Is Antigone or Creon right

Answer 1

The question is difficult to answer, because of the role of one's beliefs. On the one side, there are those who believe in a higher, unchanging morality of behavior and misbehavior. On the other, there are those who believe in the laws of the earthly rulers. Such rules may change from ruler to ruler. The consequence therefore is changing definitions of behavior and misbehavior. But one at least may say that Antigone is correct in her concern over the perceived unfairness of manmade laws. In her case, the law of her uncle, Theban King Creon, defines the ties of blood and love as ending with behavior that isn't in accord with royal decrees. The law goes on to deny the expected traditional rights, by which Thebans live, to those who engage in perceived misbehavior. In other words, punishment is meant to be carried out in life and in death. One also may say that the King is correct in his concern over respect for the ruler and his rules. It tends to be a rare historical occasion when everyone in a community has favorable opinions on all of the laws. At the same time, for the survival of the individual and of the community, it tends to be a wise course to respect those laws that one doesn't like along with those that one does. But lawgivers and laws aren't perfect. Lawgivers and rulers make mistakes. And what ties the two concerns of Antigone and her uncle together is the following question: What does one do about a perceived inhumane, unfair, unjust, unpopular law? Antigone sees no other recourse than civil disobedience. Her uncle sees no other recourse than unquestioning devotion to the ruler and unquestioning compliance with the law no matter the insult to the gods, no matter the large-scale desecration to unburied corpses, and no matter the suffering of the loved ones that the scavenged, unburied dead leave behind.