Rafael R.

Emata

160734

R06

May 3, 2017

Antigone Critical Paper

The main conflict seen in Antigone is the difference in views by Creon and Antigone

about the burial of Antigones brother, Polyneices. It starts out with Antigone finding

out about her brothers deaths and learning that one of them wouldnt be offered proper

burial rites. She decided to ask her sister, Ismene to help her but she was too weak-

willed and submissive. On page 83, first, we were born women, who should not strive

with men; next that we are ruled of the stronger, so that we must obey these things, and

in things still harder. This already shows how Greek society was very patriarchal in

nature. Ismene believed that she had no other choice but to follow whatever the King,

Creon, decrees. Antigone then decides to bury Polyneices herself but she is discovered

and news of it is brought to Creon. He has Antigone brought before him and confronts

her. In the case of Antigone, her filial piety is what drives her to bury her brother

properly. Her reasoning on why she disobeyed the edict of Creon was for it was not

Zeus who had published that edict; not such are the laws set among men by the Justice

who dwells within the gods below. Nor did I deem that your decrees were of such force

that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven. She

believed that the only rules she needed to follow were those of the gods and not man.

She also stated that she was not afraid of defying anyone who went against these laws

hence her disobedience to Creons edict.

Creon goes off prattling about his dismay in her actions and through his pride, decides

to have her imprisoned instead. They continue to talk and on page 93 Creon exhibits his

pride by saying A foe is never a friend- not even in death while showing his

misogynistic nature by stating While I live, no woman shall rule me. First, this shows

how much pride can blind a person so much that he disregards the gods rules and

places more importance on his own. Second, this goes to show how deep the views of

the Greeks are on womens status and importance. They are merely servants,

housewives, and caretakers who are not allowed to speak out for themselves much less

take action as they please.

From there, Haemon comes in and confronts his father trying to convince him to

remove the punishment of Antigone. He also advises his father to be more humble as

seen on page 97: though a man be wise, it is no shame for him to learn many things

and to bend in season. Haemons words have no effect on Creon and he even mocks

his son as being weak for siding with a woman but after Haemon leaves, Creon

reconsiders.

Teiresias then enters the room. He tells Creon of his prophecy and how the gods are

dissatisfied with the events that have transpired. He notes that All men are liable to err,

but when error has been made, that man is no longer witless or unblessedand does

not remain stubborn. Once more, Creon is faced with the message of toning down his

ego and accepting that he has done wrong. From here, we can also infer that though

Greek society may be patriarchal, it is also a civilization that flourishes when there is

humility, peace, or in other words, democracy. Speaking ones mind must be respected

so that both sides of an argument may to come to an understanding. Another inference

is that Greeks place high value on religion because the omens and the prophecy that

Teiresias got scared Creon to the extent where he swallowed his pride.
In the end, Creon comes to his senses and decides to free Antigone. Alas, he finds out

he is too late. She, along with his wife and son, are found to have committed suicide

and all he is able to do is pray for a swift death. Another trait of the Greeks that we can

say is that when they are faced with a situation they cannot change, they choose to take

the easy way out and take their own lives.

In relation to todays context, there was the controversial topic of the Marcos burial. In

this situation, the important detail to take into consideration is the place where he is

buried, the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Either way, Marcos will still get a burial so it is

not as demeaning as what happened to Polyneices but it seems very redundant to bury a

dictator in a place where a vast amount of our heroes lie. The similarity in Antigone and

in real life is the presence of power. Marcos was a dictator who ruled with an iron fist

while keeping the whole country under Martial Law where his word is supreme. It is

very reminiscent of the way King Creon was as a ruler who ruled exactly the same way.

They were both proud, powerful, and willing to do what they had to so they could keep

a false sense of order. Another similarity in both contexts is that bad deeds do not go

unpunished. In Antigone, Creon was punished with numerous deaths of people close to

him while Marcos was ousted from his presidency. In the end, power was abused on

both ends which resulted in unfavorable situations.

Another controversial topic today is the overexposure of EJKs or extra-judicial killings.

This relates to Antigone in the way that the drug war overpowers due process. There are

more than 7000 people who have been accused and killed with the sole reason that they

were suspected of using drugs or previous drug users. This is just like the same

oppression that Antigone experienced with the discrimination against Polyneices where

the sole reason he was denied proper burial was because Creon sided more with

Eteocles. From there, the drug war of President Duterte is just like the decree of Creon
which does not follow the laws of the gods or in our case, due process. On a side note,

the theme of mortality is relatable to both contexts. In Antigone, those who felt they

had no other way to change their fate had to resort to suicide while in the case of the

EJK victims, their fate was decided for them forcibly without being able to retaliate.

Lastly, the way that the EJK victims are treated are comparable to how Polyneices was

as well. In Greek times, giving someone an improper burial was one of the most

insulting actions one could do to the deceased since they would prevent the transition

into the afterlife. Currently, the EJ victims are treated the same way where they are not

only killed unjustly, but also placed with labels such as Pusher ako or Huwag

Tularan. These people are also viewed as scum of society and they believe that we

would be better off without them. Through all these parallelisms, I believe that

literature is a way in which we see history repeat itself when we do not learn from our

past mistakes.