Antigone Essay -- essays research papers

The opening events of the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, quickly establish the key conflict in the midst of Antigone and Creon. Creon has decreed that the traitor Polynices, who tried to burn dump the temple of gods in Thebes, must not be given tight-laced burial. Antigone is the only one who will speak against this decree and insists on the sacredness of family and a symbolic burial for her brother. Whereas Antigone sees no validity in a honor that disregards the duty family members owe one another, Creons point of view is exactly opposite. He has no use for anyone who places private ties above the common good, as he proclaims firmly to the Chorus and the audience as he revels in his conquest over Polynices. He sees Polynices as an enemy to the state be dress he attacked his brother. Creons emergegrowth speech, which is dominated by words such as "authority and " justice, shows the extent to which Creon fixates on government and law as the supreme authority. betwixt Antigone and Creon there can be no compromisethey both engender absolute validity in the respective loyalties they uphold.      In the struggle surrounded by Creon and Antigone, Sophocles audience would have recognized a genuine conflict of duties and values. From the Hellenic point of view, both Creons and Antigones positions are flawed, because both oversimplify ethical life-time by recognizing only one kind of good or duty. By oversimplifying, each ignores the fact that a conflict exists at all, or that ineptness is necessary. Moreover, both Creon and Antigone display the dangerous flaw of pride in the counsel they justify and carry out their decisions. Antigone admits right from the beginning that she wants to carry out the burial because the action is glorious. Antigone has a savage spirit she has spent nigh of her life burying her family members.      Creons pride is that of a tyrant. He is inflexible and unyielding, lot h throughout the play to listen to advice or Antigone. Creons love for the city-state cause him to abandon all other beliefs. He tries to enforce this upon the people of Thebes. He wants them to think that his laws should be followed before any other personal, moral, or spectral belief. This is where the conflict of character occurs between Antigone and Creon. Antigone knows that the sacred laws held by heaven are far more important... ...y exist within the two viewpoints, making a conclusion that a lot more difficult. Throughout the play, each character rattles run into the reasons for their actions. Both also justify their actions religiously, believing they are the ones acting hence by the gods. The entire plot is a construction of conflict between personal and social motives, a scene not uncommon in todays society. Sophocles attempts to answer the debate by ultimately demonstrate that the gods approved of Antigones motives and that Creon should have buried his nephew. But with so much unnecessary bloodshed committed at the end of the story, it is impossible to view that this is the final decision. Sophocles believed that the individual held the power and the state shouldnt have occur control over an individual. This is hardly a solution to the debate, the fact that everyone dies. Rather, it is a sign that the debate will live on for all of eternity.Beaty, Jerome., et. al. The Norton insane asylum to Literature. W.W. Norton and      Company 1998.