Sophocles' "Antigone", though written during the very first democracy of Athens, is a perfect example of the philosophy of civil disobedience that resembles many social struggles in recent history. The word "disobedience" itself normally brings about a negative and punishable effect. However, people can still rationalize some forms of civil disobedience – exactly what Antigone, the protagonist in "Antigone", demonstrates. If so, when is civil disobedience justified? Through "Antigone", civil disobedience can be justified in acts which abide to individual conscience and ethical values set forth by divine laws and in case of democratic injustice and tyranny.
             Antigone's personality and values are sketched briefly in the first dialogue. She plans to give her brother Polynices a decent burial which is against King Creon's decree. She knows well that she has violated the state's law by burying her brother. However, Antigone understands that by doing so, she is "guilty of the holiest crime" (l. 82). Thus, we can realize that Antigone places her conscience and ethical values upon divine laws. She then allegedly carries out an act against King Creon's state law; but it is also an act in accordance to her own conscience. Getting caught burying her brother and brought in to face the establisher of the decree, while King Creon consistently upholds his law, Antigone represents a threat to the king's status quo. She invokes divine law in defense of her action while downplaying Creon's decree as a lesser edict. Antigone suggests that "it was not Zeus who gave [the state laws] forth" (l. 493) and demoralizes Creon's decree since it is "coming from mortal man" (l. 497). After all, Antigone feels that not only "the unwritten laws of God" (l. 498) cannot be altered, "nor can man assign" it (l. 500).
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