Examples Of Justice In Antigone

The conditionality of burying the dead shows that gods’ law is less sacred for Antigone than she claims to be. Neither does she care about her living families. She humiliates Ismene publicly, causing Creon’s death indirectly and set her uncle Creon in a dilemma where he needs to punish his daughter-in-law. Her real incentive is individual reputation, for she excludes Ismene from standing by her and asks Ismene to spread the news about her defiant act. She seems to use religion and family as elegant reasons to achieve honor. On the contrary, Creon, as a king, weights the interest of the overall state more than his own family. After experiencing the civil war caused by Polyneices, he understands the great need of the polis for order and thus enacts harsh laws to punish people causing riots. Unanimous obedience to law would also encourage his people to fight bravely in the war by being “loyal and dauntless at his comrades’s side”. Creon has to retain the validity and effectiveness of the law, because if every citizen can pursue any personal interest without fear for grave consequences, the entire social operation mechanism would break down. Punishing Antigone is necessary to retain the order of the polis.

Antigone is a play written by Sophocles and is about a young girl named Antigone who struggles with written laws of her city, Thebes. Her uncle is King Creon and sentences her to death because she decided to bury her brother, Polynices, after it was declared that he deserved no burial. Antigone's sister, Ismene, was too afraid to go along with her. Antigone's fiancé, (who is also

Antigone, written by Sophocles and translated by Richard Emil Braun, is a Greek tragedy set in Thebes. Antigone has many themes and concepts presented, however justice is a major theme in this story. Justice has many interpretations and definitions, for example one of the definitions listed in the Webster Dictionary is “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments” (“Justice”). Another definition, or interpretation, of justice is “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair” (“Justice”). In Antigone, there are questions of justice for the characters and the extent of which justice is delivered.

In Sophocles’ Antigone, although Antigone initially feels self-pity over her impending death, she later realizes that there would be no difference between being dead and being alive in a world of hate. She expresses her unhappiness at the control others have on her life and death and attempts to gain sympathy from others. However, she later realizes that the dissatisfaction she has with life is reason enough to die, and accepts her death. In response to a lighthearted statement about her death, Antigone asks if the chorus couldn’t at least wait until she was dead to start laughing at her. She requests the men of Thebes to “Be witness for me, denied all pity,/Unjustly judged!”

When a messenger comes to Creon, bringing the news that Antigone has buried her brother, he begins his arguments why Antigone has broken the law. He begins by stating that a man shows what he is made of by his "skill in rule and law." In other words, the law is everything and as a ruler, he must do everything for his country. He considers Polyneices an enemy of the city and a threat to the security of the city as well. Thus Polyneices will be called a traitor in life and in death and dishonored. The scene when Antigone and Creon face each other is the opportunity for both to defend themselves. Creon questions Antigone. She bases her responses on that the city laws proclaiming her as illegal are not the laws of Zeus or laws proclaimed by gods, but rather, laws made by a man that one day will also die. She will honor her brother's death because this is what the gods have proclaimed for all mankind. (lines 460-463)

Antigone, a magnificent dramatic character, is a woman of courage whose actions and behavior are completely understandable in the light of modern ideology. Although, she is more ordinary rather than exceptional. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and sister to Eteocles and Polynices, she had been leading a double life when her brothers Polynices and Eteocles harmed each other treacherously in a dispute over the throne. It follows that, the person who refuses to follow orders will be sentenced to death. It’s says in Greek literature that women were only allowed to show conventional signs of sorrows that indicate the death of a person, and to obey Creons orders. For this reason, those people are obligated to obey Creon’s law because they fear the consequences if they do not intend to do so. From this point, Antigone recognizes that the law is unfair and decided to make uncompromising decisions that will cost her life entirely by going against the king. Admittedly, Antigone’s manipulations will lead to complicated decisions and away from social obligations where she has to sacrifice her life for an unjust law to correct it.

Justice. It is something that we are quite familiar with, but when asked to define it, silence usually follows. Why is something so familiar so hard to define? This is because each and every person has a different view on what is just. So, how is society able to create a justice system? Who decides on what is just? These are all questions that cause the mind to ponder. Within both of Sophocles’ tragedies, Antigone and Electra, the question of whether their actions are justified often comes up. Well, that is hard to determine because it greatly varies depending on what one considers to be just. Using knowledge of the Greek’s idea of justice from Aristotle and modern ideas of how to approach these issues, it comes to the conclusion that Antigone’s actions are justified while Electra’s are not.

Antigone is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, written around 442 B. C. The story happens when Polyneices and Eteocles, two brothers of Antigone have been killed in battle after they fight each other for the throne of Thebes after Eteocles had refused to give up the crown to his brother. Creon then resumes power and declared that Eteocles will have a proper burial with the formal rites. However, Polyneices' body will be left unburied on the battlefield for the dogs and vultures to eat, as a punishment for him. Creon declared that anyone who is burried Polyneices will be punished by death.

The conflict among individuals or among a person and a group of peoples possessing a given power has always been existed in each society. As many generations have read the renowned Greek play Antigone written by Sophocle, the conflict between Creon and Antigone, which finally not only causes the misery death of the female hero character but also leaves the grief for the tyrannical King, can be considered in various patterns from religion and politics, to command and persuasion, or rigidity and flexibility, and not limited to a gender struggle. When Antigone raised to oppose to Creon’s ordain, the fact is obvious that to prevent the collision, a mutual agreement does not simply come from the same perception, but a condition in which each side has been put in to a reasonable and resolvable state, thus be the core of the play. The complexion making Antigone a tragedy performs its fundamental principle as a lack of justice through chains of dramatic events. This interaction between Antigone and Creon has to be transparentized under a deep thinking toward three remarkable dimensions of justice: devine judgment, harmony, and natural law.

Antigone is a complex, yet debatable play, written by Sophocles somewhere around 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays, but was the first to be written. In addition, Antigone was also one of the most famous tragedies ever to be written. The setting of the play is set in front of the Palace, Thebes, and Ancient Greece. Though most Greek playwrights were from Athens, their plays are hardly ever set there. It begins with the death of two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, leading opposite sides in Thebes ’civil war. They are both killed in battle fighting for the ruling throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, declares that Eteocles is the one to be honored and Polyneices disgraced by improper burial. The punishment is that Polyneices’ body will not be buried by holy rites, and instead, it will be left unburied. Antigone and Ismene, the sisters of the brothers, are also descendants of the cursed Oedipus. Antigone is the result of the accidentally marriage between King Oedipus and his mother Jocasta. In Sophocles’ tragic play, Antigone, it was the conflict with morality and self-reassurance that drove the story along and it was the unpredictable actions of Antigone that left audiences with a feeling of confusion, yet acceptance. However, there is still much disagreement among literary critics interpreting what is the main central conflict of Antigone. Some

Within two classical works of philosophical literature, notions of justice are presented plainly. Plato’s The Republic and Sophocles’ Antigone both address elements of death, tyranny and immorality, morality, and societal roles. These topics are important elements when addressing justice, whether in the societal representation or personal representation.

Justice is a very important ruling power for both gods and mortals. For instance, in Sophocles' tragedy, Antigone,

Often, the reading of tragedy is approached as a clearly defined battle between forces of good and evil. However, G.W.F. Hegel, a German philosopher born in 1770, views Antigone as a conflict between two perspectives, those of Kreon and Antigone. By his reading, the tragic ending is not the fault of any one character, nor of the forces of good and evil; rather, it is the inevitable result of a stalemate between their conflicting moral inclinations. Any analysis of the characters of Antigone is not simply a judgment of their traits. Instead, it is an examination of their moral systems and the choices, and errors, they make within these systems. Hegel’s reading is persuasive because the moral systems of Antigone and Kreon cannot be evaluated in a way that clearly determines a victor, especially since both characters fail to adequately adhere to their own systems.

Being that Antigone is the protagonist, her character is important in the play. She made the decision to bury her brother knowing that it was against Creon’s law. Ismene refused to help Antigone, which left her angry, yet still determined to bury her brother. She knew that burying her brother could lead to her own death, but she continued to show courage, strength, and determination throughout her role. In the beginning, Antigone says, “Dear god, shout it from the rooftops. I’ll hate you all the more for silence/ tell the world!”(17,100-101). This was said to Ismene, when they were discussing burial plans and Ismene was telling Antigone that she was against the plan. Antigone’s dialogue shows that she is not worried about being punished or worried about who knows what she has done. It is clear that Antigone is sincere about honoring the gods, her actions show that she feels that she is pleasing the gods and that is all that matters to her. “These laws/ I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods.”(30, 509-511). This demonstrates how she feels about man’s law vs. divine law. In the plot, there was not one time where Antigone denied

The play begins as Antigone and her sister Ismene speak of the death of their brothers Polyneices and Eteocles. However, it is important to note that what events precluded this scene, which was sparked by Eteocles's taking reign of the Thebes after Oedipus had died. It ultimately caused Polyneices to wage a battle against his former city and drove the two brothers to kill one another (Sophocles 8). Thus, leaving Creon who was both of brother's uncle in control of the city of Thebes. Antigone and Ismene discuss the proclamation newly put forth by Creon which was due to the fact that Polyneices committed treason against Thebes he would not be granted a burial, thus foregoing the "Unwritten Law protecting the rights of the dead" (Sophocles 9). It was this decree that provoked Antigone to opposed Creon as she decides to bury Polyneices herself and she attempts to recruit Ismene to help her with this action, however, Ismene tried to persuade Antigone not to go through with the burial.