Is divine law or human law better?
Is the divine law or human law more powerful?
In the play "Antigone" written by Sophocles, the conflict between divine law and human law is one of much debate. Divine law, also known as the "law of God" is a term used to describe the morals, beliefs, and actions, which represent God's will. On the other hand there is the human law, which is defined as a set of rules of conduct that govern the land and the community, usually enforced directly through the threat of punishment. In "Antigone," these two laws are represented through the two main characters - Creon (human law), and Antigone (divine law). By contrasting the moral backgrounds of these two laws, the audience can benefit from deciding whether Creon and Antigone's actions were justifiable.
The theme of the conflicting laws is first introduced when King Creon explicitly forbids the burial of Polyneices. Creon states that under the land law, Polynieces chose to revoke his citizenship when he displayed his disloyalty to Thebes by attacking the city. He believes that loyalty and obedience to the laws of the land is of utmost importance and that a traitor should never be given another chance. Despite her uncle's clear statement of beliefs however, Antigone proceeds to bury her brother, Polynieces. She acknowledges that although Polynieces had shown signs of treason, he should have been forgiven by the city and honored with a proper burial because the gods would have wanted it. To her, the laws of the state can and should be broken in such cases that involve the divine law or familial piety. "Not ashamed for a moment, not to honor my brother, my own flesh and blood." Sophocles uses periphrasis to emphasize the importance of familial piety to Antigone. Upon hearing the news of Polynices burial, Creon decides that she must be punished accordingly - regardless of whatever relationship they have. He feels betrayed by Antigone's actions, and because of their conflicting views, Creon - who defines citizenship as complete obedience to the will of the state, condemns Antigone to death because he feels that she has abandoned her citizenship by disobeying him and thinking differently. Creon elaborates on his disgust towards Antigone's actions by using an exclamatory sentence to show his confidence in his solution to Antigone's predicament: "I'm going to kill her!" It is a rather ironic declaration because no sense of the expected familial piety from the uncle is shown. He expresses his strong disgust, singling her out using a hyperbole "the traitor, the only one in the whole city," to place emphasis on the gravity of the situation - how Antigone is the first person to ever deliberately go against his orders of human law. Thus begins the battle between Creon and Antigone's different law systems.
Creon views Antigone as a threat to the gender roles of the social hierarchy - an inspiration to rebels and dissidents, as she breaks some of the most fundamental rules of the human laws of her society. He strongly believes in the misogynist rule, which he has enforced into the Theban society. Creon announces that he could never admit defeat to a woman, as that would displease the divine law even more so than killing his own niece. Creon uses per along with a parenthesis and puts an end focus of "never" so that the audience are left ...
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Creon views Antigone as a threat to the gender roles of the social hierarchy - an inspiration to rebels and dissidents, as she breaks some of the most fundamental rules of the human laws of her society. He strongly believes in the misogynist rule, which he has enforced into the Theban society. Creon announces that he could never admit defeat to a woman, as that would displease the divine law even more so than killing his own niece. Creon uses per along with a parenthesis and puts an end focus of "never" so that the audience are left with the distinct message: "never let some woman triumph over use - never be rated inferior to a woman, never." In some sense, he does acknowledge his actions as complying with the divine law even though further on in the book he makes it clear that he has no respect for the gods. He mocks the king of gods -by portraying Antigone in a vulnerable light to make it seem as though she is begging for help - to which Creon tells the people to "Let her cry for mercy." Creon then continues to expand on the depiction of her weakness in the following clause: "sing her hymns to Zeus who defends... kindred blood," as if she sends her pathetic pleas to Zeus, a last call for any source of hope. Perhaps he acknowledges the divine law to provide a reason for the Thebans to perceive him as a fair ruler.
Creon also mentions that it would also be a massive betrayal to his principles supporting the misogynist rule of human law. He expresses his strong belief in the misogynist rule by using many literary devices as well as tautology. He begins the third stanza, "Anarchy -" using a parenthesis to build suspense and emphasis on the idea of chaos. "Show me a greater crime in all the earth!" In this exclamatory sentence, the imperative verb, "show me" is used to generate fear, forcing the audience to sway towards agreeing with Creon's confidence in the misogynist rule. He then goes on to personify anarchy as a woman to signify that women cause chaos, "she, she destroys cities, rips up houses, breaks the ranks of spearmen into a headlong rout." Here, the triple is used to give the impression that women provoke a numerous amount of destructive acts. The metaphor of the "ranks of spearmen" being broken into a "headlong rout" implies that women confuse even the strongest men - causing them to retreat mindlessly. He also uses a lot of dynamic verbs, which highlights the violence of women and anarchy itself as they, "rip up houses." Creon then notes how we "must defend men who live by law," and uses fricative alliteration to emphasize how important he believes the role of human laws are to prevent chaos, moreover how important it is to comply with misogynist rule.
However, because of the Creon's infatuation with the misogynist rule, he becomes blinded by his own pride. Pride itself is seen as a despicable trait by the gods - worthy of no mercy. The gods believe that no man can ever create laws equal to or above the divine laws. However, Creon continues to enforce the misogynist rule and attempts to execute Antigone because she favored the honoring of her brother. He remains stubborn - bashing Antigone for being a traitor, and later in the play - still refuses to admit to his mistakes even when Tiresias makes them explicit. He responds to Tiresias, "Just don't speak it out for profit." Here Sophocles uses the pun of "profit" which sounds like "prophet", providing a close link to the two as to degrade the respected role of the prophet. This highlights Creon's paranoia and his need to demean Tiresias as he shows a more defensive rather than diplomatic attitude to the idea of his actions being wrong. He only agrees to take into consideration Tiresias' prophecy because Tiresias has never been wrong - not necessarily because he believes in the divine law. Creon first proceeds to bury Polyneices, but Antigone has already hanged herself. Then, when Creon arrives at the tomb, Haemon attacks him and then kills himself too. Upon receiving the news of the death of her son, Creon's wife Eurydice takes her own life too- leaving Creon all alone with the ultimate guilt for all these tragedies. "Take me away, I beg you, out of sight." Here Sophocles uses the imperative verb, "Take" to contrast with Creon's previous pride in himself - leaving him in a new state of vulnerability. Furthermore, he begs the gods - the divine law whom he mocked previously to take him "out of sight." Commas are used for emphasis on his feeling of the need to disappear as he feels so ashamed of himself. This ultimately shows the power of the divine law as it strips Creon of his pride and dignity after he refused to respect the authority and warnings from the gods. It also shows how human law can lead to ignorance of what seems like the more powerful law of the gods.
Expanding on how human law leads to ignorance, Creon's hasty willingness to kill his own niece also highlights his own selfishness. He becomes so infatuated with preserving his own interpretation of the law (misogynist rule), that he purposely ignores the other option of embarking on a more progressive decision, which could clearly benefit Thebes in terms of making it less conservative. Here we see that the human laws which Creon follows and dictates can be detrimental and self-destructive in the sense that with Creon following his own laws he became close-minded into thinking that his law was the only laws that existed - which prevented him from considering another human law (the abandonment of the misogynist rule, which would make gender roles more equal and beneficial to his people.
Antigone opposes Creon's strong views on human law. She commits to burying her brother Polynieces, fully aware that she will have to sacrifice her own life to stand up for her beliefs. She proves fully willing to do so not only because she believes it is morally and ethically right, but also because she bases her values on the divine law rather than on human law. When Polynieces corpse was not buried, the gods were insulted and angry since this was thought of to be extremely disgraceful to the body as well as the family of the body. Tiresias tells Creon how the gods will not accept any offerings because of Polynieces unburied body, "Not from those offerings... over the embers slid a heavy oozen from the long thigh bones, smoking, sputtering out..." In this quotation, ellipsis is used to provide anticipation, and to slow the pace down as Tiresias waits for the gods to accept the offering. He uses sibilant alliteration to emphasize the sinister sentence mod, "smoking, sputtering" as if to note that something is terribly wrong. In contrast to Creon's disapproval for the burial of Polynieces, Antigone acknowledges that Polynieces is a traitor to Thebes - but a brother nonetheless. And at the end of the play, despite being labeled a traitor by her own uncle, and despite having to die for her cause - Antigone is exonerated for going against the human laws set by Creon and having buried her brother Polynieces.
Taking into consideration the name Zeus - supposedly the king of gods, it should be noted that this speech contains one of the five times where Zeus is referenced in the entire play. Sophocles' intentional lack of mention of his name could be a reminder to suggest that the tragic events in the play do not occur as a result of divine intervention, but rather a result of human mistakes.
In addition, the power of the divine law is shown through passing on of the course from generation to generation. Antigone not only suffers solely because she chooses to stand up for the divine law - but also because it was her destiny to suffer. Oedipus' sin has cursed the family. The Chorus admits, "For once a family cursed by God, disasters come like earthquake tremors, worse with each succeeding generation." In this quotation, Sophocles uses the simile of "earthquake tremors" to help the audience understand the power of the divine law and the effects of the curse which they brought on Oedipus' family - the unexpected and frequent disasters which "worse[n] with each succeeding generation."
In conclusion, the divine law is seen to have a much more powerful effect than that of human law. Antigone being representative of the divine law sacrifices her life to honor her brother and please the gods. Condemned at first by her uncle Creon, she is later exonerated for her actions while Creon suffers a harsher fate. He believes in human law and believes that a traitor should never be forgiven - thus explaining his decisions to condemn the burial of Polynieces, and sentence Antigone to death. In the end, Creon's failure to respect the divine law leads to his family deserting him for death and he suffers from the ultimate punishment of guilt. He becomes so blinded and infatuated with the misogynist rule that he fails to consider any other human laws, which could balance the inequality of the genders, and benefit the people of Thebes, demonstrating the detrimental effects of following human law. Sophocles also mentions the name of the king of gods - Zeus, to emphasize the fact that the tragic events in the play do not occur as a result of divine intervention -but rather human error. He also demonstrates the withstanding power of the divine law through the passing of Oedipus' curse through subsequent generations.
