Both Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. engage in civil disobedience in order to further their own interests. However while Antigone engages in civil disobedience on the basis of sacred or divine laws, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. engages in disobedience based on the moral rights of equality. King uses nonviolent protest to achieve his goals, while Antigone outright breaks laws set by king Creon. Also, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a big following to his cause with a large group of people who support him, while Antigone is alone in her cause with only her family having similar beliefs to her. Antigone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are from very different time periods than each other, which plays a big role in their intentions to disobey unjust laws.
Antigone believes that civil disobedience is …show more content…
She believes that the law of the gods is superior to any other law, even though Creon, the new king of Thebes, orders that Polyneices body is not to be buried as punishment for his wrongdoings. Antigone knew that by burying her brother, she would be put to death, yet she felt so strongly about doing the right thing in the eyes of the gods that she had to go and bury her brother anyway (Sophocles 37). Antigone’s civil disobedience of the law is very direct. Instead of trying to protest the unfair treatment of Polyneices’ body and get together a group of people to try and get the law to be changed, she favors direct action and does the burial ritual as well as covering the body with dirt against the rules of king Creon. It is not only the rules of the gods that influences Antigone’s civil disobedience, but also her brotherly love for Polyneices. This is why it is only her and her siblings who think it is so horrible that Polyneices is being denied burial rights, and not the whole population of Thebes. This is one aspect that makes Antigone’s disobedience so much different than Martin Luther Kings’ disobedience. It is not a large
Antigone believes that civil disobedience is …show more content…
She believes that the law of the gods is superior to any other law, even though Creon, the new king of Thebes, orders that Polyneices body is not to be buried as punishment for his wrongdoings. Antigone knew that by burying her brother, she would be put to death, yet she felt so strongly about doing the right thing in the eyes of the gods that she had to go and bury her brother anyway (Sophocles 37). Antigone’s civil disobedience of the law is very direct. Instead of trying to protest the unfair treatment of Polyneices’ body and get together a group of people to try and get the law to be changed, she favors direct action and does the burial ritual as well as covering the body with dirt against the rules of king Creon. It is not only the rules of the gods that influences Antigone’s civil disobedience, but also her brotherly love for Polyneices. This is why it is only her and her siblings who think it is so horrible that Polyneices is being denied burial rights, and not the whole population of Thebes. This is one aspect that makes Antigone’s disobedience so much different than Martin Luther Kings’ disobedience. It is not a large