Higher Law in The Antigone Play Essay

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Introduction

The play Antigone exhibits the conflicts that arise due to lack of understanding on which law should take precedence between the law of the state and the law of God. This is seen on several occasions when the characters Creon, Antigone and Ismene fail to agree on whether Polyneices on death should be buried, live alone touching him. Creon who doubles up as the state categorically says the state abhors burying of the dead and even touching their remains. Antigone believes in the law of God and has a strong resolve that she has to burry her brother Polyneices even if Creon refuses. When Antigone goes for support from her sister Ismene, she only gets disappointed when she tells her that she fully supports the law of the state. Antigone strongly believes that the laws of Gods are higher than the laws of the state and that she does right by following the laws of the Gods. This essay seeks to illuminate whether the claim that the play Antigone demonstrate that there is higher law than civil law is in deed true(Walsh par. 3).

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Analysis of the play Antigone

The play Antigone demonstrate that there is a higher law than the civil law when Antigone goes to Ismene to help her bury Polyneices and she disowns her, Antigone emphatically tells her that if burying Polyneices means disobeying civil law then she does consider her crime holy. She goes ahead and buries her brother. Nobody would dare disobey the kingā€™s decree but Antigone does disobey this despite the impending dangers. If she had no strong belief in the Gods she wouldnā€™t ever dare do this. By Antigone burying her brother fully aware of having violated the civil laws, the author of Antigone expressly tells us that civil law cannot in any way take precedence over fulfilling family obligations. Therefore, the higher law overrides civil law. Antigone emphasizes that she dared break civil law because it was Gods dictate and that the law with which the world is governed are not part of Gods laws. She says Creon is strong but his strength is a weakness in itself against the unrecorded laws of God. Antigone asserts that Gods laws are, were and shall exist forever beyond man. By this she implies that Civil Laws are subject to changes which make it inferior to Gods law.

Antigone was oblivious to a lot of danger and she did know this when she chose to defy civil law. She disobeyed civil law because she a strong adherent of higher Gods law that bestow upon her the right to burry her deceased brother despite what the law created by Creon stipulate. Antigone reaffirms that the law of God is higher than the laws of the king. She says kingā€™s law is strong but comparably weaker against Gods laws and shall always be inferior to Gods law. Antigone believes and is ready to face any form of suffering in the course of defending her beliefs (Walsh par. 6). She believes Gods laws are eternal and the civil laws are subordinate to them. Antigone distances civil laws from the higher laws by saying God cannot come up with law that bars a sister from burying a brother.

Superiority of higher law to the civil law is exhibited at the end of the play when King Creon bows in following the prophecy and the counsel of the Chorus and allow for the release of Antigone from the stone tomb although it proves futile. Creon later concurs with the opinion of Antigone that laws of God are mighty and he was in deed wrong to send Antigone to the stone tomb.

Conclusion

Creon believes that the misfortune that befall his family like the death of his wife, death of his daughter in law to be and the suicide his son commits are due to disobedience to higher law. Therefore higher law is superior to civil law.

Work cited

Walsh, Keri. Antigone now. (Sophoclesā€™ play ā€˜Antigoneā€™). 2008.

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"Higher Law in The Antigone Play." IvyPanda, 10 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/higher-law-in-the-antigone-play/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) 'Higher Law in The Antigone Play'. 10 July.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "Higher Law in The Antigone Play." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/higher-law-in-the-antigone-play/.

1. IvyPanda. "Higher Law in The Antigone Play." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/higher-law-in-the-antigone-play/.


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IvyPanda. "Higher Law in The Antigone Play." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/higher-law-in-the-antigone-play/.

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