English

Amy Donkel
Period: 5
10/18/10
Antigone Essay

English jurist William Blackstone at a measure said, No enactment of man can be considered virtue unless it conforms to the law of God. Although this was said at a different time and age than Ancient Greece, it still applies to the same concept Antigone teaches readers. In Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates through the characters Antigone, Ismene, and Creon that the divine laws always come before the states, no matter what the circumstances are.
Antigone is a prime example on how the people should put the gods laws before any state law. She strongly and truly believes that every person, good or bad, deserves a meet burial, mainly because that is what the gods would hope. She says to Ismene at one point in the number You may do as you like, since apparently the laws of the gods mean naught to you (Prologue, line 60). She is implying that Ismene isnt doing at all what the gods would want, and that she is being as repulsive as Creon. Later, when she is brought in to see Creon for burying Polyneices, he starts questioning her over-all motives for burying her brother and going against his new law. She replied, It was not Gods proclamation. That final justice that rules the world below makes no such laws (Scene 2, line 57).



Antigone is simply stating that since it was not a rule justifiable by the gods, it wasnt a decree she would expect herself or any other person to follow. up to now though characters like Antigone have been straightforward about their opinions end-to-end the entire play, there are some whose views seem to revision by the end.
Antigones careful and withdrawn sister, Ismene, is one of the legion(predicate) characters whose opinion on Creons new law changed end-to-end the play. In the beginning, Ismene thought that Antigone going against Creon was absurd. She said, They (the gods laws) mean a neat deal to me; but I have no military unit to break laws that were made for the public good (Pardos, line 60). Ismene follows...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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