Martin Luther King Antigone Analysis

Antigone’s true motives are portrayed through the sisters controversy and their dissimilarity in beliefs. Through their initial conversation, Ismene characterizes Antigone’s egocentrism. Threats of becoming “a traitor to [her] family” Antigone seeks to influence Ismene’s thoughts to match her “strange” feelings by guilting her to be “a true sister” (Sophocles 492). Using threatening words the author establishes the significance of the familial unit. The threat

”(Sophocles Pg 4) Antigone is going to bury her brother but Ismene thinks it’s a bad idea and tells her to keep it on the low but Antigone thinks she is going to please the ones who agree with her.

Have you ever wanted to make a situation right for someone else, so much that you would do anything to fix it for them? When a person cares a lot for someone they love, a family member for example, they often times would sacrifice anything for them to be happy again. In Antigone by Sophocles, the main character Antigone gets sentenced to death by the King Creon after disobeying him for giving her brother Polyneices, a proper burial that she believed he deserved. Creon thought he should be left out in the sun for his body to rot, to make up for his act of treason. Antigone made a sacrifice for her brother that she also tried to convince her sister Ismene to join in on.

68-72). Antigone is showing loyalty to her family by giving her brother a proper burial even when her sister tells her she's in the wrong; she thinks she is doing the right thing. She then continues to say she will give him a proper burial knowing she will receive death as a consequence to her loyalty. Furthermore loyalty towards family is seen through ANTIGONE again when she states, “So if that’s the way My life will end, the pain is nothing. But if I let the corpse-my mothers son-Lie dead, unburied, that would be agony.

Aristotle founded the idea that all the best arguments have three key parts: ethos, pathos and logos. Translated from latin, this means ethical, emotional and logical. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the characters frequently make use of these tools when attempting to persuade another character to conform to their beliefs and thoughts. Antigone tries to get her sister, Ismene, to help her in a crime that she believes is just. Haimon attempts to lessen Antigone’s sentence by lecturing his father about what it means to be a good leader, and the Chorus is just trying to help out anyone they can with wise words from a third party opinion.

In the play Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates the conflict between family and God through the characters of Antigone, Ismene and Creon. Antigone being ambitious and strong willed throughout the play, fights for his brothers honor and proper burial while Ismene on the other hand, is more timid fears the consequences that may occur if the laws are broken. For Creon he is the King and holds most power, until the Gods feel he is incapable. Antigone, Ismene and Creon all use logical and emotional appeals to achieve a compromise to either bury Polynices or not.

We are only women, We cannot fight with men Antigone!” (Prologue Lines 45-47). While Ismene would gladly obey the laws set forth by her Uncle, Antigone would rather die than let her brother’s body be desecrated. She refused to give up no matter the obstacle in her way. At the end of her crusade, Antigone is condemned to be buried alive in a tomb by Creon.

Although both Antigone, from “Antigone” by Sophocles, and Martin Luther King Jr. from “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” engage in acts of civil disobedience and fight for what they believe to be right, the way they go about these acts is quite different. Each of their reasons, actions, and consequences can be seen as opposites. Antigone refuses the help or involvement of others, which can be seen as a selfish act directly against the king while Martin Luther King Jr. involves the entire community to help the greater good. Antigone is a character who stands up for what she believes in to a point of direct civil disobedience toward the king, Creon. She puts the laws of the gods over the laws of her authority.

Ismene's selfishness costed her both her life and her

This implies that Ismene 's views have changed. Although she did not take an active role in the burial of Polynices, she is willing to contend with men and fight against this with her sister. She goes on to say "let me die besides me" (613). Ismene

When Ismene enters while Creon and Antigone are arguing about giving equal rights to the bad and good, Ismene admits to Creon that she much involved in burying Polynices as Antigone. Antigone tells her Ismene that Ismene did not help and that Ismene is not able to die with honor because Ismene did not help. Antigone says, “You chose; life was your choice, when mine was death” (141). Antigone reveals that she knew she could die for what she was doing, but she still executed the plan. She is willing to die for her cause, but it not worth it because she could have honored her brother in a number of different

Antigone believes she should have the right of her brother’s burial. Creon states, “No one shall burry him, no one mourn for him” (Sophocles 2) illustrating that Polyneicis is irrelevant in the city of Thebes. The law in Greek society is a female should not have power or freedom over any circumstance. Antigone demands rights over her brother and will not accept

In Antigone, there was two brothers who shared being the King and one of the brothers, Polynices, wanted to start a war with the kingdom because he wanted to be the main ruler. Polynices and his brother Eteocles fight and they both end up killing each other. Their Uncle Creon, who takes position as King when they are both killed, decides that only Eteocles will have a proper burial and Polynices will be left to rot. Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles sister, thinks that Creon’s decision is unfair and takes upon herself to give Polynices a proper burial. When their other sister Ismene finds out, she is stuck between helping her sister bury their brother and following Creon’s demands.

The drama Antigone places the culture of Greece on display by showcasing the many values that this culture held in reverence, including remaining loyal to family, honoring the dead, and honoring the gods. In Sophocles’ renowned drama entitled Antigone, one of the main values that Antigone chooses to honor is loyalty to family, even when that means that she has to forgo loyalty to her city and community. Even though her uncle the king, Kreon, forbade anyone to bury Polyneikes’ body because he had been on the opposing side in the battle, Antigone felt a duty to her brother to bury him. When speaking with her sister, Antigone says that Kreon’s command “…threatens our loved ones / as if they were our enemies” (Antigone 14-15).

Commentary: As I have learned in the virtual lectures, you can find theme within dialogue and exposition. The latter part of the second scene does this many times, and this shirt excerpt was chosen because I found it to have revealed these themes the most times within a short amount of dialogue. At the beginning of this excerpt, Ismene admits guilt of belong her sister Antigone bury the body, even though she truly did not participate in the act. Since Ismene admits to guilt to the law made my Creon, this shows her loyalty to human law and civil obedience over divine law and familial loyalty, respectively. This is even further justified by Antigone when she says "Ask Creon.