Conflict Between King Creon And Trisane In Sophocles Antigone

There is often a direct conflict between the laws of the state, and the laws of the divine in the matters of the court. In Sophocles’ Antigone, there is a conflict between King Creon and Antigone as they disagree on how Antigone’s brother’s body should be dealt with. Creon declares that Patroclus’s body will remain unburied - food for the wild dogs - since he was a traitor, but Antigone thinks she should have the right to bury his body and let him pass on to the afterlife. Although both show promise in their arguments, Antigone is more correct because everyone should have the right to follow the laws of the religion they believe in, she owns that her actions disobeyed a law and accepts the consequences, and the duty that she has to her family …show more content…
Rather than pleading innocence, or running away, Antigone fully accepts the consequences of her actions and faces her King ready to accept her fate. She knew before she committed the act that she was going against the state law, and that if she was caught, Creon would sentence her to death: “[die] I must I’ve known it all my life / […] even without / your death-sentence ringing in my ears” (82.512-514). She chose though, that dying early for her brother was more honourable than dying later and leaving her brother to be stuck in limbo for eternity. Yet, her actions hardly seem to deserve the strict punishment of death as her actions were illegal but built off of ethical reasoning. Even though Antigone knows that her position is morally correct, she still fully accepts her death, determined by the ruling of Creon. Her death, therefore, turns her into a martyr: “see what I suffer now / [...] all for reverence, my reverence for the gods!” (107.1032-1034). Antigone’s sentencing creates a deep sympathetic connection between the civilians, and the reader, as her actions were pure in motive and peaceful in nature, but received a needlessly violent repercussion. Thus, Creon’s sentencing of Antigone’s death can be compared to the way in which he rules: he emphasizes his power by trying to control the weak. He also showed this behaviour when he first declared to leave Patroclus’s body as he sentenced him to suffer for eternity in limbo and Patroclus did not have the ability to overpower him or to defend himself. By choosing to rule his kingdom in this way, Creon shows his Tyrant nature as a leader, which contrasts with Antigone’s martyr status: emphasizing the violent nature of his argument and the humanity within