Family Over the Law in Antigone Analysis Essay

📌Category: Antigone, Plays, Sophocles, Writers
📌Words: 801
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 19 June 2021

What does it mean to be moral? This is considered in the ancient, Athenian play Antigone, written by Sophocles. This play is about a girl  named Antigone and her uncle King Creon and whether or not it was morally correct for this girl to break the king’s law. In this play Antigone is morally right because in Athenian culture no one should dishonor family or oppose the gods because they relied on the gods for everything. 

In this play, Antigone, the protagonist breaks the law in order to honor her brother. However, her brother, Polynices, was an enemy of the state and brought an army against his own homeland. Antigone asks her sister, Ismene, to help break the law but Ismene rejects her request so Antigone does it by herself. The law stated that no one should bury Polynices. Antigone breaks this law, gets caught, then gets sentenced to death by her uncle. Her uncle eventually regrets this and decides to pardon her but once he opens the cave she was locked in, she had already killed herself. 

Further, burial in Athenian culture was very important. It brought honor to the person that was buried. But more importantly it brought honor to the gods. “The war dead were considered the property of the gods,” (Veale, 1). The gods sided with Antigone because she honored them by honoring her family. The gods acted with her by sending a plague against her community to prove to Creon that he was wrong. 

Equally as important, Ancient Greeks were taught that community was very important and that they should do all they can in order to uphold their community. Since Antigone was a part of this culture, she followed this. When she looked to her closer community, that is her family, she saw injustice and decided to bring change. “But the body of Polynices, who died miserably-why, a city-wide proclamation, rumor has it, forbids anyone to bury him, even mourn him. He’s left to be unwept, unburied, a lovely treasure for birds that scan the field and feast to their heart’s content,”(Sophocles, 659)  This quote proves that Antigone is upset with the law and believes that it is unjust. Her anger proves that she is willing to do something about it and not just watch idly by from the sidelines. 

Another reason why Antigone is morally right is because she chose her family over the law. This is shown in the play when her and her sister are talking. “[Antigone] Will you lift up his body with these bare hands and lower it with me? [Ismene] What? You’d bury him-when a law forbids the city? [Antigone] Yes! He is my brother and - deny it as you will - your brother too,” (Sophocles 659). This conversation demonstrates Antigone's dedication to her brother. She would not allow the law to keep her from burying part of her kin even though he was a traitor to her homeland. 

It is also shown that Antigone is morally correct because the gods sided with her. If one was to side with Creon then they would be siding against the gods. As said earlier, war dead were considered property of the gods and are given over to the gods through burial. Antigone honored the gods by burying her brother so the gods paid her back by siding with her. They paid her back by proving the entire culture that Creon was wrong. In Athenian culture what the gods said was correct so to be against the gods was to be against the Greeks way of life. Tiresias, a blind prophet states to Creon, “You, you have no business with the dead,”(Sophocles 686). This demonstrates that Creon had no right to control what was done with the dead because the dead were the gods property and for this reason the gods did not side with him.

Some critics may say that Creon was correct for trying to protect his subjects by not condoning treason. Philip Holt describes this in his Polis and Tragedy by saying “Athenian law forbade the burial of traitors and sacrilegious people in Athenian territory.” (Holt 663). However, this was wrong because the gods declared that a plague would be sent upon Thebes if Antigone’s brother was not buried. In the text, Tiresias again states to Creon “And it is you-your high resolve that sets this plague upon Thebes,” (Sophocles, 684). This quote shows that Creon had great hubris because he would not humble himself and change the law. Even to protect his country from a plague, he was unwilling to admit that he was wrong as not to sacrifice his pride. 

Conclusively, Antigone is morally right because her dedication to her brother and the fact the gods were on her side. Creon was not morally right because he was too consumed with his power and was not looking to do what was best for his country. To be morally right is not just for someone to follow rules that are set before them but to also know when not to. Antigone did this. She did not follow the rules her country made but broke them in order to protect her brother.

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