In Antigone, the titular character buries the body of her brother, Polynices, despite a declaration from Creon that no one shall bury him or else they will face death as well. Antigone believes that divine law, the right of all bodies to be buried, is greater than Creon’s law. She also claims she could not leave the body and live on in grief and she is not afraid of death. Antigone makes the right choice in sacrificing her life to bury her brother because she makes Creon a better person, does what she knows is right, and receives eternal benefits.
Antigone’s decision to bury Polynices makes Creon a better person after she faces death for her disobedience of Creon’s decree. He initially is ready to punish her by death for her crime, but after talking to the chorus, decides to have mercy on her. Creon states, “How hard, abandonment of my desire! But I can fight necessity no more” (61). He still wants to leave Polynices unburied because of his betrayal, but he realizes the gods will not allow this. Antigone restores the balance of power between gods and mortals by showing Creon and the people of Thebes that Creon’s law is not
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She pleases the gods by honoring their wishes and sending Polynices off to the underworld. The benefits that Antigone will receive in the afterlife by burying Polynices are everlasting, whereas the benefits from not burying Polynices would have been mortal and temporary. Antigone would have died whether she buried Polynices or not; her choice, however, ensures that she would be righteous in the eyes of the gods. Antigone’s courage grants her immortality in the sense that she is still well-known thousands of years later. She becomes a martyr for what she believes in through her willing death. By burying Polynices, Antigone is immortalized not only through her afterlife, but also through the remembrance she receives from college freshmen who read Antigone in seminars