If your sibling called you one night, begging for you to lie to the police about their whereabouts on the night of an infamous bank robbery, how far would your familial duty to help them push against your civil duty to do the right thing? The issue in Sophocles’s Antigone is thus: a sibling choosing to follow her heart over the law and a man who chooses the law over his family. There is never a time when choosing between loved ones and the law is simple, but compared to each option, which is more essential? Sophocles uses the Chorus’ commentary, in addition to Creon and Antigone’s equally justified viewpoints, to empathize how familial love and civil duties are equally important.
In the recently war torn Thebes, Creon steps up as a leader, playing the valiant king who dictates for the good of his polis, regardless of the personal costs. As king, Creon does what is expected of him as a ruler and …show more content…
Foregoing forgiveness and sympathy, Creon takes the city-state’s prosperity fully upon his shoulders, declaring, “Never at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state, I’ll praise that man in death as well as life” (232-35). Creon’s commitment to his duty conveys his ideology that, in order to achieve justice, the city’s laws belong before everything else. This commitment defines Creon as a man who is willing to forgo his own familial duties in order to support integrity, and when faced with Antigone’s case, strengthens his idea that the law is the only way to find prosperity. Furthermore, during his argument with Haemon, Creon antagonizes and ridicules his son for expressing a viewpoint that he renders as harmful to the people. Creon’s ultimatum on justice blinds him from Haemon’s declaration, a prophecy of his son’s death: “Then she will die…but her death will kill another” (843).
In the recently war torn Thebes, Creon steps up as a leader, playing the valiant king who dictates for the good of his polis, regardless of the personal costs. As king, Creon does what is expected of him as a ruler and …show more content…
Foregoing forgiveness and sympathy, Creon takes the city-state’s prosperity fully upon his shoulders, declaring, “Never at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state, I’ll praise that man in death as well as life” (232-35). Creon’s commitment to his duty conveys his ideology that, in order to achieve justice, the city’s laws belong before everything else. This commitment defines Creon as a man who is willing to forgo his own familial duties in order to support integrity, and when faced with Antigone’s case, strengthens his idea that the law is the only way to find prosperity. Furthermore, during his argument with Haemon, Creon antagonizes and ridicules his son for expressing a viewpoint that he renders as harmful to the people. Creon’s ultimatum on justice blinds him from Haemon’s declaration, a prophecy of his son’s death: “Then she will die…but her death will kill another” (843).