In his play, Antigone, Sophocles explores varying perspectives of justice through the fates of his characters. Young Antigone defies the laws of her nation and her ruler, Creon, by burying her brother, who has been declared a traitor, despite the decree against it. She is caught in the act, and Creon sentences her to a slow death by entombment and starvation for her civil disobedience. According to the legal code of Thebes, justice has been served. In the eyes of the gods, the hearts of the public, and the opinion of Sophocles himself, Antigone has been grossly wronged. She has performed an admirable deed by adhering to her religious code of honor and expressing love for her family. Sophocles portrays the conflict between human law and individual conscience to persuade the public that human influences must always ultimately crumble and be brought to justice in the face of what is morally correct and divine.
The concept of justice hinges on the beliefs of any given individual. However, there is a consensus reached in every society that allows law to be established by government and enforced to the satisfaction of the citizens. In the story of Antigone, there are two conflicting views-Creon’s insistence on upholding human law and Antigone’s determination to uphold divine law. Throughout the drama, each character is acting upon what he/she believes is morally correct. Antigone cites the gods in defense of her civil disobedience:
Because it wasn’t Zeus who pronounced these
things to me, nor did Justice, companion
of the gods below, establish such laws
for humanity. I would never think
your pronouncements had such strength that, being
mortal, they could override the unwritten,
ever-lasting prescriptions of the gods (ll.459-465).
For Antigone, religious piety irrevocably overrules any irreverent decrees made by her earthly government. She stands by these convictions to her death, immovably faithful to her religious beliefs. Creon adopts a discordant stance and is confident of the righteousness of his petty human laws:
my country is
safety itself
and only when she is upright
can our sailing find friends. With laws like these
I will make our city grow (ll.190-194).
He stubbornly clings to this faith throughout the dramatic ordeal with Antigone, reconciling himself to his mistakes only when it is too late to save his reputation, Antigone, Haemon, and eventually his wife. Sophocles focuses on the contrasting views of Antigone and Creon throughout the tragedy to demonstrate the lesson to his audience that “one must neglect nothing that the gods demand” (ll.1349-1350).
Sophocles is also an activist for the importance of family ties. Antigone is adamant about her devotion to her brother throughout the play, and she consistently demands that it is more important than any law. She is willing to sacrifice her own life rather than see her brother’s soul and legacy desecrated by vultures. She tells Creon:
Her proclamation foreshadows Creon’s own impending pain, since his denial of family ties and dedication to his laws eventually leads to the destruction of his own family. The gods are clearly punishing him with the death of his niece, son, and wife so that he is alone with his unloving power and government-his blind faith in the law which originally led him astray from his family duty.
Antigone’s gender also plays a profound role in how she is brought to justice and in the meaning of her actions. The freedom of women in ancient Greece was carefully monitored and extremely limited by the dominating males. Antigone’s disobedience is particularly threatening to Creon since his public is seesing his authority being undermined by the blantant defiance of a woman. Through her refusal of the acquiescence and obedience that is expected of her sex, Antigone is upsetting a fundamental aspect of the Grecian culture, which contributes to Creon’s anger and insistence that she be punished severely. Her punishment will satisfy his idea of justice for the human and state law as well as a justice for cultural law, namely the laws of the gods. Even when Creon admits his sentence is dubious, he refuses to “yield to women,” and even if he were incorrect, he is convinced that it would be better “to fall at a man’s hands and not to be called/ worse than a woman” (688-691). It is this primitive falsehood of women’s inferior knowledge of righteousness that Sophocles endeavors to correct as the gods eventually penalize Creon for his oppressive actions.
The contest between human law and divine law defines the story and the ultimate portrayal of justice. In Antigone, the audience is faced with a conflict of morality: is it okay to break the law of the state in order to uphold the law of the gods? Ultimately, Sophocles endorses the gods’ authority through the tragedy that befalls Antigone as well as Creon. Creon first goes against them with his decree to leave Polyneices unburied. According to Creon and his supporters, Antigone “went forward far too boldly/ and crashed into the lofty/ pedestal of Justice,”(859-861) when she buried her brother. The case against Antigone is not without merit; she blatantly disobeyed the law set in place by Creon when she buried her brother’s corpse. When presented with her defense of pious duty, Creon denies her any pity; “I, for my part, / hate anyone caught in the act who tries / to beautify his crimes thereupon,”(510-512). He stubbornly clings to his faith in the law, regardless of arguments for faith in the gods and the death of Antigone and his son. Only when scorned by his faithful oracle, Tiresias, does he begin to see the flaw in his thinking. Tiresias tells him, “Think now that you have walked onto a razor’s edge… The city is sick because of your counsel” (999-1018). It is then, as the mortal incarnation of his own religion stands before him, that he realizes the gravity of what he has done and moves to rescind the punishment too late.
Divine law is proven to be truly just above anything else. Antigone knows this from the beginning and it is what drives her to her actions and to her fate, never wavering in her resolve:
Which of the gods’ laws have I transgressed?
Why should I still look to the gods in my
unhappiness? What ally can I call?
In my case, by being pious, I have
won for myself the rewards of impiety (ll.930-934).
From beginning to end, Sophocles appeals to our sympathy for Antigone in favor of devotion to conscience and religious ardor. She declares, “It seems fair to me to die doing it…I must please those / below a longer time than people here, / for there I shall lie forever” (ll.72-76). Antigone is determined to please the gods who will judge her in the afterlife. She goes so far as to belittle her sister, and in turn the audience, for ever thinking of another alternative “You, though, dishonor the gods’ commands, if you wish” (76-77). Even the chorus is not steadfast in their judgment, sometimes speaking against Antigone’s actions though never truly approving of Creon. Antigone is therefore isolated as the only person boldly standing by her beliefs in the all encompassing power of the Greek divinities throughout the story.
Sophocles reinforces his lesson to honor piety when, toward the end of the play, the chorus is reconciled to Antigone’s truth. They inform Creon that he is the cause of his own misfortunes “swift-footed/ Divine Vengeance cuts down bad ideas” (ll.1112-1113). The gods’ justice proves to be surpassingly powerful, convincing Creon to back down. His punishment, however, is not forgiven at the moment of his epiphany. He returns to Antigone’s tomb to find her and her betrothed, Creon’s son, the two lovers’ “blood…spilled by a familiar hand” (ll.1181-1182). Furthermore, Creon returns home to find his wife has committed suicide upon hearing the tragic news of her son’s death. Creon becomes a broken man through these events. He realizes the fault is all his own and cries out to his deceased family, “You died, you were sent away/ by my foolish counsels, not your own” (1276-1277). The chorus wisely responds that Creon has “seen justice too late” (l.1278). This insight is a clear indication of the poet’s intention to paint Antigone as the guiltless heroine of a just cause, brought to injustice by the petty stubbornness of a mortal ruler.
The enduring story of Antigone and Creon is a sort of fable written by Sophocles, a moral tale with the aim to warn audiences against the danger of turning your back on the gods and betraying your own flesh and blood relatives. Antigone’s defiant act of burying her brother despite the threat from human law to punish her with death brings to light the differing ideas of what justice truly means. It is a story of human law versus divine law. Through the tragedies that befall the people of Thebes, Creon in particular, Antigone is proven to be righteous and the interventions of the gods punish Creons’s defiance of divine law are decided to be above all other laws.
