Role Of Ethics In Antigone

Ethics or morals? Which is more important in influencing opinions, assuming responsibility, and ruling justly? What comes first, family or government? These are questions that have plagued those in charge for centuries. In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, a woman buries the corpse of her brother against the law. Her uncle, on the other hand, is the king, and therefore must punish Antigone for her crimes. Antigone followed her morals, denying the ethics of Thebes. Returning to the question, ethics are more important than morals as they are a key feature in a successful society, something desired by means of this argument. This is shown through Creon, the uncle and king, when he first discovers Antigone’s crime, his firmness in declaring punishment,

When the seer Teiresias leaves Creon with an evil prophecy, the chorus tell him that the seer has never been wrong. Creon replies, “I know it too, ‘tis that that troubles me./To yield is hard, but, holding out, to smite/One’s soul with sorrow, this is harder still” (Antigone, Scene 5, 1258-1260). In this metaphor, Creon compares holding out to smiting one’s soul with sorrow. Holding out, an action that no one except Creon sees as right, is painful, and feels like a sharp blow to the soul. Everyone around Creon disagrees with him upholding the law, and now he himself is in doubt, but still holds out his punishment. Creon, valuing his ethics, chose to punish Antigone for her crime, and now is under pressure from many people that this was a bad idea. He, however, still holds out, and due to the importance of his ethics, does not

Creon’s statement at the discovery of the criminal, his firmness in declaring and maintaining punishment, and his declaration against Haemon all serve to prove the importance of ethics over morals. This does not mean morals are completely undermined, as ethics are generated from the shared morals of a community. However, when one lives in a society, he must conform to the ethics of that society, even if his morals are different. Antigone was related to the royal family of Thebes and therefore, it was one of her duties to uphold the ethics of the state. Once Antigone broke the law, she had to punished as both an example and a warning. The absence of ethics in a society will only lead to trouble, as conflicts arise between people of different morals. Ethics aim to unite the people on a common law, and once one joins the society, he must follow the ethics of the society. One cannot ever sacrifice ethics for morals, as this creates conflict and strife between members of