Anthony Corneau

12-5-11
English 2
Antigone Essay
“There is no guilt in reverence to the dead.”
-Antigone, page 654, line 106.
Antigone is defending not herself, but the honor behind her actions when she buried
Polyneices. She accepted her damnation when she committed herself to burying her brother who
dies in war against his country, and their own brother Eteocles. The importance behind burying
him was that it was the will of the gods to bury the dead, no matter who it was, or what they were
fighting for. Creon states: “You insult Eteocles by honoring a traitor such as much as him.” He
only wants to show honor and respect for those he feels deserve it and pays no heed or attention
to what the will of the gods is. He believes that since Polyneices was a traitor, that it doesn’t
matter what the gods say, he cannot be buried without insulting those who died fighting toward
his beliefs. In the past, Hitler was treated the same way, as in when he died no one was allowed
to touch or bury his body.
Antigone countered: “Ah Creon, Creon, which one of us can say what the gods hold
wicked?” She is risking everything she has, including her life to obey the will of the gods.
Meanwhile, Creon is trying to say that it isn’t the will of the gods to bury an enemy. Later,
Creon’s son, who planned on marrying Antigone, came about and told his father that it would be
wrong to kill her, and it would upset the public people. He said at the end of their argument that
his family’s blood shall pay for this. In the end he killed himself next to Antigone in a desperate
final act of vengeance.