Divine Law Vs Human Law Essay
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Divine Law vs. Human Law
Sophocles’ famous play, Antigone, can be perceived as a conflict between individual conscience and state policy. Yet the issue of the play goes beyond that conflict and touches the universal conditions of suffering, religion, and loyalty. Through Antigone’s character--which represents the spheres of family loyalty, divine law, and human suffering, Sophocles conveys the idea that a law of man that violates religious law is not a law at all. He expresses this idea by having Antigone dutifully bury her brother’s body although it is against King Kreon’s ruling. Antigone’s action is not only an act of family loyalty but is an act of piety demanded by the gods.
The play commences with Antigone announcing her decision to bury her dead brother, Polyneices, although Kreon, the King of Thebes, declared that Polyneices’ body will remain unburied. He said, “[...] Polyneices, the exile, [...] will have no ritual, no mourners,/will be left unburied so men may see him/ripped for food by dogs and vultures” (Sophocles 237-242). This goes against Greek religion in which if a body is not given proper burial rites, the body’s soul is condemned to torment and will wander aimlessly through space. When Antigone sprinkles dust three times over her brother’s dead body, it is equivalent to burial and Polyneices’ soul can take its place in the realm of Hades (Sophocles 522-3). Antigone defends her actions by saying that man-made laws are not dominant over the laws that the gods made: “I didn’t suppose your decree had strength enough,/or you, who are human,/to violate the lawful traditions/the gods have not written merely, but made infallible.” Antigone’s actions suggest that divine law in this context is superior over moral law. She tells Kreon that “[...] Death is a god/who wants his laws obeyed” (Sophocles 634-5). By saying this, Antigone shows that she would rather sacrifice her life to devotion to higher principles that to human law and suffering.
Suffering is a universal condition that the characters in the play must deal with. Since the day Polyneices and Eteokles died, Ismene suffers by not being capable of having emotions. She says to Antigone: “Nothing makes me happy, nothing hurts me anymore” (Sophocles 22). The loss of loved ones can cause one to suffer but to not honor those who died can cause a vast amount of distress. Because Eteokles was honorably buried and Polyneices was not, Antigone suffered for her brother; the guilt built every second he remained unburied. She does not regret burying her brother by saying, “But if I had let my own brother stay unburied/I would have suffered all the pain I do not feel now” (Sophocles 572-3). She would rather bury her brother and go against the state than live...
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