Antigone
The distinction between right and wrong is rarely as simple as it seems; there are often differing values of what constitutes right and wrong among individuals, and therefore it becomes a matter of finding who is more right than the other is. In the play "Antigone" by Sophocles, Creon and Antigone have distinctly conflicting values. They both base their actions on their personal beliefs of right and wrong, but unfortunately, the ideals that back up their actions clash with each other creating an opposition of morals and making it difficult to conclude who is more right out of the two. Creon has a very strong allegiance to the laws of the city, while Antigone answers to a higher power. Creon feels that all people under his rule must abide by the laws set forth by him and not follow any others, regardless of a person's own moral or religious convictions. Antigone, on the other hand, feels that the laws of the gods and the devotion to family should come before any human-made laws. This conflict of ideals comes to pass when Creon orders that Polyneices, Antigone's brother, is not to be buried because of dishonorable conduct toward the city of Thebes, and anyone caught trying to bury him will be executed.
What he does not realize, is that this ideal does not give him the right to control humans in the afterlife; which is precisely what he is trying to do by denying Polyneices his burial rights. Therefore, if Polyneices is not punished, then the people of Thebes would question Creon's power. Antigone follows her heart and does what she feels his true and just according to the gods, while Creon adheres strictly to human laws with little regard for a higher power. Creon feels that without a strong leader such as himself, anarchy among the people is inevitable; the laws of the gods are not enough to keep everyone aligned. She declares, "For had I lost a son, or lost a husband, never would I have ventured such an act against the city's will. But since my mother and father have both gone to the grave, there can be none henceforth that I can ever call my brother"(Sophocles 907-914). His denial of Antigone's right to perform a religious ceremony clearly goes against the Greek ideal of freedom of religion, and his refusal to take advice and release Antigone goes against the wishes of his people (Foley 185). Antigone and Creon have different yet valid ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Once Creon realizes that he stands alone in support of his law, and he ends up suffering because of it, he echoes Antigone's earlier words with, "it's best to keep the established laws to the very day we die," (Sophocles 1237). Creon does not seem able to comprehend the full and reliable knowledge of the circumstances and characters involved in a particular situation (Foley 184). Although she died, Antigone's victory is made apparent in the end when she gets to live out eternity with the gods, and Creon is left to suffer and lament the loss of his family alone on earth. Hence he tends to see the world in terms of harshly opposed categories, right and wrong, reason and folly. The loss of a brother is greater to Antigone than the loss of any other kind because her brother is irreplaceable. Yet, in the end Antigone is more in the right than Creon, because she understands that it isn't worth following a human-made law, which only affects her for a short period of time, over a higher law made by the gods, which will affect her and her family for all of eternity.
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