Ultimately, her main argument is that “It is the dead, / Not the living, who make the longest demands: / We die forever….” (2.58-60). Antigone relies solely on her beliefs in the divine law and that in the end, when she dies, the gods will be more important than the city in which she lived. Never did she doubt the god’s ways even though it went against civil law and the approval of her sister. In regards to Creon’s ruling on the death of her brother she states, “Which of us can say what the gods hold wicked?” (2.116). Her preference for divine law is shown here as well because she’s implying that Creon has no authority to judge what the gods will end up judging.
Antigone’s tragic flaw is that she is too passionate and strong-willed for her own good. She insists on burying her brother, Polyneices, even when the king forbade it. When asked why she ignored his demand Antigone replied, “I dared. It was not God’s proclamation” (783, 64-65). Antigone is telling Creon that rather than listen to his man made laws that she would rather follow the higher authority of the God’s.
This shows sign of pride on standing up for her family pride. Antigone chooses to sacrifice herself to give her brother respect. By giving him a burial, she is setting his soul at rest so it may continue to Death peacefully. By burying Polynices, Antigone hands her life to Creon because the punishment for defying his orders is death. But, Antigone does not complain.
And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory. I will lie with the one I love and loved by him”(Sophocles, line 85). In her eyes, she believed that the burial was sacred and thought that Creon had to authority to refuse Polynices
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, chooses to unlawfully bury her brother, Polyneices, even though it may pose a risk to her own life, thus exemplifying true loyalty. Sophocles allows the reader to understand that when prioritizing one’s actions and ideas, loyalty to family should always come before civil obedience. Loyalty to family is an on-going essential component in mankind’s value system. While Antigone is attempting to persuade Ismene to assist her in unlawfully burying Polyneices’ body, she confronts Ismene, “And now you can prove what you are: A true sister, or a traitor to your family” (Prologue. l. 26-27).
Marilyn, who held a strong will to live, steadily accepts the fact that she must be released. The feeling of guilt showers over her as Barton informs her about the reality that her being there influences “the life of not one person but the lives of many.” (6) Her beg for mercy decelerates as she ponders about the seven other people’s lives that have to be sacrificed if she clings for her life. Her will to write her family letters depicts her acceptance towards death and her love she feels towards her family. Before she dies, she is given the opportunity to talk to her brother, Gerry. Both Gerry and Marilyn feel venerable to her death because they don’t have the power to alter the law of science.
(71) Antigone knows its illegal to bury her brother but for the sake of whats right she must. For example, when she says she will die a noble death” for I shall not not suffer aught so dread as an ignoble death.” She said to Ismene she would die noble. Ismene
One characteristic both Antigone and James Bevel have in common is that they never give up and are willing to see through things to the end. For example, in Antigone we see Antigone choosing to bury her brother, which disobeys Creon’s law, and reburying him for he has been dug up from the first time. This shows how Antigone made up her resolve and decided to give Polyneices a proper burial rite and goes through until she is satisfied with what has been done. Similarly, throughout James Bevel’s lifetime, Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the middle of a speech in Memphis, Tennessee. In spite of this, Bevel still sought for the Civil Rights Movement.
“This is the expiation…for the sin of my [your] father.” She is abiding in the wills of the gods and respects all their laws. “All must go the way that lies before me.” The chorus honour her before her death; they say that she is “unmarred by the hand of consuming sickness.” They are highly respectful of her beauty and pride, and are speaking with admiration and awe. Antigone’s tragedy comes because of her unswerving loyalty to her brother Polynices, and her determination to give him a burial despite the personal danger. Her defiance and disregard of Creon leads him
To fulfill ones ethical obligation at the expense of being shunned by others and the threat of being ostracized by neighbors and citizens throughout the community demonstrates a strong and confident sense of moral duty. Once Antigone made a promise to her brother that he would be buried, it then became her moral duty to follow through with that promise. Creon thought that he possessed the authority to determine who got buried and who went to the underworld, when clearly it is not at his discretion – it is the Gods who decide. The consequences of Antigone’s actions were not anything to look forward to, but she made the right decision when she carried out her promise to her brother and fulfilled her duty to the family by burying Polynices and making sure that he made