...The backgrounds of the Antigone and Martin Luther King’s letter are very different. Antigone takes place in Ancient Greece, while Martin Luther King’s letter was written in the twentieth century. However, both main figures of the writings strongly disagree with the “unjust” laws, showing a slight similarity. In Antigone, the speaker, Antigone, is an enemy and disgrace of the audience, the citizens. She claims that burying her “outlaw” brother is not breaking the law. Antigone emotionally appeals to the crowd by saying “..my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse-...”. She logically explains her claim by saying that the tradition of leaving an enemy unburied is a great unwritten tradition. I imagine her saying this while mourning for...
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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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...Original Rivalry: Conflict in Antigone Antigone is a dramatic piece of literature written by Sophocles and translated by Robert Fagles to portray, but not limited to, one major conflict. The major conflict portrayed is Antigone against the state but as the story unfolds another conflict begins to become apparent. This conflict is the never-ending conflict of men against women. These conflicts quickly become apparent as the story begins. The conflicts become apparent as the drama’s main “villain,” Creon, is making it his priority to keep his control over Antigone and the state. In doing this he is also trying to retain his dominance over the female kind. After the death of her brothers, Antigone deliberately violates Creon’s law by burying her brother who was viewed as a traitor. Not only is she breaking state laws but also breaking the barriers of women in this time period. Women in this time period were required to be obedient, loyal, and viewed as feeble. However, Antigone shows acts of courage, which was unheard of for women of this era. When her sister, Ismene, worries for Antigone, she pledges that the king “has no right to keep me from my own” (58-59). Another prime example of the secondary conflict being expressed is when Ismene responds, “Remember we are women” (74). This reiterates their attitude towards how they are seen in the era they live in. She continues with, “we’re not born to contend with men” (75). Ismene, contrary to Antigone, serves as a comparison and represents...
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...defeat.” Though Creon at points can fill the role of a tragic hero in Antigone, Antigone is the only character to truly play the part of one. Sophocles writes tragedies, which are named after the tragic hero in each specific play. As in Oedipus Rex, the piece of theatre is named after the tragic hero, Oedipus. Thus only clarifying why Sophocles named one of his plays Antigone, the title being based off of the main tragic hero role. Antigone is a more appropriate title for the play Antigone because of Antigone’s immense bravery and individuality in behalf of her late brother, creating the plot in the play due...
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...Antigone vs Martin Luther King Jr in rhetoric Should we truly be punished for breaking laws that break moral code? According to Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr the answer appears to be no. They both defend their actions that break the rules yet favor different rhetorical devices. Throughout Antigone’s speech she seems to favor pathos to convey her reason to break a law. When explaining her actions she evokes the emotion in her audience by explaining what would have happened if she had follow the laws she would have allowed her “own mothers son to not”, then explains how it would “have been agony”, the perspective draws an emotional response that she hopes to use as empathy. When threatened death as a punishment she expresses that if she “is to die before her time” that she would “consider that a gain”. She again uses pathos to draw motion from the king by explaining that death would be worth her action. This adds a more dramatic moment which in turn causes more emotion. Unlike Antigone Martin Luther King Jr uses logic through logos to make his argument after being called an “extremist” he explains this is not always a bad thing....
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...the story, Antigone, all character’s emotion influence their way of acting. Antigone’s loyalty got in her way and broke the law. She went against Creon’s law and buried Polyneices. Creon’s anger made him blind against reason. He wouldn’t listen to anybody. Haimon’s love for Antigone made him go against his father. He ended up killing himself at the end. Antigone’s loyalty and pride led her to her downfall. She went against Creon’s Law on not burying Polyneices.She still did these because of her loyalty to her family and the god’s laws. She only wanted to be remembered for burying Polyneices.She didn’t let Ismene help her or take any guilt for it. After doing all these, she ended up locked in a vault for the rest of her life. She ended...
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...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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...reason should hold a larger importance over passion in choices, despite following emotions being the norm, and today the same belief still holds. In Antigone, Sophocles cleverly weaves his view of logic holding greater importance over passion. The two main characters, Antigone and Creon, destroy their own lives because of their decisions affected by emotion and their...
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...Characters in Antigone has to choose between society or their conscience. Sometimes society is right, and sometimes their conscience is right. Either way, there still is going to be an effect on the character’s life. Antigone characters have difficult choices, and are in a tough situation. Most of the characters choose their conscience, which leads to a lot of deaths. Creon has a difficult choice to make, burying Polyneices, or not burying him. Creon doesn't bury Polyneices. He picks his conscience over society. The law is that you have to bury the dead, but Creon chooses not to bury Polyneices. You have to bury the dead, so that the person can go to heaven. Creon knows that he is supposed to bury the dead, but he goes with his conscience. He’s not going to bury Polyneices because, he fought against his own country, Thebes. Because Creon didn’t bury Polyneices, the effect is that Antigone buried him. That made him mad because Antigone went against what he had said. Because Creon didn’t bury Polyneices, and picked his conscience, the Gods punished him by corrupting his life. His son died and his wife died. Creon picked his conscience over society, and over the Gods, and he got punished. Antigone...
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...8 August 2014 A Critique of Antigone The story of Antigone, by ancient Grecian author Sophocles, is a tale of two conflicting systems of law and morality. On one side of the parallel there is Antigone, Oedipus daughter, who defies stately law by obeying divine law, and on the other there is Creon who is the enforcer of rule in the city and ignores the laws of the divine. Which system was in the wrong? In the case of Antigone, she is charged with the responsibility of giving the last rights and burial to her brother so that his spirit may move on to the other realm. In everyday circumstance in that time the responsible to bury the dead remained a right and duty of the family unit; however, Antigone’s brother was ruled to be considered an enemy of the state because he led a band of rebels to overthrow the government and gain the thrown from his own brother. Creon thus decrees that his body be left to the dogs without mourning. Despite the obvious consequences of breaking the law, Antigone attempts to bury her brother under the belief that the family unit’s law and personal moral law has more power than that of the state. In regards to Creon, he decrees that the body of Antigone’s brother should be left to rot for the vultures without a proper burial. Antigone’s brother led a group to overthrown his brother and gain the thrown. The aftermath leaves both brothers dead and the thrown to Creon. It is important to note that Creon declares Antigone brother traitorous because he...
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...Antigone - Pride and Conflict of Law Sophocles' Antigone, in its later phases is no longer about the conflict of law; It is about stubbornness and self will, about the sin of refusing to listen; about a man who has never been told. Conflict of law, presents the initial disturbance within Thebes. Creon, King of Thebes, refuses to bury the body of Polynices, for in his eyes Polynices is 'his country's enemy' Antigone pg.131. Thus, despite breaking the laws of the gods, Creon holds his power higher than that of God and heavens and enforces his law. As the story follows, Sophocles expands on the ignorance presented by Creon and Antigone, and it is also found that it is impossible to defeat an ignorant man, or woman in argument. It is this ignorance, that establishes the notion of the sin and punishment that both Creon and Antigone face due to their stubbornness and self will. Antigone holds her love of family, and respect to the dead, elevated beyond the laws of Creon, whom she believes, has no righteous justification to close his eyes to the honor of the deceased. In her determination to fulfill Polynices' rights, she runs directly into Creon's attempts to re-establish order. This leads to encounters of severe conflict between the dissimilarities of the two, creating a situation whereby both Creon and Antigone expose their stubbornness and self will. It is Antigone's morals, which drive her to betray the laws of man, in order to honor the laws...
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...help the dead.” says Antigone. Antigone is brave. When she was caught she didn’t cry and wasn’t afraid. Her actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character to the point of these two characters having conflicting motivations. These conflicting motivations cause the characteristics of her sister, Ismene, Creon’s guard, and Creon’s son, Haemon. This all started when the guard found Antigone breaking laws, he took her to Creon, then the conflict started. It all started with Ismene, she tried defending her sister, Antigone. She tried telling Creon that Antigone did it for good reasons and not to just break laws. Creon tried to sentence Antigone to punishment but Ismene wouldn’t allow that to happen. She kept conflicting with Creon to not sentence Antigone to anything. She wanted to save her sister. Creon wasn’t listening to Ismene though, he completely...
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...“Who knows? In the world below perhaps such actions are no crime,” (lines 795-96) Antigone retorts when Creon labels her brother as ‘evil’ for fighting against Thebes. Throughout the play, good and evil-right and wrong, influence many of the character’s words and actions. Likewise, as the plot progresses, Creon is educated on a sense of justice not known by many kings; righteous justice. And through his interactions with Antigone, the king is informed of the sense of justice he had overlooked for so long. But by the time he realizes the fatal flaw, his entire life had already spiraled out of control. Antigone’s sense of justice lied with that of the gods; whereas, Creon’s lied with the laws he had set forth and the belief that anything that stood against his laws was evil. “Zeus did not announce those laws to me. And justice living with the gods below sent no such laws for men.” (lines 509-10) Antigone states to Creon in an effort to show that his laws were feeble in comparison to that of the gods. However,...
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...Antigone, a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles and translated by Ruby Blondell, is a story in which the “hero” (Antigone) is easily praised and the “enemy” (Kreon) is easily hated. It is human nature to root for the underdog, or the one who is being wronged, and not give the other side a chance. The very opening scene of the play immediately shows us the thoughts and feelings of Antigone, and her hatred towards Kreon. This almost forces the audience to side with Antigone because we are given no insight to Kreon’s point of view until later on when it is almost too late. However, after a careful examination of the play, I developed more respect and sympathy for Kreon than I did Antigone, just by further studying their motives behind their actions....
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...believe is right. In the book Antigone by Sophocles, King Creon must decide whether to kill Antigone after she has broken the law by burying her brother. Creon originally decides to kill her by public stoning, but eventually decides to bury her alive so his people would not get upset, his people disagree with him and think that she should receive an award for what she has done. Although Creon is consistent, he is too unfair and unsympathetic towards his people, which makes him a weak leader. Though Creon did many things wrong, one of the few things he did right was being consistent. Creon followed the law, he made and punished as he saw fit. For example, Creon penalized Antigone for breaking the law, even though they are related. Creon could have...
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