Antigone, one of the main characters in Sophocles' "The Three Theban Plays", is a unique character. She differs from many of the other characters in the plays in several different ways. She is a passionate, bold young woman who has suffered a great deal in her lifetime, but still desires to serve the gods. Antigone's motives, mistakes and punishments, and the justification she receives from her actions sets her apart from the other characters.
             The motives for Antigone's actions are powered by her desire to serve the gods. When Antigone decides to bury her brother, Polynices, who had fallen in battle, she tries to convince her sister, Ismene, to help her. Although Antigone is set on giving her brother proper burial rights, Ismene does not want to go against the law of the city, which states that anyone who gives burial rights to Polynices will be put to death. Antigone responds to her sister saying, "Do as you like, dishonor the laws the gods hold in honor" (lines 91, 92). Antigone is so motivated to make sure the laws of the gods are followed that she doesn't care what the punishment is for disobeying the laws of man. After Polynices is buried, Antigone is caught, and Creon, ruler of Thebes, asks Antigone if she had been bold enough to break the law he set forth. Antigone responds, saying "Of course I did. It was not Zeus, not in the least who made this proclamation--not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws from men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time and no one knows when they saw the first light" (lines 499-508). Antigone's only desire was to serve the law of the gods by giving her brother a proper burial so that in death, he ...