Antigone And Creon Essay

More than any other character in Sophocle’s plays, Antigone shows an inordinate sense of pride and willpower. Antigone’s brother Polynices was killed in battle against the king Creon. Creon’s orders forbid anyone from burying Polynices after the war because he feels Polynices was a traitor to Creon. Antigone disagrees with Creon, however, and buries her brother’s body properly to be received by the gods. Each is certain of their own integrity; they each believe in the rightness of their position. Inflexibility is also a trait of them both, and because of their refusal to see anything beyond their own judgement or to admit to error, they denounce themselves to suffering, failure, and impending doom.

Although her sister Ismene begs her to stop and reassess her actions, she defies her and follows her judgment. Her brave move against the king’s orders set her aside from any other woman in Greek society. Creon becomes intimidated by her and even recognizes her as having the will and ethos of a man. In Greek society, women had few rights and hardly moved from their place next to men. Antigone defies all stereotypes and traditional images of women in Greek society. Creon feels she is a menace to him and eventually sentences her to death for treason.

When questioned, she doesn’t deny her actions. In her heart, she trusts her actions were not apostate and was willing to risk her life for Polynices. That they both have strong reasons for their actions is evident, as is the competence of each to support his or her point of view in regard to law. The distinction between them however, is that Antigone appeals to divine law, whereas Creon appeals to man-made law. They are both ultimately right, but then again you have to place a bit of blame on them too merely because they're both to pigheaded to look at things in another way. Hegel's judgement is a valid