The play Antigone by Sophocles revolves around a central ethical dispute between the protagonist Antigone and the antagonist King Creon. Polynices, Antigone’s brother, has been evolved in a dispute over the kingdom of Thebes, and he dies when attempting to seize power through military action. King Creon, during these turmoils, has risen to the throne of Thebes. As a result of what he views to be Polynices’ insurrectionist actions, Creon refuses a burial ceremony for Polynices and orders any such mourning to be punished. Antigone opposes Creon’s order on the basis that she believes a higher justice exists over the laws of human beings. Antigone’s defense of justice over human law is correct, to the extent that laws themselves are not necessarily just. Antigone thus admirably defends an ethical position applicable to all over temporary and contingent laws.
Antigone’s opposition to the position of Creon is based upon the claim that human laws ultimately are subject to change, while a higher law exists, which Antigone equates with justice, that is unchanging. Antigone’s argument essentially consists of two points. Firstly, that the laws of human being are changing and therefore can be criticized and even broken. Secondly, there is a higher ethical principle of justice which has priority over human law. In the case of the first point, Antigone states the following, when confronting Creon who has apprehended her after she has violated the prohibition to not mourn or bury Polynices: “All the good fortunes of kings, Licensed to say and do whatever they please!” (Sophocles, Scene 1, 401-402) With this remark, Antigone associates the power of kings, and, therefore, by extension, their power to makes laws, with pure chance and fortune. In the play Creon has achieved the throne in the midst of what amounts to a civil war. Her brother Polynices himself could have possibly also been victorious in this same conflict. This would mean that whatever rules the king decides upon are not necessary, but instead contingent. To reach a position of power is not divinely ordained, but is a combination of factors, one of which is chance. Thus, Antigone argues effectively that the laws of the king are not in themselves ethical, just because they are pronounced from a position of authority. Rather, one must understand that authority is not the same as ethics. Because a given law exists does not mean that it is necessarily a good or just law. It rather has been put into place by those who have power.
This first argument is essentially Antigone’s critique of the law, which she then supplements with a defense of an unchanging ethical position. In other words, even though Antigone believes that laws are formed by good fortune and chance of acquiring power, this does not mean that something like ethics does not exist and therefore also ethical acts. Her decision to bury her brother is based on a higher ethical principle, which is not subject to critique. Antigone thus states that “Final Justice/that rules the world below makes no such laws.” (Sophocles, Scene 1, 357-258) On the one hand, Antigone is arguing that what is truly ethical does not need to be articulated in laws. She is arguing that we all have some basic conception of what is good and just. We do not need a law to tell us what to do. Accordingly, this is a type of unchanging justice, which does not need a king to be enforced, but a basic human ethical correlation. Antigone respects this ethical principle. She rejects the law to the extent that it goes against this ethical principle, in this case, respect for the dead.
Antigone’s position is powerful, if we consider, firstly, the chance nature of many laws and the point that not all laws are just or ethical, and, secondly, that there is still a basic ethical principle that human beings can follow. Antigone’s claim that laws are contingent and products of fortune also means that there are bad laws. For example, racism and slavery have also been official laws in human history. Instead, we should follow an ethical principle whatever those who hold power say. Because “Creon’s command has not been ordained by the transcendent law of justice”, (Hughes, 89) this ethical principle reflects fundamental respect to other human beings.
- Hughes, Richard A. Pro-justice Ethics: From Lament to Nonviolence. New York: Peter Lang, 2009.
- Sophocles. Antigone.
