Despite Creon’s order, Antigone believes that she not only must bury Polyneices, but also “shout it out” (Sophocles 1132) because her moral values do not allow her to leave the corpse of her brother on the streets when it is torn apart by the beasts. She totally believed that it was an order from the gods to bury every dead person, irrespective of their deeds, as there was an afterlife waiting for the dead. She sees no validity in the law that disregards the duty family members owe one another. She defies Creon’s law on the grounds that moral law takes precedence over civil law.
This tells us that, Antigone had a very different perspective about life and the universe. She believed that gods were the ultimate power governing the people and any human act was answerable to god. Antigone argues to Ismene, “Be as you choose to be; but for myself I myself will bury him. It will be good to die, so doing” (Antigone 81-83). Here, Antigone declares that obedience to god is of at most value and she would even sacrifice her life obeying them. She believed that anyone’s life was destined and the consequences of any decision made were his or her own fate. This can clearly be seen when she expresses her anguish, “Brother, it was a luckless marriage you made, and dying killed my life” (Antigone 915-916). Antigone feels that, the ill fate of her brother sharing the bed with his own mother has passed on to Antigone and it was the reason why she was being killed.
Antigone is the play’s tragic heroine. She had futuristic thoughts and she is the vanguard of modern women. Her deeds were not of a woman of ancient Greece. In a time where women were suppressed and denigrated as inferior, she was bold enough to bury her brother’s body. Throughout the play, Antigone reveals her individual conscience and believes in divine principle above the power and authority of the state. Antigone’s devotion to her family makes her an exceptional character. She tells Creon that obedience to civil laws will not gain her any honor from the gods. She believed that going against god’s ordinances was immoral because every human was ultimately answerable to god.
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