Pub1: Love, Religion and Law.
Love, Religion and Law.
Antigone is a tale about a woman who willingly to challenge the
impossible, fueled by her belief, and ready to exchange her life and
devotes herself to religion. It also acts as a cautionary tale for the
people who are religious that you should not forget about religion.
The
titular main character, Antigone not only serves as the gospel of the
religion, but she also serves as a sister who thinks that her family
blood ties have values “But for myself, I myself will bury him. It will
be good to die so doing. I shall lie by his side, loving him as he loved
me; I shall be a criminal but a religious one.” (Antigone 82-85).
Throughout the play, she consistently tries to challenge Creon, the
king’s view that he should not let his own ambition and vengeance blind
his decisions. She said to Creon “Yes, it was not Zeus that made the
proclamation; nor did Justice, which lives with those below, enact such
laws as that for mankind. I did not believe that your proclamation had
such power to enable one who will someday die to override God’s
ordinance, unwritten and secure.” (Antigone 494-499)
The
decisions that Creon made were purely to honor his own fallen warrior,
Eteocles, and to keep Thebes in check He stated “He will stand on his
country’s side, faithful and just, in the storm of battle. There is
nothing worse than disobedience to authority.” (Creon 722-725). However
due to that belief he had, he completely disregards his own family,
including his son, who challenged Creon just because he stood by
Antigone’s side. With the quote by Creon directed towards Haemon, his
own son “Your nature is vile, in yielding to a woman.” (Creon 803)
The conflict is that even with all the odds that placed against
Antigone, she still strong, and even willing to sacrifice herself for
what she thinks is right, she clearly managed to convinced not only her
unwilling sister, Ismene, to change her heart about the issue but to die
alongside her sister, or possibly due to her guilt for not standing
with Antigone’s side “I did it, yes-if she will say I did it. I bear my
share in it, bear the guilt, too.” (Ismene 589-90), but Antigone puts
all the blame on herself, saying that Ismene have chosen life at the
first place, as Antigone choose the death for herself, she told to her
own sister “Life was your choice, and death was mine.” (Antigone 609).
What she wants is to be right, which what Creon feared, to be wronged by
a female, as he stated, “We cannot give victory to a woman.” (Creon
729), or anyone else that shared their view with the women
In
the end, with a bittersweet note, with both Antigone and Haemon died,
and Creon, upon realizing what he has done, suffers the fallout of his
own blind rage towards Polyneices, as he said “Oh, the awful blindness
of those plans of mine.” (Creon 1333-1334) and “Yes, I have learned it
to my bitterness. At this moment God has sprung on my head with a vast
weight and struck me down.” (Creon 1337-1339) . It could be interpreted
as Zeus himself indirectly punishing Creon through the actions of
Antigone.