What Is The Difference Between Letter From Birmingham Jail And Antigone

Chris Iacono

1C70

Jim McCarthy

2 November 2015

Antigone and Martin Luther King: Civil Disobedience

In Sophocles’ Antigone and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” both Antigone and Martin Luther King fight and disobey the laws established in order to help others. They show their civil disobedience in different ways, but are defying the laws for similar purposes; to preserve human rights. Both are following the idea that the individual has the duty to defy human laws when they contradict those of higher ideals (“Letter From Birmingham Jail About the History of Civil Disobedience”). They differ in that Antigone tried to reason with Creon, but when that failed she took matters into their own hands, while Martin Luther King used nonviolent campaigns

This is related to Malcolm X and his famous line “by any means necessary.” Although she did not fight back physically, which was a strong belief by Malcolm X, Antigone stopped at no cost to achieve her goal of burying her dead brother. She tries to reason with Creon by appealing to emotion and the Theban beliefs. Polynices was not only Antigone’s brother, but also Creon’s nephew. Antigone commits this “crime of piety” because she knows that she would not be dishonoring her gods. She defies Creon’s law because she is trying to honor her brother and preserve the God-given rights of a proper burial after death (Leshak). Even though she recognizes death as the consequence for her action, Antigone fights the struggle of the individual and still feels the need to bury her brother. She does not only feel the need to bury Polynices because he is her brother, but there she strongly feels that is is her moral duty to due so in order to please the Theban gods and will only be found “guilty of the holiest crime”. Another reason that Antigone’s civil disobedience is symbolic is because she is a woman. Creon states that no woman will rule him as he lives and since Antigone loves the dead, she will join