Antigone The Relationship Between Brother And Sister Analysis

In the section “The Ethical Order” in the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel argues that the harmonious structure of Greek ethical life involved a division of ethical duties between the sexes, a division that has been suitably identified by Kelly Oliver as containing misogynist elements. My intention for this paper is to reveal that Hegel’s conception of guilt is an example of the contradictory role of the feminine in the ethical order. In order to make this case, I will analyze Hegel’s description of the role of the family in the Greek world. In particular, I plan to examine his account of the relationship between brother and sister in conjunction with his analysis of Antigone. Finally, I will argue that women cannot consciously know their own …show more content…
This relation is not tainted by desires and love like that of the husband and wife relation. Moreover, according to Hegel, it is a symmetrical relationship, unlike that of parents and children. This desireless relation between brother and sister is the only relationship that allows the possibility of mutual recognition, thus, it is the only relationship that is properly ethical. The brother-sister relation is a balanced relationship that has “reached a state of rest and equilibrium” (M457). Thus, the duties of the siblings in the brother-sister relation are ethical. It is the sister who has the highest ethical duty to see that her brother gets a proper burial. This duty that the sister has to her brother is an intuitive knowledge. She is not conscious of her duty as ethical. As Hegel writes, “the feminine, in the form of the sister, has the highest intuitive awareness of what is ethical. She does not attain to consciousness of it, or to the objective existence of it, because the law of the Family is an implicit, inner essence which is not exposed to the daylight of consciousness, but remains an inner feeling and the divine element that is exempt from an existence in the real world” …show more content…
Antigone is ethically obliged to provide her brother, Polynices, a proper burial. The character of Antigone is an example of how blood-relations function as an ethical duty and the tradition of burial rites. Antigone saves her brothers body from nature by burying him. This act of ethical duty makes sure that he is recognized as social and ethical. Furthermore, Antigone is also an example of the unconscious, intuited inner feelings for she is compelled from within to bury to brother. She fulfills her divine ethical duty to her brother and the family by burying her brother. She defies the human law in order to bind her brother to the community. Although she acts out of intuition, Hegel argues that Antigone suffers because she acknowledges her guilt before the civil