Antigone is a tragic story of death and heroines. It begins with Antigone and her sister Ismene talking about burying their dead brother, Polynices. Polynices and their other brother, Eteocles were supposed to rule Thebes after their father, Oedipus died. They were each supposed to rule in succession for one year, but Eteocles refused to step down from the throne. Polynices marched on Thebes with a band of men, and was defeated. However, Both Polynices and Eteocles were killed. This made Creon, their uncle, ruler of Thebes. Creon had a very strict rule that said that any intruders that come into Thebes trying to fight or defeat anyone, would not be given a proper burial. “No burial of any kind. No wailing, no public tears.” (line 28) Therefore, Polynices wasn’t given a proper burial. Antigone and Ismene were very upset about this because it is a disgrace to their family reputation. They knew their father had died in a disgraceful way and that their family reputation was only going to get worse if they let their brother go unburied. Antigone decided she was going to bury him herself. Ismene declares “…we must obey this order, even if it hurts us more…I’ll obey the men in charge…” (line 64, 67) She is advising her not to, and told her that she would not take part in this illegal act. So, Antigone did it by herself. After Creon found out that she was the one that did this, he told her that her punishment was death, and Antigone was willing to accept that. Her fiancé, Creon’s son, tried to pursued him not to kill her, but he wasn’t successful. She was sentenced to death. I will focus on both Creon and Antigone’s reasons and excuses for their actions. I think they both have good legitimate reasons for what they do.

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This story is focused on the conflict between the two main characters, Creon and Antigone. Some would say that Creon is a horrible ruler. I disagree. He had his rules and he stuck to them. Polynices should have known this rule, and therefore knew what the consequences of his actions were going to be. The reason he wasn’t willing to give Polynices a proper burial was for his invasion of Thebes and his attack on his brother. In the play he justifies this punishment by saying that he has to be strong and strict in order to keep his rule over Thebes. If he were to let some people break the rules and get away with it, then others would do it, and it wouldn’t be fair. Antigone is presenting an example of civil disobedience by burying her brother and accepting the consequences. She is most definitely a righteous martyr, although she could have warned her brother of the consequences so that he wouldn’t have invaded Thebes and then lost his right to a proper burial. All she wants is her brother to be looked highly on by the gods, and she knows this won’t happen if he doesn’t get buried. She cares about her brother and the rest of her family, as well as their reputation. There could very well be an element of self destructiveness in her effort to help her brother get buried. Throughout the play she seems completely willing to give up her own life to give help to her brother. And that she does. She is sentenced to death by Creon. Her fiancé attempted to convince Creon not to kill her, but it didn’t work, and she was killed.

A person’s duty to society differs from culture to culture. In this play we don’t see too many references to how the citizens are supposed to fulfill duty to their society. Antigone felt that it was her duty to society to bury her brother, and not let him be left unburied. In Pericles’ funeral speech we see more of a distinct description of how to behave, and what duties there are to society. For example when it states “we do not feel

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Called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive although they inflict no positive penalty.” (Pericles’ Funeral Speech) In this quote we see Pericles somewhat telling the citizens how to act. Antigone probably would have agreed with Pericles. She was all for supporting her society and those that lived in it. She would have liked to live where Pericles did, where everything had order and it also seemed to be much more relaxed.

In conclusion, the main characters in this play are both justified in some sense for their actions. If I were in either of their positions I most likely would have done the exact same thing they did. I would not stand to see my brother become a disgrace to the gods. If I were ruler, I would definitely put my foot down and stick to the rules I had put into place. Granted he didn’t have sympathy for Antigone or the rest of her family, he was only being a good ruler by upholding the laws of the land. So, in my mind they are both justified for their actions.

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