Sophocles ‘ Antigone brings to the phase tragic looks of human struggle. In the 2004 version The Burial at Thebes, Seamus Heaney relates to modern-day struggles. This essay will reason that the strongest instance is given by Creon within the context of Ancient Greece. Creon ‘s stance would hold been approved in Thebes ; but, with the transition of clip, perceptual experiences change, and it could be argued that Antigone ‘s stance is nowadays favorably accepted. With a overplus of conflicting human relationships between Antigone and Creon, Creon ‘s statement is strong from the beginning.
In the first choral vocal, the Theban seniors introduce Creon as the guardian of Thebes and a principled citizen, chanting ‘Glory be to the brightness, to the glimmer Sun, reflecting defender of our seven Gatess ‘ ( p.8 ) .- The interchange of sibyllant ‘s ‘ and ‘g ‘ sounds stresses the glorification and lift of Creon. The parodos goes on to utilize imagination of reflecting metal in the conflict against the enemies of Thebes to make a manic flood tide ( Hardwick, 2008, p.196 ) in ‘Let Bacchus lead us and fire away the dark! … King Creon. All hail to Creon. ‘ ( Heaney, 2004, p.9 ) .
King Oedipus and his boies, Eteocles and Polyneices, are dead. Supporting Eteocles over the regulation of Thebes, Creon ‘s ground forces defeated Polyneices and his confederation. Addressing the seniors in his inaugural address, the King uses the metaphor of a ship, a faithful crew and calmer seas, in an iambic round ( Hardwick, p.196 ) . He adds: ‘So friends, good done. ‘ Importantly, with no male heirs in the Oedipus blood-line, Creon assumes power. ‘I ‘m following in line. The throne has come to me ‘ ( p.9 ) . Greeks would hold known the Oedipus narrative and the line of sequence. Almost instantly Creon pronounces the polar statement which forms the footing of the statement in his favor,
Until a adult male has passed this trial of office
and proved himself in the exercising of power,
He ca n’t be genuinely known – for what he is, I mean,
In his bosom and head and capablenesss.
Worst is the adult male who has the good advice
And, so because his nervus fails, fails to move
In conformity with it, as a leader should. ( pp.9-10 )
This chiasmus of thoughts on advice and failure enhances the King ‘s virtue as a leader.
On Creon ‘s first twenty-four hours in authorities, he may anticipate civil agitation after the war ; hence, he accepts that no adult male ‘s true character can be known. He proceeds with a 2nd central point that trueness to the metropolis takes precedency over any household or private trueness or duty,
An every bit to fault
Is anyone who puts the personal
Above the overall thing, puts friend
Or household foremost. ( p.10 )
Creon so asserts that,
…… For the nationalist
Personal trueness ever must give manner
To loyal responsibility. ( p.10 )
The blood relations of ‘patriot ‘ are repeated to stress the importance of the jurisprudence, reenforcing Creon ‘s statement.
Thebans would hold welcomed the thought of nationalism to safeguard the involvements of the metropolis after a spoilt war. ‘A nationalist is he whose publick behavior is regulated by one individual motivation, the love of his state ; who, … , has, for himself, neither hope nor fright, neither kindness nor bitterness, but refers everything to the common involvement ‘ ( Johnson, 1774 ) . As the ‘common involvement ‘ is paramount, the King has engaged with his male audience. Furthermore, Creon has a let-out clause for he has to go through the trial of office and this makes his statement so compelling. Whether his actions will, at the terminal, vindicate him or non, whether he will lift or fall, is irrelevant as, merely clip will state.
As King his first jurisprudence is to deny the entombment of his nephew Polyneices ; this edict puts him in a hit class with Antigone. There are two conflicting facets to the refusal of the entombment: dispute of the unwritten jurisprudence which would hold protected the rights of the dead to be buried, and the function of adult females in the rites of decease. Furthermore, funerals may do rebellion and agitation ( Hall, 2008, p.xviii ) . In Ancient Greece, plaint over the dead were the privilege of adult females. The first jurisprudence would look to aim Antigone and Ismene as Oedipus ‘ female subsisters ; Antigone tells Ismene,
And right you are to be scared.
Creon has made a jurisprudence.
Eteocles has been buried
As a soldier, with full honours ;
So he ‘s gone place to the dead.
But non Polyneices.
Polyneices is denied
Any entombment at all. ( p.2 )
The clang between the adversaries relates to household relationships. In the Prologue, Antigone asks Ismene what has come to them and why they are ever ‘the 1s ‘ . ‘Because of what we are – girls of Oedipus ‘ ( p.1 ) and touching to Polyneices ‘the 1s we love are enemies of the province ‘ ( p.1 ) She implies confederacy in the personification of the walls, ‘the walls in there have ears ‘ ( p.2 ) and in an act of rebelliousness, Antigone declares,
I will bury him myself.
And if decease comes, so be it.
There will be glorification in it.
I ‘ll travel down to the underworld. ( pp.5-6 )
Understanding of the effects, Antigone proclaims,
If Creon has me killed,
Where ‘s the shame in that?
The shame would be to avoid it. ( p.7 )
On detecting that the organic structure has been buried, the Chorus inquiries such action against the King in ‘who would take to be dead? ‘ ( p.12 ) . Two points originate: noncompliance which will take to a decease sentence and implied fright. Creon is trying to set up jurisprudence and order and the seniors would prefer a way to normalcy, but fright is another affair -perhaps, it is non fear for themselves but for the society ‘s hereafter. However, Creon ‘s house manus is defendable because war has caused household and other societal breaks ( Hall, p.xvii ) .
When Antigone is reported by the Guard in ‘And now, sir, she is yours. It is up to you to judge her and convict her ‘ ( p.18 ) , in the agon that follows between Antigone and Creon, she does non deny her actions and bases accused. Creon ‘s statement is further strengthened when Antigone is questioned and admits that she knew the announcement, and hence the jurisprudence,
Creon You so. State me
And be speedy about it: did you or did you non
Know that the announcement forbade all this?
Antigone I did cognize. How could I non? Did n’t everybody?
Creon And still you dared to disobey the jurisprudence?
Antigone I disobeyed because the jurisprudence was non
The jurisprudence of Zeus nor the jurisprudence ordained
By Justice, Justice brooding deep
Among the Gods of the dead. What they decree
Is immemorial and adhering for us all.
… .
I chose to ignore it. I abide
By legislative acts arrant and immutable-
Unwritten, original, god-given Torahs. ( p.20-21 )
The Chorus interjects stating that the abandon in her comes from Oedipus and that she wo n’t yield ( p.21 ) . In the immediate stichomythia, Creon sentences Antigone, to which she retorts that she has ne’er done a nobler thing than to bury her brother and seals her destiny adding ‘I have long gone over to the dead ‘ ( p.23 ) . This weakens her statement because she has given up on life. Today, her intransigence may look heroic. In Ancient Greece nevertheless, she would hold been seen as a disobedient citizen and worse, a disobedient adult female. Ismene had tried to ground with Antigone in saying ‘Women withstanding Creon? I ‘ll be ruled by Creon ‘s word. Anything else is madness ‘ ( p.5 ) . The Chorus adds with terminal undertones that ‘the household is traveling to experience the blow coevals after coevals… Hope for the house of Oedipus has died. ‘ ( p.28 ) .
Crucially, Antigone chose to disobey the ( man-made ) jurisprudence but the ground she gave was spiritual conformity and be givening to the dead, which was a function entrusted to adult females who were otherwise excluded from civic and political life. Alluding to Creon ‘s announcement Antigone had said ‘this I can non take ‘ ( p.1 ) and ‘this decease punishment is about a alleviation ‘ ( p.21 ) to which Creon retorted ‘Go and love your fill in the underworld. ‘ ( p.24 ) . Affectingly he declares ‘No adult female will order the jurisprudence to me ‘ ( p.24 ) which corroborates the societal construction of Thebes.
Antigone ‘s place is farther diminished in ‘will it be adequate to see me executed? ‘ ( p.22 ) , as she does non try to deliver her household by populating but makes a pick by deceasing. As the immature bride of Creon ‘s boy, her inflexible actions have blinded her opinion and her hereafter. Antigone has chosen the dead, and accepted her sentence in ‘You are the male monarch and wo n’t be contradicted ‘ ( p.23 ) .
Haemon tells his male parent that ‘nobody can be certain they are right all the clip ‘ ( p.31 ) and blind prophet Tiresias foresees Creon ‘s ruin in ‘All work forces make errors … Pull back ‘ ( p.44 ) . By the clip Creon resolves to alter, a cascade of inevitable events has unfolded: Antigone and Haemon have committed self-destruction and Eurydice, gaining the loss of her boy, kills herself and curses her hubby, who is excessively late to salvage his household ‘s descent into the underworld. His wants to travel rapidly his ain decease in ‘all I pray for now is the morning of my last twenty-four hours ‘ ( p.55 ) . Similarly, Dr Faustus is excessively late to get away his descent into snake pit. ( Marlowe, 2008, p.111 )
Creon and Dr Faustus possessed a tragic flaw or built-in character defect such as pride or stubborness that had tragic effects ; Creon could hold saved Antigone but alternatively became the accelerator to household calamity. For Dr Faustus, his eruditeness brought him academic acclamation but, tragically, besides caused his ruin.
Creon made a strong instance in defence of province jurisprudence and proved himself in the exercising of power but destiny had the upperhand.
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