Multilayered Motives In Antigone

This essay is to discuss the multilayered motives that drive Antigone to action. When I read the play I believe, it is a strong sense alligence to her family, and pure anger that drives Antigone to make the decision to act against Creons law and bury her brother Polyneices. After loosing her mother to sucided, her father and her twin brothers, Antigone and her sister Ismene are the last of the Labadcus family (a royal family). The lost of so many loved ones in a short period of time begins to manifests feelings in Antigone causing her to believe that death was in her future as well.

Because of the conflictions over power that bring her brothers to war over the land of Thebes, both brothers are killed by the other ones hand. With a traitors death comes no honor – set in this belief Antigone’s uncle Creon (now ruler of Thebes) declears that Eteocles will be buried with honor because he died protecting the city and Polyneices, the traitor will not be buried, his body is to remain on top of the soil, naked only to beoome food for wild animals.
Despite what or who Polyneices was fighting for or against, Antigone feels that he should be honored for the simple fact that he her “blood brother”. Due to such a strong belief that the Creon’s law is wrong and unethical. Antigone even insisted that her sister Ismene was kind of like a traitor because using her her logical judgement of cause and effect she could not bring herself to agreement with Antigones plan. Ismene knew that if she would help in the criminal act of burying her brother, she would be sentenced to death and death was not what she hoped