Anitigone
In Ancient Greece, after 800 bc., new ideas came to the forefront concerning the governing of society. These ideas led to a more organized leadership and a government whose decisions were primarily based on majority rule. This system took the form of city-states, large self-governing towns. These city-states were founded on principals of "freedom, optimism, secularism, rationalism,...[and] the glorification of body and mind". Accompanying these principals was an obligation of fierce loyalty to the city-state and a willingness to shed blood for its betterment. These ideals, while ambitious and noble, often ran in stark contrast with those previously laid down by Greek gods, whose routes went back to the chaotic Dark Age of Greece(1150-800 bc.). Problems of this sort were probably commonly debated in city-states during the time Sophocles wrote "Antigone".In the play "Antigone", Antigone is faced with an extreme example of this conflict. Her Brother, considered a traitor by the king, has died, and she must decide whether to give him a proper burial or yield to the king's wishes and allow his body to be desecrated. She chooses to bury him, citing the will of the gods. "I will bury my brother, and if I die for it...convict
Antigone valued the will of the Gods over loyalty, a cornerstone of the city-state system. A policy Creon wholeheartedly endorses, "Alive or dead, the faithful servant of his country shall be rewarded. In this society, freedom and leisure time were enjoyed with the assumption that when the time came, every able bodied man would be willing to fight for his people. But the chorus' simple message seems to lack as a full explanation for Creon's fall. Her last words are, "Go I, his prisoner, because I honoured those things in which honour truly belongs. In this moment he knows he has been wrong, blinded by pride and loyalty to his state. Indeed, political leaders and local authority figures were usually heroes of war. In trying to impress his citizens it seems Creon's judgment becomes clouded and he construes the Greek ideal of loyalty into a liscence to do whatever he wants and disregard the will of the people, who are who he is supposed to serve in this "ideal" society.
Common topics in this essay:
Creon Antigone,
Ancient Greece,
Antigone Antigone,
Teiresias Sophocles,
Achilles Odysseus,
Age Greece1150-800,
creon antigone,
proper burial,
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Acceptance Essays
