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What Is The Difference Between Letter From Birmingham Jail And Antigone

1040 Words5 Pages

Chris Iacono
1C70
Jim McCarthy
2 November 2015
Antigone and Martin Luther King: Civil Disobedience
In Sophocles’ Antigone and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” both Antigone and Martin Luther King fight and disobey the laws established in order to help others. They show their civil disobedience in different ways, but are defying the laws for similar purposes; to preserve human rights. Both are following the idea that the individual has the duty to defy human laws when they contradict those of higher ideals (“Letter From Birmingham Jail About the History of Civil Disobedience”). They differ in that Antigone tried to reason with Creon, but when that failed she took matters into their own hands, while Martin Luther King used nonviolent campaigns …show more content…

This is related to Malcolm X and his famous line “by any means necessary.” Although she did not fight back physically, which was a strong belief by Malcolm X, Antigone stopped at no cost to achieve her goal of burying her dead brother. She tries to reason with Creon by appealing to emotion and the Theban beliefs. Polynices was not only Antigone’s brother, but also Creon’s nephew. Antigone commits this “crime of piety” because she knows that she would not be dishonoring her gods. She defies Creon’s law because she is trying to honor her brother and preserve the God-given rights of a proper burial after death (Leshak). Even though she recognizes death as the consequence for her action, Antigone fights the struggle of the individual and still feels the need to bury her brother. She does not only feel the need to bury Polynices because he is her brother, but there she strongly feels that is is her moral duty to due so in order to please the Theban gods and will only be found “guilty of the holiest crime”. Another reason that Antigone’s civil disobedience is symbolic is because she is a woman. Creon states that no woman will rule him as he lives and since Antigone loves the dead, she will join

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Fortunately, those who followed King stayed true to his rhetoric, but thinking about our society now with just and unjust laws, will be skewed and taken advantage of. Furthermore, Antigone’s actions displayed a “maximalist” view, where she argues with Creon that the gods do not agree with his decree, emphasizing “the conviction that religion ought to permeate all aspects of social, indeed of human, existence.” This is a divergence from my definition of keeping the components of religion out of every aspect in

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881 Words | 4 Pages

King stated that he was “compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town” (King 21); likewise, Antigone was compelled to perform own duty to her family. The actions of Antigone and Martin Luther King, Jr. were aimed to spur tension within a community that would eventually cause the subjugators to confront the issue. Indeed, King’s work was able to catch the eye of political leaders at the state and local level, just as the city of Thebes ends up quietly supporting Antigone and enraging Creon. In both cases, neither figure sought to provoke anarchy, but instead aimed to bring light to corruption that was already boiling in a pot

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Tradition is a theme found in both the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the play Antigone by Sophocles. In both stories tradition is used as a tool to force people to conform to the “norm” of society. In “The Lottery”, the people of the town revolve around their annual lottery. Everyone is quick to help each other get ready for the event and also show no remorse for the end of the ritual. Nobody objects to the continuation of the lottery, although Mr. Adams brings up the rumor that a nearby village were talking about giving up the lottery but he was quickly shut down by Old Man Warner.

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Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr. are both very important figures when it comes to discussing the topic of civil disobedience; both fought for what they believed to be right and against the injustice of the state. Antigone went against the edict of the king and buried her brother and Martin Luther King Jr. broke the law to try to end segregation and racism in America. Even though some similarities can be found between the two, ultimately they went about civil disobedience in very different ways. Antigone’s method was personal and selfish and she took an extremely defiant and rash stance while martin Luther King’s approach was more analytical and thought out. It is for these reasons that I believe King’s method was more successful and is the

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

Although both Antigone, from “Antigone” by Sophocles, and Martin Luther King Jr. from “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” engage in acts of civil disobedience and fight for what they believe to be right, the way they go about these acts is quite different. Each of their reasons, actions, and consequences can be seen as opposites. Antigone refuses the help or involvement of others, which can be seen as a selfish act directly against the king while Martin Luther King Jr. involves the entire community to help the greater good. Antigone is a character who stands up for what she believes in to a point of direct civil disobedience toward the king, Creon. She puts the laws of the gods over the laws of her authority.

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1005 Words | 5 Pages

Antigone enact this civil disobedience as a way of fighting and refusing to follow an unjust law made by and unjust King. The people of today can learn from Antigone. We the people today can take the courage and strength from Antigone and look the injustice in the eyes and fight back. We can take action like the Sons of Liberty and start a movement against the injustice and unruly laws. We can look to Antigone and partake in civil disobedience in order to make a movement to prompt change for the better in our world today.

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406 Words | 2 Pages

In the scene in which Creon will not allow her brother to be buried. This goes against her personal beliefs she confronts Creon when she says “if I had allowed my own mothers son to rot, an unburied corpse that would have been an agony.” Creon wouldn’t allow Antigone brother to be buried even tho Antigone felt it was the right thing to do. Antigone is talking to Ismene about burying her brother but Ismene tells her to keep the idea a secret but Antigone disagrees and says “But I know I’ll please the ones I’m duty bound to please.

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In conclusion, Antigone’s action towards Creon‘s Laws corresponds to the four steps of nonviolent campaign that Martin Luther King used to protest in Birmingham. In case of Antigone, an unjust law was passed in the city that restricted her right as a woman to bury her dead brother. She noticed the presence of injustice when, one of her brothers was given a proper burial over the other, which contradicted to the laws of the gods, and decided to break the law by burying her brother. For Martin Luther king, a segregation laws was passed that restricted blacks in Birmingham to vote. King saw such laws as unjust and protested against it.

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In the classic play by Sophocles, Antigone is a tragic story of the bold Antigone who defied her uncle, King Creonʻs, edict by burying her brother, Polyneices, who died attacking the city of Thebes, trying to take the power away from their brother, Eteocles, who refused to share the throne with Polyneices. Even though Antigone knew that going against Creon and burying her brother would not end well for her, she still choose to risk her life to do what is right. After being caught breaking the law, Antigone is appointed to be locked away, isolated in a cave until she dies, but she hangs herself at the end. At the same time, things for Creon are not looking good, as everyone around him seems to be against him in his decision for punishing Antigone. Everyone Creon cares about kills themselves from a curse that is put on Creon for not following the Godsʻ laws.

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In everyday life, we face choices that can be decided for or against based on our moral compass. But what if what you believe to be right cannot be easily expressed due to the fact of a governing law preventing it? This is the case of Antigone in Sophocles’ tragedy. It is her against the rest of the world when she tries to fight what she believes to be right. In Antigone by Sophocles is about Antigone’s struggle to combat the law of the land while maintaining her pursuit in following her moral law, and justifying whether she is right or wrong.

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552 Words | 3 Pages

In the play "Antigone" by Sophocles, Antigone rightfully decides to bury her brother, Polynices, but when the king, Creon, finds out, she does not repent for her actions. She is a woman that stands for what she thinks is right, which in this case is that Creon is wrong for condemning the burial of her brother. She shows braveness with her actions because not all people have the courage to risk their own lives so that their brother can rest in peace. For instance, Ismene states "What? You 'd bury him – when a law forbids the city?"

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385 Words | 2 Pages

When people defend what they believe in or who they love that is sacrifice. In order to be certain that her two brothers she loved had a proper burial and that their souls could rest, Antigone sacrificed her life. Regardless of the potential outcome; even if that means that she was going to have to challenge her uncle (King Creon), she plans on pursuing her quest. Polynices and Eteocles killed each other in battle for control over Thebes, leaving the city to the new King, Creon Jocasta’s brother and Antigone’s uncle. Because of the actions that Polynices took during the war, Creon labels him a traitor and halts any burial process, leaving his body for the animals (222-234).

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Antigone being the one to fight for her beliefs and obeying the god's laws attempts the burial of Polyneices and goes against Creon’s law to prove to him that he’s in over his head that he has too much pride in himself, in lines 15-35 Antigone claims that she is going to go

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She was outraged when she found out that her brother Polyneices was going to be left to rot and be eaten by animals, because he was a traitor to the city. Antigone believed that her brother deserved a proper burial even though he tried going against the city unlike her other brother Eteocles. She asks Ismene (her sister) to join her in this act of rebellion but Ismene does not want to get in trouble for going against her kings orders so Antigone does it on her own. Creon feels disrespected and punishes Antigone for not following his rules. He seals Antigone while she is alive, inside a tomb.

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958 Words | 4 Pages

In ancient Greece, a common saying that all citizens had in their very core, a traditional Greek principle, was this: love your friends, and hate your enemies. This rule seems pretty straightforward and would appear easy to apply in real life. However, in the timeless play Antigone, Sophocles shows his audience a situation where this maxim does not apply. Sophocles concentrates on a complex story where the values and principles of the ancient Greek culture come into conflict. Religious or moral versus secular, family versus community, and living versus dead: all of these conflicting aspects are explored in Antigone.

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