderson, Barney. “'We're going to get the b-------': George W Bush's reaction to 9/11 revealed in full by press secretary Ari Fleischer.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 10 Sept. 2016,

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Antigone is a tragedy play written by Sophocles. In the story, Antigone, a young woman, had requested permission from Creon, the king at the time, to have a proper burial for her brother, Polyneices; even though he was a traitor and the law forbids mourning for him. Creon had denied Antigone's request for the burial of her brother, however, Antigone had still carried out the burial. Unfortunately, she had been caught in her act, by the king’s guard, and brought before Creon.

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Choragos encourages and advises Kreon quickly liberate Antigone in which he does, but it is too late. Antigone has hung herself out of her clothing. She would be considered as a martyr to the people, standing up for what she believes in which is flexibility in state rule to allow for more respect toward family values. Since Kreon is driven by his responsibility to serve the state and his own egocentrism, it leads to Antigone's death and will lead to his "terrible" punishment. The retribution begins with Haimon, his son, ending his own

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Civil Disobedience Martin Luther King once stated in "The Letter from Birmingham Jail", "Any individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment to arouse the conscience of the community over it injustice is in reality, expressing the highest respect for the law" (King 411). King meant that, if anyone feels a law is unjust and needed to expose its injustice, should willingly accept any penalty that comes in their way to help arouse people 's conscience in changing that law. In “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King explains the four powerful steps of the nonviolent campaign he used to protest against racial injustice for African-Americans

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The play, Antigone, is a tragedy written by the Greek poet Sophocles. A common theme among tragedies is that they have a tragic hero, and Antigone is no different. The tragic hero of this poem is Creon, the King of Thebes. Creon is faced with the difficult task of punishing his niece, Antigone. She has broken one of his laws stating that no one is to give proper burial rites to Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, because he tried to overthrow Creon.

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In the Oedipus myth sophocles conveys a common theme that transcends into antigone as well. The oedipus myth does start the theme of fate and god’s law ruling over all;whilst fate is a big deal in the story, the main theme is that god's law rules over all. In “Antigone” Sophocles conveys that God’s Law is more important than Man’s Law by Antigone directly disobeying Man’s law so she could obey God’s law,by teiresias saying that creon should change his decision because the god’s don’t approve, and by Creon losing everything because he disobeyed God’s law. Antigone directly disobeys Man’s law so she can obey god’s law. Antigone proves that god’s law is more important than man’s law by earning the opinion of the people by following god’s law

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In the play Antigone by Sophocles, he demonstrates the many ways an unjust leader can overpower those who fight for what is right (Adams 1). In Antigone’s case, she fought for the just treatment of her brother in his afterlife and for giving him a proper burial. In her fight for justice, Antigone exhibits strong beliefs of fairness to her community regarding family, rights and morality in her battle against a seemingly unjust leader, Kreon. Sophocles’, in Antigone, displays the type of justice called fairness. He pulls the laws and unjust teachings of his time and puts them into a play for all to see and analyze.

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The fact that Antigone was stubborn and wanted to bury her brother no matter the cost teaches us this lesson. It can also be seen in Creon’s unwillingness to give in to Antigone no because he didn’t want to be looked at in a certain way. Instead, he lost everything that he had and was left at the end of the play in great pain and alone. The story Antigone was a classic Greek tragedy, a continuation of the immense tragedy that has already befallen the house of Oedipus. “Tragedy has a satisfying, redemptive ending because the events in tragedy are arranged so well that we would not have the play end any other way, we accept the conclusion” Antigone does indeed satisfy that requirement as a tragic play.

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