Micro-Activity # 6: Antigone

            The story of Antigone shows what a morally just person will go through to achieve their goals and see their vision to light. Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta was born into a family of three siblings. Antigone had one sister, Ismene and two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices. Oedipus was king of the land but when he was younger he was sent far away so he never knew who his parents were and when he returned to his land and became king he ended up falling in love with Jocasta. Not knowing this was his mother they bore four children before them knowing. Once it was revealed Oedipus lost his right to throne and was killed, then his brother Creon came in to take over. On the two sides, each of Oedipus’ two sons fought and both of them killed each other in battle. Eteocles who were fighting for Creon were allowed to be buried but Polynices who fought on the other side were not laid to rest and were made to rot away on the pavement. Creon said anyone who attempted to bury his body would be punished and stoned to death.

            This is where Antigone becomes disobedient, she sees Creon’s new law as unjust and dishonorable to her family and her brothers. What motivates Antigone’s disobedience was her own moral code; she saw it as her duty to her family and to the gods to have it be that both her brothers were properly buried. Based purely on Antigone’s statements and actions she is definitely a hero in this tragic story. She was only doing what was right and was standing up to a figure of power and oppression in Creon.

              The character of Creon helps us to think a lot about justice, power, and authority. In Antigone, Creon was a supreme ruler and oppressed his people. All of his citizens and soldiers were terrified of him and he used his power unjustly when things were ethically wrong for him to do so. Not only that but Creon was Antigone’s uncle yet he threatened killing her and her sister, erasing his own brother whole bloodline just because of a sister wanting to bury her brother and even after the allseer, who had never been wrong before advised him to go back on his punishment he barely still didn’t listen. The play has definitely made me think about the world we live in today and how different structures of power are used and get to determine what is right and wrong and then they get to play with people’s lives in the process. The whole system has been messed up from the beginning of humanity or maybe there is no way to fix it and we are just destined to forever continue down this cycle as even stories from centuries ago still have relevance to today’s society. Have we not made any strides towards improvement for the betterment of humanity? Watching the video of the play helped me to understand the characters on a deeper level. The Interviews they conducted in between when portraying the story keyed us into some more relevancy into today’s world where powers similar to that of Creon are still around making big decisions and ruining lives in the process.