Antigone final

 

In the play 'Antigone' by Sophocles, Antigone is being punished for breaking Creon's law, and Creon suffers because of the law he made. Antigone and Creon both are loyal and have pride, they may be loyal in separate ways though, and they’re still similar. Antigone is brave in the way she accepts her punishment. Creon is strong willed in the way he won't listen to anyone else's opinion on punishing Antigone. In ways they are very similar yet very different.

 

Antigone is loyal to her family even though Creon the King of Thebes made a law against burying the traitor Polyneices.  She sets off to bury him since he is her brother.  Antigone says, “but I will bury him, and if I must die, I say this crime is holy”. pg 816 line 57-58. This quote shows how Antigone choses her family over Creon’s law, even though it is a crime. Antigone is also loyal to the gods by telling Creon that it was not Gods proclamation, that the justice that rules the world, below make no such laws.  Also that all his strength is weak against the unrecorded laws of God, showed in scene 2.  Like Antigone, Creon is also loyal, though his loyalty is to his state.  The way Creon is loyal to his state is by his saying no one shall bury Polyneices but his niece disobeys him and he stays true to his state and sentences her to death.  “More than sister’s child, or closer yet in blood, she and her sister win bitter death for this”. pg 784 line 96-98.  This shows how he knows it is his niece but does not care and punishes her anyway for defying his law.  In scene 3, Creon tells Haimon, that he will watch Antigone die.  This shows that he cares more about his state than his son’s feelings for his wife to be, Antigone.

 

 

Antigone and Creon are similar in the way they are both prideful.  The way Antigone is prideful is that she wants the citizens of Thebes to know what she has done and how burying her brother Polyneices is not a crime but is instead honorable.  “Be witnesses for me, denied all pity, unjustly judged, and think a word of love for her whose path turns”. pg 797 line 29-31.  The quote explains when she says unjustly judged, she believes what she did was right and does not accept pity because of it.  She is being prideful in the way she wants everyone to know what she has done.  Antigone in scene 2 tells Creon that she should have praise and honor for what she has done.  Creon has pride just like Antigone but, thinks he is better because he is king and will not let anything make him appear weak.  “Do you want me to show myself weak before the people or to break my sworn word? No, I will not”. pg 792 line 28-29.  This shows how he has too much pride in that he would rather kill his niece, Antigone, than to show himself weak.  Creon in scene 5, says to Teiresias  that really no matter what he says, he will not yield and is not afraid of pollution; pollution of skewed mindsets of disobeying the law. Antigone and Creon both are prideful, it may be in different ways, but they still have that similarity.

 

Antigone and Creon both deserve blame for how things ended. If Antigone had just listened to Creon’s law, then nothing would have happened.  If Creon had just listened to Antigone’s reasoning as to why she did what she did and didn’t kill her, then again nothing would have happened.  But alas, they did not. They both are responsible and must share in the blame.