Antigone's Moral Decision in Sophocles' Antigone

Creon and Antigone could not stand in more stark contrast to one another in terms of the qualities important to each. Creon may have the civic law on his side, and he may argue from that basis, at least on the surface, but the play shows that his major concerns are pride and revenge, not following the law. Antigone, on the other hand, cares only about doing what is right according to the highest standards of humanity and of the gods. She wants to bury her brother as much as Creon wants to prevent his burial. A powerful clue to the essential stands of each character is that Antigone determinedly maintains her ethical stand to the end, while Creon changes his mind and buries Po

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urying the body, against even covering it with dust, and she responds that she had heard the decree, but that she "dared defy" it because It was not God's proclamation. That final justice/ That rules the world below makes no such laws. Your edict, King, was strong,/ But all your strength is weakness against/ The immortal unrecorded laws of God./ There are not merely now: they were, and shall be,/ Operative for ever, beyond man utterly. . . . This death of mine/ Is of no importance; but if I had left my brother/ Lying in death unburied, I should have suffered./ Now I do not (Sophocles 423). Creon shows his pettiness once again in response, seeing the conflict in terms of who will be seen as "the man here/ She or I, if this crime goes unpunished?" (Sophocles 424). Clearly, he cares little about the State, and much about the public image of his own manhood. Creon is acting not out of any moral calling, but only from pride and vengeance. When he is confronted with the fact that if he puts Antigone to death he will be slaying his son's wife-to-be, Creon coldly and crudely responds, "There are places enough for him to push his plow" (Sophocles 426). Throughout the play Creon shows an immaturity befitting a sullen, selfish, petty s
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Approximate Word count = 2554
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)