In The Burial at Thebes, Seamus Heaney weighs the values of death and of family. Through the warped minds of his characters, Heaney unfolds some of the faults of being a human. Throughout the play is the idea that every action has its consequences, and those consequences can mean death and suffering; Antigone and Creon are alike with their unyielding pride, however, both characters suffer differently for the decisions they make.
Death, a theme that overshadows the entire play, is revealed mainly through suicide. Although, Polynices and Eteocles die at the end of each other’s blade, and a number more of the characters in The Burial at Thebes die by their own hand. The Majority of the deaths witnessed are indirect consequences of erotic ideas that are combined into and consumed as poison that leads them to their self-willed deaths. Justice, served through Antigone’s free will to bury her brother, even though a law was set in place in order to shun him through lack of proper burial declared by Creon, king and uncle to Antigone. Antigone sees no validity in this law that disregards family; she then starts Creon’s downfall with her own, by hanging herself after being imprisoned. With a
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This declaration allows the reader to sympathize with Antigone and turn against Creon’s law, just as the chorus begins to do. Her assessment may be correct, however, by declaring Creon’s law unjust and against the will of the gods, Antigone undertakes the responsibility that she knows the will of the gods along with their idea of justice, and will abide only by their laws that are the unwritten laws of man. Antigone begins to be outlandish as she allows her emotions to consume her by stating: “This death penalty is almost a relief.” (30). Nevertheless, the audiences, as well as the chorus’s, sympathies tilt more toward Antigone and her traitor of a brother,