Antigone questions
3. Antigone believes that she must bury Polynices despite Creons orders because if she doesn’t, she will be going against what she believes to be morally correct. This can be seen in Antigone 1 when she is talking to Ismene and says, “And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory. I will lie with the one I love and loved by him–an outrage sacred to the gods! I have longer to please the dead than please the living here: in the kingdom down below I’ll lie forever. Do as you like, dishonor the laws the gods hold in honor”. This quote shows that Antigone puts the God’s beliefs over the beliefs of Creon, the King. Antigone feels that it’s more important to honor the God’s because you spend more time with them than with any mortals. This leads to why Antigone would want to shout it out.
Antigone wanting to shout it out can be deciphered in two different ways. The first way is that she is shouting it out to try and influence the rest of the citizens to stand up against Creon and do what the God’s would want them to do. She hopes that by giving her brother a proper burial, the rest of the community will follow what the God’s want done. She hopes that people will put the God’s before any mortal because the rules from the God’s are more important to her than any rules from a mortal.
Others may think that Antigone is trying to brag about how she is defying Creon. In Antigone 1 there is a dialogue between Ismene and Antigone where Ismene tells Antigone, “Don’t atleast, blurt this out to anyone. Keep it a secret. I’ll join you in that I promise.” Antigone responds by saying, “Dear God, shout it from the rooftops. I’ll hate you all the more for silence- tell the world.” In this section we see that Antigone wants her sister to tell everyone that she is going to give their brother a proper funeral. This may cause someone to ask: If Antigone wanted to give a proper burial for her brother because thats what the God’s would want done, then why does Antigone go out of her way to let people to know she did it? One may say that she is just looking to get attention.
4. Antigone and Creon are clearly very different. Antigone views the God’s as the highest authority, whereas Creon views himself (a mortal) as the highest authority. When both of these characters cross paths it is clear that their views are conflicting. This can be seen in Antigone 3 when Creon is talking to Antigone and says, “Oh but I hate it more when a traitor, caught red-handed, tries to glorify his crimes.” Creon does not like people bragging about going against him. This obviously conflicts with Antigone who, as stated in the previous question, felt that she should tell everyone what she did.
Although these characters both have conflicting views, they both share one important characteristic. Antigone and Creon are very passionate about their beliefs and they stick to them even when others tell them that they are being irrational. This is seen when the chorus and Ismene were trying to reason with Antigone, and when the chorus and Sentry were trying to reason with Creon. Their beliefs are so strong that it is almost impossible to change them. Creons beliefs don’t change until the end of the play when it is too late for him to fix the problems he created.
9. I can understand why critics disagree with Antigone’s statement that she would not have defied Creon to bury a husband or a child. If Antigone believes in the God’s as much as she says she does then she would have given a proper Greek burial to any citizen that was treated like Creon treated her brother. This is only true if her reasoning for giving a proper burial was to fulfill her moral obligations to the God’s. If she only defied Creon to boost her ego then she probably wouldn’t care enough to bury anyone else except her brother.
I can also see why critics believe this section was written by Sophocles because this was really out of character for Antigone. I was also confused as I read this statement by Antigone. In other art forms it is common that a student finishes their teachers unfinished work. Some artists even let their students write parts of the work but leave it under their name without telling anyone. It would not surprise me if this was the case.