Examples Of Antigone In The Burial At Thebes

In this paper I am going to analyze Antigone’s argument for when and why one should break the law. There are so many words that you could use to describe Antigone in the book, The Burial at Thebes. She is a passionate, prideful, and outspoken woman in a time when women were not able to be, especially not to ruler of Thebes, Creon. You could make the argument that love is a good reason to break the law, but I believe that Antigone’s religious faith is what really makes her feel that it is okay to break the law. The book, The Burial At Thebes, written by Seamus Heaney, starts off with a bang. Antigone and her sister, Ismene, are outside talking about the situation at hand. Ismene breaks the news in the book when she states to Antigone that, “Our two brothers are dead” (6). The worst part about it was the rules and laws the Ruler of Thebes put in place. Two people had died, but only one was allowed to be buried by law. Antigone and Ismene’s brother, Polyneices, was denied a proper burial. Antigone states that, “Word has come down from Creon. There’s to be no lying to rest, no

“Not for a husband, not even for a son would I have broken the law. Another husband I could always find and have other sons by him is one were lost. But with my father gone, and my mother gone, where can I find another brother, ever” (54)? She states here that she only would break the law for her brother because it’s her last one and that she needs to honor him and the family name. I feel that here she may slightly question what would happen to her in the afterlife, but she still will have to face the gods. In my opinion it is immoral of her to not care as much about her own son and husband. With someone as set in her ways as she is you think that she would be all for saving all of her family. She says that her penalty is up to the gods and that it really is not up to