Similarities Between Antigone And Letter From Birmingham Jail

Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey governmental laws in order to do or change something (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Sophocles’ Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” both described civil disobedience within situations which they were the oppressed. However, Antigone and King engaged in civil disobedience in different ways. Antigone chose to disobey the law solely because of her religious views, she knew that her disobedience could lead to others’ suffering, but she was unwilling to abandon her plan, and her attitude toward the people against her was crude and stubborn. King, in contrast, based his disobedience more on logical reasoning and allusions, then he proposed a nonviolent action so his disobedience would not hurt others, and he respected those who were against him with his collected tone throughout the letter.

Sophocles’ Antigone committed civil disobedience by burying her brother, Polynices, against King Kreon’s order. Antigone’s defiance was solely based on her religious views. Furthermore, Antigone knew that her disobedience would lead to the

She believed that God’s laws were higher than man’s laws so she was ‘pleasing those [she] should please most’ (Blondell, 23). While arguing with her sister, Ismene, about breaking the law, Antigone demonstrated her determination to bury her brother because she knew that it was the moral thing to do, regardless of the deadly outcome. She was willing to perform the ‘crime of piety’ (Blondell, 23) – the crime that was ‘honored by the gods’ (Blondell, 23). To her, following God’s laws was the most justified even if it meant that she had to break man’s laws, because the God’s laws were ‘not for now or yesterday, but live forever’ (Blondell, 38). Her violation of the law only was to satisfy her faith in God, and to maintain the moral that she thought God demanded of her, but not for anyone else’s