Looking at death through Antig

A detailed Summary of Looking at death through Antig

Looking at Death through Antigone's Eyes- Obey the Gods or the King

In Sophocles' play, Antigone, the main character Antigone is faced with a horrible tragedy; her two brothers have just died fighting each other and now one of her brothers, Polyneices, is not given proper burial rights by the king, Creon. In Greek times, when a man dies there is a great deal of respect and praise given, and a proper burial is always necessary to support the path to the afterlife. When Antigone hears about this lack of respect for her brother, we see her side come out. She disobeys the king and secretly buries her brother, breaking the laws of the polis. Why did she break the city's laws? In examining death through Antigone's eyes, it becomes apparent as to why she broke the laws set by Creon to leave Polyneices unburied. This examination will prove that obeying the laws of man is secondary to obeying the laws of the gods, and that Antigone is very passionate in her views about death.

In order to explain Antigone's feelings about death, let us first go over what the whole play, Antigone, is about. The story takes place in Thebes, and Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta (who are not actually in the play). One of Antigo

In finding out of Creon's laws that Polyneices cannot be buried, Antigone feels a sense of duty to bury him properly. This causes her to break the laws of the polis in order to do what is right for Polyneices. What she is doing is right in the gods eyes, and that is much more important to her than Creon's laws. She does not believe that Creon, just one man, should be able to do over the laws that the gods set in the beginning. We see this loyalty to the gods and to her family when Antigone is captured for burying Polyneices. As the guards go to rush her, she does not even flinch. This is because she believes that this is what the gods would want. She is taken into the palace where Creon accuses her of the crime against the city. He is outraged, ready to punish her with death, and Antigone stands up to the whole thing. She is so quick to take the blame, no matter what the consequences are, because at least she would have given Polyneices proper burial. Death should be treated the same way for any person, whether or not that person died fighting for the country (Eteocles), or died fighting against their country (Polyneices). She believes she has done no crime, she only has done her duty for her family, and what would be right to the gods. Antigone states when she is confronted by Creon, "What greater glory could I win than to give my own brother proper burial?"(84) She will die to do what is right for Polyneices and to the gods, and her admitting to the crime shows how passionate she really does feel. This sense of duty brings up another of her views about death, glory.

In examining Antigone's views on death, it is apparent why she went to such great lengths to bury Polyneices properly. She showed that her views about death are the traditional ones that the gods created far before she was ever born, and those can never be tampered with or changed. She is so strong willed and passionate about these views that any man would dream to have a caring, supportive person like her to be there for them in a time of need. If only Creon had listened to Antigone earlier, but then you would not be able to call the play, Antigone, a true Greek tragedy.

Through all of the feuding that this play had in regards to views on death, it is apparent that Antigone's views did teach Creon something. Ironically, right after Antigone and Haemon had taken their own lives, Creon has an epiphany where he decides to have Polyneices buried properly and Antigone's life spared. He does this because he finds out that the city of Thebes agrees with Antigone, and that they are very upset with what Creon has done. Unfortunately, as in most Greek tragedies, it was too late to spare Antigone's life (because she had already taken her own). It turns out that after her death, Creon was much worse off than when she was alive. Nevertheless, Antigone's views did teach Creon that the laws of the gods will always be much more important and have much higher value than any law of man. He now knows, as Antigone tried to tell him thro

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Approximate Word count = 2043
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English