Reasons for antigones disobedience in antigone a tragedy by sophocles

He is here warned that it is, but he defends it and insults the prophet of the Gods. Tiresias warns that all of Greece will despise him, and that the sacrificial offerings of Thebes will not be accepted by the gods, but Creon merely dismisses him as a corrupt old fool.

Ismene serves as a foil for Antigone, presenting the contrast in their respective responses to the royal decree.

In this play, Creon is not presented as a monster, but as a leader who is doing what he considers right and justified by the state. Beginnings are important to Heidegger, and he considered those two lines to describe primary trait of the essence of humanity within Reasons for antigones disobedience in antigone a tragedy by sophocles all other aspects must find their essence.

Should Polyneices, who committed a serious crime that threatened the city, be given burial rituals, or should his body be left unburied as prey for scavenging animals? He is often interpreted as a close advisor to the King, and therefore a close family friend.

She hesitates to bury Polyneices because she fears Creon. The two men are soon bitterly insulting each other and eventually Haemon storms out, vowing never to see Creon again. Antigone does not deny that Polyneices has betrayed the state, she simply acts as if this betrayal does not rob him of the connection that he would have otherwise had with the city.

His argument says that had Antigone not been so obsessed with the idea of keeping her brother covered, none of the deaths of the play would have happened. Antigone believes that there are rights that are inalienable because they come from the highest authority, or authority itself, that is the divine law.

Those two lines are so fundamental that the rest of the verse is spent catching up with them. It is through these same words that we glimpse why Antigone thinks she is right.

The city is of primary importance to the chorus. A sentry enters, fearfully reporting that the body has been given funeral rites and a symbolic burial with a thin covering of earth, though no one who actually committed the crime saw this.

She expresses her regrets at not having married and dying for following the laws of the gods. Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to obey civil laws as a way of securing reforms. In Antigone, the hubris of Creon is revealed.


Antigone believes that there is a higher law than the law of the state. Sophocles wants to warn his countrymen about hubris, or arrogance, because he believes this will be their downfall.

His interpretation is in three phases: Herodotus discussed how members of each city would collect their own dead after a large battle to bury them. Natural law and contemporary legal institutions[ edit ] In Antigone, Sophocles asks the question, which law is greater: It is clear how he feels about these two values in conflict when encountered in another person, Antigone: Despite her innocence, Ismene is also summoned and interrogated and tries to confess falsely to the crime, wishing to die alongside her sister, but Antigone insists on shouldering full responsibility.

Tiresias warns Creon that Polyneices should now be urgently buried because the gods are displeased, refusing to accept any sacrifices or prayers from Thebes.

For Creon, the fact that Polyneices has attacked the city effectively revokes his citizenship and makes him a foreigner. Man is deinon in the sense that he is the terrible, violent one, and also in the sense that he uses violence against the overpowering.

The order he valued so much has been protected, and he is still the king, but he has acted against the gods and lost his children and his wife as a result. In the opening scene, she makes an emotional appeal to her sister Ismene saying that they must protect their brother out of sisterly love, even if he did betray their state.

The chorus is sympathetic to Antigone only when she is led off to her death. Portrayed as wise and full of reason, Tiresias attempts to warn Creon of his foolishness and tells him the gods are angry. Most of the arguments to save her center on a debate over which course adheres best to strict justice.

Since he is a citizen of Thebes, it would have been natural for the Thebans to bury him. The terrible calamities that overtake Creon are not the result of his exalting the law of the state over the unwritten and divine law which Antigone vindicates, but are his intemperance which led him to disregard the warnings of Tiresias until it was too late.

Creon demands obedience to the law above all else, right or wrong. He commits suicide after finding Antigone dead.

Why is Antigone a tragedy?

Characters[ edit ] Antigonecompared to her beautiful and docile sister, is portrayed as a heroine who recognizes her familial duty.Antigone is a tragedy because, following Aristotle's definition of a tragedy, it imitates an action that has serious consequences.

The play is about the ability or inability of a citizen to defy the wishes of the state and to prioritize one's family over the state. Reasons for Antigone's Disobedience in Antigone, a Tragedy by Sophocles PAGES 1.

WORDS View Full Essay. More essays like this: sophocles, antigone, antigone's disobedience. Not sure what I'd do without @Kibin - Alfredo Alvarez, student @ Miami University. Exactly what I needed. Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before BC.


Exploration of Civil Disobedience in Sophocles' Antigone, King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Plato's From Crito Words 3 Pages Civil disobedience spawns a major and widely debated issue by many who established by well-known intelligent scholars and many examples of civil disobedience become displayed.

Spoken by Antigone. This statement depicts her strong belief in upholding Natural Law over State Law.

Antigone and Civil Disobedience

From her point of view, she deserves 'praise and honor' for going against State Law (Creon's decree) and burying her brother, Polyneices, which was the 'right and moral' thing to do.

“Antigone” is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, written around BCE. Although it was written before Sophocles ’ other two Theban plays, chronologically it comes after the stories in “Oedipus the King” and “Oedipus at Colonus”, and it picks up where Aeschylus ' play “Seven Against Thebes” ends.

Reasons for antigones disobedience in antigone a tragedy by sophocles
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