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In the play Antigone, there is a conflict between Creon and Antigone
over which law to obey in regards to Antigone attempting to bury her
brother, the law of the state or God’s laws. It is a conflict between a
human law and a higher law. Antigone believes in following God’s laws,
even if it means breaking the law of the state, a law set by Creon
which states that Antigone’s brother Polyneices is not to have a burial
and no one is to touch him. Antigone believes that it is God’s law that
she should bury him while Creon believes that no one should breaks the
laws of the state, the laws he sets.
In the first scene of the play, Antigone makes her case clear that
she is going to bury her brother, regardless of the law Creon has set
against it. After she tells her sister, Ismene, that she is going to
bury their brother, Ismene replies, “The law is strong, we must give in
to the law, in this thing and in worse. I beg the dead to forgive me,
but I am helpless: I must yield to those in authority.” Antigone
replies that she is still going to bury her brother and says to Ismene,
“Apparently the laws of the Gods mean nothing to you.” Antigone
believes that is her right by the laws of the Gods for her to bury her
brother. She believes that the laws of the Gods are higher than the
laws of the state and that she is doing right by following the laws of
the Gods.
Antigone again makes her case of following Gods laws, this time in
the face of Creon. Antigone admits that it was her that dusted the body
of her brother. Creon asks her if she had heard his proclamation that
the body was not to be touched and Antigone says that she had. Creon
asks her, “And yet you dared defy the law?” And Antigone replies,
“I dared, it was not God’s proclamation. That final Justice that
rules the world below makes no such laws. 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 forever, beyond man utterly.”
Antigone defied the laws of the state because she believed in the
higher law of Gods that she had the right to bury her brother, despite
what the law made by Creon had stated. She states in her quote that the
laws of the Gods are higher than the laws of the King. The King’s laws
are strong, but they are weak against the laws of the Gods and always
will be. The laws of the Gods are eternal; they will always be higher
than the laws of the state. God would not make such a proclamation as
the one made by Creon, God would not make a law that forbids a sister
from burying her own brother.
On the other hand, Creon firmly believes in the law of the state
although this changes at the end of the play. Creon believes in the
laws of the state so highly that he declares that anyone who disobeys
his proclamation about not burying Polyneices will be stoned in the
public square. Creon thought that Polyneices was a traitor for fighting
against his native city and Creon believed that no traitor should have
a burial. He states, “As long as I am King, no traitor is going to be
honored with the loyal man.” When he is talking with the Sentry about
the dust on Polyneices, the Sentry brings up the idea that maybe the
Gods tried to bury Polyneices. Creon replies with, “The Gods favor this
corpse? Why? How had he served them? Tried to loot their temples, burn
their images. Yes, and the whole State, and its laws with it!” He
believes that it is a horrible thing to go against the State and its
laws, so much that he will not even bury a man that went against them.
You can see Creon’s position again in his conversation with Haimon.
They are talking about what Antigone has done and Creon says to Haimon,
“I’ll have no dealings with lawbreakers, critics of the government:
whoever is chosen to govern should be obeyed.” In this you can see that
Creon expects the laws of the state to be followed and if someone
breaks them he is not going to tolerate it, even if it is his son’s
bride-to-be.
Although Creon is a firm believer in the laws of the State in the
beginning of the play, at the end he has a change of heart. When he
hears the prophecy of the blind man, that he is going to have some
misfortunes in his family, he consults the chorus and they tell him
that he must free Antigone from the stone tomb she was sent to. When he
has made up his mind to not be so stubborn in his support for the
State’s laws, Creon comes to the belief that, “The laws of the gods are
mighty, and a man must serve them to the last day of his life.” Creon
comes to the conclusion that he was wrong to send Antigone to the tomb
and he has changed his mind about which laws are more important. He
sees that the laws of the gods are higher than the human laws and that
they must always be obeyed. He sees that he was foolish and stubborn to
believe so much in his laws, for in the end, his laws are no match for
the laws of the gods.
I believe that from the view of Sophocles, the blame for the
tragedies falls more on the shoulders of Creon. I say this because some
of the other characters in the play question his stubbornness in making
sure that Antigone is punished. Haimon, his own son, questions his
reasoning for wanting to punish Antigone and says that some people in
the city feel that Creon is going too far as well. Even members of the
chorus and choragos show doubt in what Creon is doing. I believe that
Creon is more to blame because it was his proclamation and his decision
to punish Antigone so harshly when people close to him, including his
own son questioned his actions. He is too stubborn and proud to back
down, even when others are questioning him and saying that maybe he
should let off a little. Creon does not want to listen to the others
though, he believes that only he has the right to rule and make the
laws and punish those who break them as he sees fit.
Haimon questions his father’s reasoning in sentencing Antigone when
he comes in to talk to him towards the end of the play. Haimon does not
think that his father, Creon, should be so harsh in his sentence
towards Antigone and he brings the point that many in the city feel the
same way. But they are too scared to say anything other than what Creon
would want to hear so they keep their opinions to themselves. Haimon
says to Creon,
“Yet there are other men who can reason, too; and their opinions
might be helpful. You are not in a position to know everything that
people say or do, or what they feel: your temper terrifies-everyone
will tell you only what you would like to hear. But I, at any rate, can
listen; and I have heard them…They say no woman has ever, so
unreasonably, died so shameful a death for a generous act.”
Haimon is telling his father that the people of the city do not
agree with him but they are too scared to say anything. They feel that
she should not be dying for covering her brother’s body and saving it
from dogs and vultures. Haimon agrees with them and goes on to ask his
father to not be so unreasonable. He says, “I beg you, do not be
unchangeable: do not believe that you alone can be right.” Haimon wants
his father to reconsider; he does not want him to think that only he
can be right and that the opinion of the others is wrong. Haimon
supports the opinion of the city that Antigone should not die for what
she has done. He further shows this when his father asks him if
Antigone is not a criminal and he replies, “The City would deny it, to
a man.” This shows that the City does not think Antigone has done
anything wrong but they would not say it to the King, only to other men
like themselves. They do not think she should die for what she has done
but they would never challenge the King on it.
The Choragos also questions Creon sentence of death for Antigone.
They ask him, “Do you really intend to steal this girl from your son?”
Creon replies that death will do that for him and the Choragos says,
“Then she must die?” Creon says that she must. The Choragos is
surprised that Creon is actually going to kill Antigone and take her
from his own son whom she is intended to marry. They cannot believe
that Creon would actually do such a thing. In the end they are the ones
who persuade him to change his mind and go and release Antigone from
her tomb but he is too late.
It is for these reasons that I think that from the view of
Sophocles, the blame for the tragedies falls more on the shoulders of
Creon. He had the chance to change his mind, he had others saying that
maybe he should think about it and he did not. He decided to be
stubborn and do things his own way and not listen to others.
From my own contemporary perspective, I believe that Creon is to
blame for most of the tragic events in the play. I do however, place
some blame on Antigone, although it is very little. She knew what she
was doing when she went and covered her brother’s body with dust. She
knew that Creon had issued a proclamation that it should not be touched
but she did it anyways. I do think that she had the right to though; I
do not believe that she was doing anything wrong or something that
almost every other brother or sister would do in her shoes.
I place most of the blame on Creon because it was his decision to
sentence her to death, and not to go back on what he said, despite the
protests from others. Creon had the opportunity to not punish Antigone
how he did and he could have avoided the tragedy all together. He made
his son angry by saying that he was going put his bride-to-be to death.
When Haimon sees that she is dead, he kills himself too, right in front
of his father. Creon could have prevented this by listening to his own
son and not making him so mad by telling him he was going to out her to
death and that she was a criminal when Haimon did not believe it. Creon
is to blame because he was the one in power who made the law, and he is
the only one who could change it or do anything about it. If anyone
else would have had a say Antigone would not have died. But Creon was
too stubborn to change his ways and it lead to the tragedies of
Antigone’s death, his own son’s death, and his wife’s death.
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