The opening events of the play quickly establish the central conflict. Creon has decreed that the traitor Polynices must not be given proper burial, and Antigone is the only one who will speak against this decree and insist on the sacredness of family. Whereas Antigone sees no validity in a law that disregards the duty family members owe one another, Creon’s point of view is exactly opposite. He has no use for anyone who places private ties above the common good, as he proclaims firmly to the Chorus and the audience as he revels in his victory over Polynices. Creon’s first speech, which is dominated by words such as “principle,” “law,” “policy,” and “decree,” shows the extent to which Creon fixates on government and law as the supreme authority. Between Antigone and Creon there can be no compromise—they both find absolute validity in the respective loyalties they uphold.…
The play Antigone supports Creon’s claims that the rule of the king must be obeyed even if it is wrong in order to avoid anarchy and chaos. It is tragic that so many lives had to be lost. It is hard to be a king and maintain the rule of law. King Creon is a strong king that demands to be obeyed no matter what the cost. Tragically he lost so many that he cared for. First his brother dies, then his two nephews fight over the throne and end up killing each other. Eteocles was the king however his brother Polyneices fought to take his place. To no avail they both die. Eteocles was giving a proper burial for a king where Polyneices was just left to rot on the battlefield.…
The conflict between Antigone and Creon in the play is very outstanding and intense. Creon commanded that Eteocles would be buried in formal way, meanwhile, Creon also made laws to prevent people from burying Polynices. Let his corpse rot and be eaten by animals. Antigone buried the body without any hesitation that she was violating the laws. Because Antigone believed there is nothing can be superior to the gods, the gods would agree with her action. She argued that Creon, a mere mortal, did not have the power to override the gods, which enraged Creon. The things Antigone believed utterly subverted Creon’s value. In contrast, Creon thought the king’s power overtopped any other thing, all the laws he made should be obeyed no matter they were right or wrong. He also believed once the king made the decision, there is no way that the king was about to make mistake. Nobody should doubt the power of the king. Compare to Antigone, Creon was too pride of being a king, he wallowed in dominant power, forgot and betrayed the traditions of gods.…
King Creon believes that fighting for his kingdom shows true power and courage. Creon’s main goal is to seek justice for his kingdom and in doing so he deemed Polynices, Antigone’s brother, a traitor. Power blinds him and he sentences Antigone to life on a deserted island for going against his wishes. Creon comes to his senses a little too late, losing his family in the process. On the other hand Antigone feels that if the state is going against the law of God by Creon not giving proper burial honors to Polynices, then a person has the right to take matters into their own hands. When Antigone is caught by the sentries it didn’t surprise her, she is expecting punishment for her actions but is willing to accept a form of it for her family. Antigone’s courageous stand against the State shows her personal morals are of the…
In every person’s life there are laws that they follow, whether they are set by the authority in the country or their belief in a higher deity the laws one follows while leading their life can sometimes be in conflict. In Antigone divine and state law are incompatible forcing the characters to make difficult decisions. Antigone’s personal obligation to following religious rites and traditions puts her at odds with Creon’s insistence on enforcing his will as the king. Sophocles examines the conflict between rules and order to illustrate how adherence to the law of the state can be mislead. Through the conflicts between characters in the play, Sophocles exemplifies that in his best world divine or religious law is obeyed over the law of men or states.…
Antigone, by Sophocles, is a story about the struggle between Antigone, who represents the laws of the gods and Creon, who represents the laws of the state. The play takes place circa 442 B.C. in the city-state of Thebes. The story revolves around the burial of Polyneices. Polyneices led an army against his brother, Etocles, the King of Thebes. They killed each other in battle and the new king, Creon, made a decree that only Etocles was to be buried because Polyneices was his rival. Antigone, sister of Polyneices and Etocles, feels that she needs to bury Polyneices in accordance to Zeus ' law, but this went against Creon 's decree. Also, Antigone has to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister Ismene. Since Antigone decided to follow Zeus ' law, which states that all bodies must be buried, she defied Creon 's decree and buried Polyneices anyway. Caught by the guards, while burying her brother, Antigone was sent to a rocky chamber as punishment by Creon. Creon 's son, Haemon, was engaged to marry Antigone, but he along with the rest of the city thought Antigone 's death was unjust. Even after Teirsias, the blind prophet, warned Creon to release Antigone and bury Polyneices, Creon remained reluctant. Finally, Teirsias told Creon that the gods were going to punish him and Creon became worried. By the time he got to the rocky chamber, it was too late: Antigone already hung herself. Creon found his son sobbing next to her and when he told Haemon to come back with him, Haemon spat in his face and pulled out his sword. In the struggle to save Haemon, Creon opened the way for Haemon to impale himself. After Creon 's wife, Eurydice, found out her son was dead, she stabbed herself to death.…
Antigone’s death is far more tragic than she could have imagined, seeing how it led to two other deaths the same day. Haemon, Antigone’s fiancé, found her lying dead in the stone vault and he blamed his father, Creon. Creon attempted to apologize to his son, “but Haemon spat in his face. He said not a word” (1104). Haemon then charged his father with his sword, missed, and then, “desperate against himself, drove it half length its length into his own side” (1104). Antigone would have avoided had she not defied the law and had Creon not sentence her to death in the vault. Haemon was deeply influenced by his love towards Antigone—a love held accountable for Haemon’s passionate submission into the hands of Death. Now like the married couples who share things, they shared death.…
Sophocles' play "Antigone" illustrates the conflict between obeying human and divine law. The play opens after Oedipus' two sons Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other in a civil war for the throne of Thebes. Oedipus' brother in law Creon then assumes the throne. He dictates that Eteocles shall receive a state funeral and honors, while Polyneices shall be left in the streets to rot away. Creon believes that Polyneices' body shall be condemned to this because of his civil disobedience and treachery against the city. Polyneices' sister, Antigone, upon hearing this exclaims that an improper burial for Polyneices would be an insult to the Gods. She vows that Polyneices' body will be buried, and Creon declares that anyone who interferes with his body shall be punished. This is where the conflict begins. Thus the theme of this play becomes the priority of unwritten law. The question is whether duties to the gods are more essential then obedience of the state and law. Creon calls the rotting of Polyneices' body an "obscenity" because he believes that burial of the dead is a necessity of human law and not of a citizen. . There is no compromise between the two both believe in the absolute truth of their obedience.…
When the story begins, Creon has issued a law forbidding the proper burial of a fallen soldier, his own nephew, Polyneices. He says, “ “.(Act 1, Line ) This immediately shows his first character flaw. He has so much pride and believed superiority that he can make laws to go against the gods’ laws. These laws have to do with the proper burial to ensure the release of the deceased’s soul. Without proper release, the soul will be forever trapped in the hell of its own body. Antigone, his niece and the sister of Polyneices, then goes against his law in order to give her beloved brother proper burial. She is caught and Creon’s second tragic flaw is seen: His stubbornness. He refuses to bend the law he made even when his own niece does everything she can to follow the gods laws. When Antigone begins to be seen as a public her, Creon’s stubbornness causes the townspeople to begin to disagree with and dislike him.…
Antigone felt that Creon was disregarding the laws of gods through his law. After she was captured and brought to Creon, she told him, "Your edict, King was strong, but all your strength is weakness itself against the immortal unrecorded laws of God. They are not merely now: they were, and shall be, operative for ever, beyond man utterly." Antigone's opinion is one that supports the Gods and the laws of heaven. Her view is set by her belief that if someone is not given a proper burial, then that person would not be accepted into heaven. Antigone was a very religious person, and acceptance of her brother by the Gods was very important to her. She felt that "...I will bury him; and if I must die, I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me."…
In Sophocles play “Antigone”, Creon the king demanded that his people obey his rules and order even if it’s wrong. He believed this because it stops chaos and keeps order, but when he puts out the law that whoever were to bury Polyneices body will be put to death and this upsets all of the citizens, including his son. A true ruler must give his people what they want unlike Creon did, Creon’s people and his son told him he was making the wrong decision. When the towns people act like the counsel listen to them. The play disagrees with Creon because while he was a feared and mighty ruler in his own eyes, his own people were scared and untrusting of his rules and decisions.…
Creon claims that his rule as king must be obeyed, even if it is wrong, in order to avoid anarchy and chaos, but the play does not side with him. Creon's first rule as king is that no one "shall entomb [Polyneices] or mourn, but leave unwept, unsepulchred, a welcome store for the birds, as they espy him, to feast on at will." He also states that if anyone is to bury him they shall be put to death. When he is told that Antigone has buried her brother Creon is faced with questions of loyalty. He can not go against his law or he will look weak and it will look as though his laws do not apply to his family. He can not kill his niece or he will look evil. Antigone feels what she did and is prepaired to do is just with the Gods, but what Creon did was not his choice to make, that he played the Gods role. As the play unravels Creon's struggle with divine morality versus religious morality is highlighted by how fate plays out. While Antigone is taken away the town of Thebes urges Creon to free her. Creon loses support of his family and his people. Chaos quite literally breaks out in his own backyard. Creon's steady decline suggest not only that his rulings were wrong, but also that they should not have been obeyed. Towards the end of the play Teiresias warns Creon by saying "Then know thou...that thou shalt not live through many more courses of the sun's swift chariot, ere one begotten of thine own loins shall have been given by thee, a corpse for corpses; because thou hast thrust children of the sunlight to the shades, and ruthlessly lodged a living soul in the grave; but keepest in this world one who belongs to the gods infernal". Creon hurries to correct his…
“I did not think anything which you proclaimed strong enough to let a mortal override the gods and their unwritten and unchanging laws,” (lines 510-513) proclaims Antigone, once again asserting her opinion on whose laws she is justified to follow. Antigone’s persona contrasts with Creon’s character ultimately due to their conflicting motivations about which laws should be followed: the word of the gods, or the laws of man.These conflicting motivations the characteristics of unreasonableness, anger, and disrespect to be highlighted within Creon’s character. In the end, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by ensuing his stubbornness, and damaging his pride.…
Human law vs. divine law is something most people struggle with, internally or otherwise, and is shown to cause many conflict today. Many consequences result when choosing divine law over human law in today’s society for everyone seems to have a different religion with different rules or even no religion at all. In Antigone’s time it seems that this is also something they struggle with for it is a common theme without the story. Antigone seems conflicted on whether to honor her brother and the divine law that all must be buried to enter the afterlife or honor Creon’s law that her brother is not allowed to be buried for he is not considered a honor as his brother Polyneices is. Throughout the story Antigone and even her sister Ismene struggle with the choice between human law and divine law but their morals lead them to different choices that play a key factor in the plot.…
In the play, Antigone breaks the law by giving her brother a proper burial even though her king, Creon, has deemed him a traitor. She is caught in the act, and, as her punishment, forced into a cave where she will starve and die. Her fiancee, Creon’s son, begs Creon to release her, but Creon will not. Only after the seer tells Creon that if he does not spare Antigone the Gods will take vengeance does Creon go to Antigone’s cave to release her. Unfortunately, Antigone has already killed herself, and so has Creon’s son, out of heart break.…