...In every generation, people wanted societal transformations based on their beliefs and morals. One of the ways, civil disobedience, has been practiced as a form of demonstrating one’s discontent with the society, therefore seeking a positive change. Both in Antigone, which was written two thousand years ago, and Letter from a Birmingham Jail of 1960 revolve around the idea of civil disobedience and attempt to justify such with logic, morals, and emotions. Civil disobedience is not a mere act of rebelling against the system in which all humans are subdued to, but rather a call for necessary changes. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone, the main character, breaks King Creon’s order to not bury Polyneices, her brother, and give him a proper funeral. Antigone is deeply upset and decides to demonstrate her civil disobedience by doing what Creon said not to do. When Creon finds out, he condemns her for disobeying the law. Antigone claims that she has followed the gods’ law, and chastise Creon, “apparently the laws of the gods mean nothing to you” (61). She is not only troubled by the fact that her brother is being humiliated, but firmly believes in the “laws of gods,” in other words, moral standards. As Sophocles...
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...characterized civil disobedience in a very fluid method; “ One has moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” When acting upon civil disobedience, there has to be a reasonable and non arrogant approach to the problem in which peacefulness is the main trait being expressed. In Sophocles’s play Antigone Creon produces the law stating no one is allowed to bury the body of the fallen soldier, Polyneices because of his traitory towards the state. Directly defying that law, Antigone portrays civil disobedience by burying the body and performing rites. Antigone’s unpeaceful approach to what she thinks is an unjust law is what renders the civil disobedience ineffective. The stubborn tone in Antigone’s voice and unwillingness...
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...There are always concepts and civil disobedience, with someone's action, nor that it is good or bad: there are always some sort of comments. Either if it was after death or post death some sort of civil disobedience that comes with it. In Sophocles Heartbroken Tragic drama Antigone, he examines an unbroken loyalty for family and for respect or a family member. The main character that we fellow throughout the novel, tell her death: Antigone begins to get more worried not about her death but of what the people will say. At the beginning of the play, Antigone is self confident because of how she feels for what she did by burying her brother. Antigone says, “My own brother and yours I will!! IF you will not, I will; I shall not provide disloyal.”...
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...Civil disobedience is a positive outlook obeying laws and orders. Civil disobedience can be used during everyday life; but can be negative when the public is misinformed, punishments are taken way out of hand causing other issues, and misinterpret what civil disobedience really is. Civil disobedience can be taken and viewed from everyday live if it's positive or negative in the view of others. Civil disobedience can be misinformed by the public; meaning that people use assumptions to assume what a person's intentions really are. An example can be in Antigone a king named Creon is misinformed about who buried his nephew. He felt one of his nephews should not get a correct burial because he felt the intentions of him for fighting his brother were wrong. Going in to be king, Creon stated a speech (1.40-45) saying that Polonesis should not be buried that he should lay in the field to rot. Another good example is from an article about a football player taking a knee during the national anthem. People did not like his way of protesting saying that “not standing during the national anthem is a signal of allegiance to one's nation”. When in the end the football player did it to show...
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...Throughout “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King makes a similar statement about civil disobedience and the law. He states that civil disobedience must occur after four steps are taken. Collection of facts to determine whether there are injustices, negotiation, self purification, and direct action must occur before civil disobedience transpires. He argues that “there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes an injustice when it is used to maintain segregation” (5). Ultimately, a law becomes unjust when it promotes injustice. This is when civil disobedience can occur as laws that promote segregation and inequality are unjust. King appeals to a higher law whenever a command of the state conflicts with his moral principles. Natural law can be described as King’s guide to civil disobedience. When the state does not conform with natural law, civil...
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...Civil disobedience is the act of refusal against laws, taxes, or demands by a government usually staying peaceful in nature. Martin Luther King Jr. and Antigone implement civil disobedience to defy unjust law; however, both approaches used to go against the wrong laws are different. Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader for the civil rights movement to put an end to segregation through civil disobedience by stressing the importance of peacefully protesting; while Antigone purposely went against the law, knowing the consequences, to follow God’s law instead of man-made law in a holy effort to bury her late brother Polyneices. Martin Luther King Jr. goes against unjust laws through civil disobedience by initiating peaceful protests. He believed that using nonviolent tactics are better at showing the immorality the unjust laws’ and calls for black people to fight the long battle against segregation. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he reveals the unjust treatment going on in Birmingham and why it is important for him to be there helping, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already...
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...In Sophocles’ Antigone the protagonist’s actions are justified through the principles of civil disobedience due to the utilization of direct action, the opposition to the government structure, and the willingness to give up natural rights as exhibited in Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Antigone’s actions are mainly plausible through the direct action in which she exploits to bring justice to her deceased brother. After Antigone buries Polynecies the guard describes the direct action as “The corpse- someone hath just given it burial, and gone away,- after sprinkling thirsty dust on the flesh, with such other rites as piety enjoins” (Sophocles 10). Antigone decides to...
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...example of “Antigone”, Creon, the powerful and ignorant leader of Thebes, exhibits many of the tragic hero’s attributes. Throughout the story, Creon shows his overwhelming pride in many different situations, often referred to as hubris. He is one that believes only he is right and is very close-minded. To illustrate, he says “He shall not save these girls from death,” as a response to his son, Haemon, that his decision is final and nothing Haemon says will change that. Creon takes pride in his decisions that he will be giving death to Antigone and sees no reason to listen to anyone else’s views, which will always be the case. Also, Creon feels superior to...
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...In Antigone, Sophocles presents a perfect example of civil disobedience. Antigone does what she feels she morally needs to do, no matter the consequences that she will be faced with afterwards. She disobeys the laws of state in order to be true to herself. Fate deals Antigone a bad hand, but she is able to stand up for what she believes in and give her brother what she feels that he rightly deserves. After Antigone’s brothers kill each other fighting over the power to rule, Creon becomes the new ruler. He sees Polynices as a traitor because Polynices brought in troops to attack Thebes. Creon does not feel he deserves a proper religious burial; He forbids anyone to burying Polynices. Creon thinks his body should just rot instead. Burial was very important in this time because they believed a proper burial was essential for afterlife. Antigone thinks her brother deserves to be buried and she will not let anything stop her from giving Polynices a proper burial. Antigone is following her moral compass and disregarding Creon’s opinions on the matter. It is important that Antigone was a hero and stood up for what she believed. Civil disobedience is doing what is morally justified even if it does break laws of the state. Civil disobedience is necessary for change to occur. Without people, or heroes, like Antigone, government or even life would never improve. Some rules are meant to be broken. Government is meant to be for the people, but sometimes laws can only benefit...
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...so prior to his position in office by peaceful, some not peaceful, protests. These protests are an example of civil disobedience. “Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole.” - Henry David Thoreau. One of the oldest examples of civil disobedience is the Ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles. Nelson Mandela used many different...
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...ANTIGONE Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. This play is based on the life story of Antigone, the daughter of Oeudipe and Jocaste. It is a legend of her sacrifice for her loved ones, her believes and her honour. Antigone’s brother Polynice had betrayed his country and died during the war. Creon, the king of Thebes had refused to give him a burial. Antigone is outraged by this decision and goes as far as sacrificing her life, to give her brother a burial he deserves. Even law of the king does not stop her from doing what she thinks is right. Antigone is the tragic heroine of the play and this play revolves around her struggle against the autocratic laws of the state. Even she manages to give Polynice a rightful burial but, this burial costs Antigone her life. SYNOPSIS In the beginning of the play, two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices...
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...Civil disobedience allows one to convey their thoughts and ideas in a passive, nonviolent way. It can be used when one believes that they are morally correct and know that there are others that will agree with them. Antigone, from Sophocles Antigone, and Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, both chose to fight for justice rather than preserve their own safety. They both violated laws that they believed were unjust in order to help people and were willing to suffer the consequences that their actions brought upon them. In other words, they believed that there was a higher good that required them to disobey specific laws. However, even though they both had the same intentions, the methods that they used to achieve their goals differed...
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...State control A well established theme in Antigone is the right of the individual to reject society's infringement on her freedom to perform a personal obligation,[14] obvious in Antigone's refusal to let Creon dictate what she is allowed to do with her family members. She says to Ismene about Creon's edict, "He has no right to keep me from my own."[15] Related to this theme is the question whether Antigone's will to bury her brother is based on rational thought or instinct, a debate whose contributors include greats like Goethe.[14] [edit] Natural law and contemporary legal institutions In Antigone, Sophocles asks the question, which law is greater: the gods' or man's. Sophocles votes for the law of the gods. He does this in order to save Athens from the moral destruction which seems imminent. Sophocles wants to warn his countrymen about hubris, or arrogance, because he knows this will be their downfall. In Antigone, the hubris of Creon is revealed. [edit] Civil disobedience The contrasting views of Creon and Antigone with regard to laws higher than those of state inform their different conclusions about civil disobedience. Creon demands obedience to the law above all else, right or wrong. He says that "there is nothing worse than disobedience to authority" (An. 671). Antigone responds with the idea that state law is not absolute, and that it can be broken in civil disobedience in extreme cases, such as honoring the gods, whose rule and authority outweigh Creon's. [edit]...
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...An article by Erich Fromm, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem ” introduces the idea that human history commenced from disobedience; yet it is been frowned upon for centuries. Erich Fromm, a psychoanalysis and a sociologist, was one of the most prominent writers in the twentieth century. Consequently, Fromm made distinctions to differentiate the types of obedience that humans experience. Obedience as an idea is derived from the ground needs of a humans to want and need but also fear the consequences of disobedience. Firstly, Fromm established the two different views on how human history started through disobedience following the Hebrew and Greek myths. Specifically, Adam and Eve, who broke their disobedience with nature and...
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...in and what they should be imposed by. Civil disobedience plays major role in the novels by Antigone, Creon, and Socrates. In the novel “Antigone” and “The Apology of Socrates” Socrates and Antigone believe if the law is immoral or unrighteous they must protect themselves against discrimination. In the story by “Antigone” she refuses to obey a law because she believed this law was immoral. The law she refuses to obey was the law of tyranny. Antigone second brother was not to have a burial when he died because of his dishonor to the state. Antigone brothers Eteocles and Polynices wanted to take the throne. They both would take the throne one year after the next but Eteocles, the elder, refused to step down. Polynices and his army marched down to the state of Thebes to battle his own brother for the throne, the brothers killed each other in a duel which made Creon king. When Creon became king he ordered Eteocles buried in honor and left Polynices to rot. Creon believed that Polynices should not have disobeyed the law of his own state, which was disloyalty. When Antigone heard about the news of her brother Polynices she was enraged. According to the novel “Antigone” when she was speaking to her sister, Antigone says “For those two brothers of ours, in burial has not Creon honored the one, dishonored the other?” (Ant 161.23-24). Antigone questions herself because she is surprised that a person cannot have a burial. Also Antigone believed that Creon abused his authority by not...
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