Sophocles - Antigone
The Power of Choice
Choices affect all of our lives. We are always faced with choices. What we do with those choices will determine how are lives will turn out, what destiny lies before us and even what will become of us. The choices we make are in our complete control. Whether we make choices during the heat of the moment or with an open mind there are going to be consequences that follow whether good or bad are can only be blamed on us. Sophocles’s Antigone portrays human emotions and consequences that follow two distinct choices. We can broaden the spectrum by saying that Creon represents public policy and Antigone represents individual conscience. According to E.S. Shuckburgh we must examine which is more important “state law or divine conscience”. (Shuckburgh xviii)
Antigone is a story about two people who choose to make choices that each are passionate about and the consequences that follow. I can argue that the choice made by Antigone was noble and honorable because she was standing up for what she believed in. Antigone was trying to do what she felt was the right. She was standing up for her family. I think that many people would feel the same way in her situation. Antigone wanted to offer her brother the burial that she felt he deserved. Although it did not seem as though she agreed with what her brother had done she did believe in family loyalty.When Antigone approached Ismene with her proposal, Ismene said no. She justified her decision by telling Antigone that they were already punished and that there was no need to make matters worse for the two of them by defying Creon’s law.
Oh my sister, think- think how our own father died, hated,
Mimi 2
his reputation in ruins, driven on
by the crimes he brought to light himself
to gouge out his eyes with his own hands-
then mother…his...
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