The motives for Antigone's actions are powered by her desire to serve the gods. When Antigone decides to bury her brother, Polynices, who had fallen in battle, she tries to convince her sister, Ismene, to help her. Although Antigone is set on giving her brother proper burial rights, Ismene does not want to go against the law of the city, which states that anyone who gives burial rights to Polynices will be put to death. Antigone responds to her sister saying, "Do as you like, dishonor the laws the gods hold in honor" (lines 91, 92). Antigone is so motivated to make sure the laws of the gods are followed that she doesn't care what the punishment is for disobeying the laws of man. After Polynices is buried, Antigone is caught, and Creon, ruler of Thebes, asks Antigone if she had been

Antigone makes a mistake when she breaks Creon's law, and Creon is determined to make sure she suffers. The first thing he does is to make sure Ismene is arrested so he can convict her of the crime as well. Ismene admits to the crime, but Antigone protests, telling her that she was not there to help her in the beginning and she should not be suffering a glorious death like Antigone. Creon decides what Antigone's punishment will be, and tells the Leader of the chorus, "I will take her down some wild, desolate path never trod by men, and wall her up alive in a rocky vault, and set out short rations, just to measure the piety demands to keep the piety demands. There let her pray to the one god she worships..." (lines 870-875). Antigone sees her punishment as a wedding to death, saying to the Chorus, "Look at me, men of my fatherland, setting out on the last road looking into the last light of day the last I will ever see...the god of death who puts us all to bed takes me down to the banks of Acheron alive--denied my part in the wedding-songs, no wedding-song in the dusk has crowned my marriage--I go to wed the lord of the dark waters" (lines 900-907). In her tomb, Antigone does not wait for death to come for her: she hangs herself with a rope and weds herself to death.

bold enough to break the law he set forth. Antigone responds, saying "Of cou

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 916
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)