antigone's morals and tragic fate

Antigone is the dutiful daughter of Oedipus, whose own tragic fate was passed on to Antigone and her siblings, as Antigone points out in the very first lines of Sophocles’ Antigone, translated by Robert Fagles: “My own flesh and blood—dear sister, dear Ismene, how many griefs our father Oedipus handed down!” Yet in spite of her misfortune, Antigone is never bitter about her fate. She is committed to honoring her brother, killed in battle, by burying him properly that he might be received into the next world—the afterlife—in spite of what the tyrannical Creon has warned (i.e., that anyone who tries to bury the young man will be executed, as Creon considered the son of Oedipus to be an usurper). Polynices, Antigone’s slain brother, is forbidden proper burial: “A city-wide proclamation…forbids anyone to bury him, even mourn him. He’s left to be unwept, unburied, a lovely treasure for birds that scan the field to their heart’s content” (Sophocles). Antigone disobeys Creon’s command and buries her brother, knowing full well it will spell her doom. She does it because she wants to ensure that he is honored and given a chance to be at peace in the next world. She sacrifices her own life that his soul might find admission to the afterlife. Her actions set off a chain of reactions that end in tragedy for everyone—including Creon whose own son despairs at finding Antigone dead in her tomb. The play pits Antigone’s selfless gesture against Creon’s selfish one and shows that selfishness always leads to chaos, loss and personal tragedy.
The morals of Antigone are based on her sense of the demands of her religious system. She understands and believes in the myths she has been taught. Because she believes in them with her whole heart and mind, she is devoted to doing what is right according to that system, even if it conflicts with a rule or decree from an earthly authority—i.e., Creon. In her view, Creon is not above the gods and therefore cannot make laws that violate the laws of the gods. The gods demand burial of the body—and Creon’s law forbidding the burial of Polynices is unjust in this light. Even Creon’s advisors advise against making this decree because it disrespects the will of the gods and risks bringing ruin to the life of Creon himself. When Tiresias warns Creon of the error of his edect, Creon brushes him off and says that the prophet is “mad for money” and this lacks credibility and should not be believed. But of course Tiresias was right when he advised Oedipus, and he is right when he advises Creon—it is just that Creon’s pride will not allow him to be moved by common sense and this sets in motion the tragedy. In his pride, he disregards the advice and enacts the decree anyway. He wants to see Polynices despised and barred from the afterlife. He has no mercy or pity and that puts him in the same camp as the once despised Oedipus, who violated the will of the gods by marrying his own mother and having children with her (even though he did so without knowing it). When one violates the rules set forward by the supernatural powers, one is going to be punished—that is the moral law that Sophocles illustrates in Antigone.
Antigone herself is special because she has no concern for being punished in the physical world, so long as she knows she is doing what is right by the gods. She knows that if she carries out their will out of respect for their law, she will be judged favorably by them in the afterlife. She even tells Creon exactly why she believes as much: “It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least, who made this [Creon’s] proclamation—not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time…These laws—I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods” (Sophocles). Thus, Antigone clearly states the moral position that has prompted her to disobey Creon’s command. She was following the command of the gods to bury the dead. She would rather incur the wrath of Creon (who could only harm her body, not her soul) than the wrath of the gods (who could condemn her soul in the next world for the rest of time). She ends up taking her own life, which leads to the suicide of Creon’s son (he loved Antigone), and that leads to Creon’s downfall and shame.
The tragedy is made complete by the end of the play—so many lives have been lost, and it all goes back to Creon’s unjust command. Antigone, refusing to bow to such a command, ends up illustrating how when men try to override the will of the gods, they end up undermining their own happiness and state in life. The gods do not create unjust laws—that the is moral of the story that Sophocles tells. Rather, men create unjust laws when their decrees go against the spirit of the laws of the gods. That is what Antigone argues before Creon in her justification of why she buried her brother. The gods decrees are higher and of more importance than Creon’s. Creon’s failure to appreciate this moral law is really what dooms them all. He simply does not want to admit the truth; Antigone will not relent in her observance of the moral law; and those who love ultimately pay the price. Antigone takes her life after being buried alive in a tomb by Creon. Creon’s son takes his life after failing to save Antigone. Creon loses his kingdom after failing to observe the will of the gods and act accordingly. The death and horror of the play could have been avoided, Sophocles shows—but for the pride of Creon.
Works Cited
Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays. Trans by Robert Fagle. Penguin, 1984.