I. Moral Conflict

Both Creon and Antigone stand for certain principles

Creon: the priority of the polis over family and tribe

Creon’s view of the polis is similar in many ways to that of Pericles in the funeral oration: "the polis is our life" (211).

Creon emphasizes how the polis transcends the family or tribe. Indeed it makes friendship between people from different families possible for the first time.

Creon claims that the Gods support his view (318).

Antigone: the priority of family

Insists that the Gods require that all human beings be properly buried and that the law of the Gods is higher than the law of the polis (503, 584).

Claims that she has a particular duty to her brother to bury him (55).

While compromise between these two principles is possible, it is doubtful that principled compromise is possible.

There are good reasons for someone to hold each position and to reject the other. But there ar e no further reasons that can tell us to what extent we should uphold each principle. Any compromise must rest on our judgment about how much weight to give each principle, as well as on our estimate of the consequences of the failure to reach some compromise agreement (the likelihood of breaking if we do not bend).

Indeed it may be the case in Antigone—and is almost certainly the case in other human situations—that no compromise is possible that is not, at the same time, a partial violation of one or both of two competing moral or religious principles. (For example, think of the competing claims of the state and religious pacifists when war time dangers run very great.)

Whether we should be willing to compromise in such situations is likely to depend upon whether we are capable of recognizing our opponents as similarly motivated by deeply held, and plausible, moral and religious principles.

II. Principles and Personal Situation

Creon and Antigone were unable to step back from tragedy by finding some compromise, not just because of the nature of their principles, but, also because of the personal situation, including their character made it impossible for them to recognize the other as holding a compelling moral and religious principle.

Creon

Was a new King and concerned with establishing his authority (326).

Was a domineering and cruel person. He was incapable of backing down from an order. And he seemed to get some joy from the increasingly cruel penalties he sough for those who opposed his will (230; 344; 348; 543; 852).

Was particularly unable to give in to a woman, who may have offended him by taking on a political as well as family role, a role that was entirely contrary to Athenian life (509; 541).

And (as some of you argued) he was especially reluctant to grant aid to a member of the family of Oedipus, perhaps because of the damage they done to the city and perhaps because of his own family connections to them and thus his unwillingness to be seen showing favoritism to someone who was a member of his own extended family and who, in addition, intended to marry his son.

Antigone

Was entirely unconcerned with the good of the polis—unlike Creon who could at least acknowledge the (subsidiary) importance of family.

Is seeking a martyr’s death (516, 980):

to escape from the ills of this life.

to redeem her family.

And also can be interpreted as rebelling against the traditional role of women by drawing one of the traditional women’s roles—that of mourning—into a political controversy.

Both of them:

Seem to be drawn into them selves as well as willful and obsessed about certain concerns.

Are so certain they know the will of the Gods that they substitute their own will for that of the Gods.

Ultimately both Creon and Antigone betray their own principles and concerns.

Creon.

Acts in a way that he is told will harm the city.

He even willingly opposes the Gods (1152).

And, though he does acknowledge the importance of his family to him, he sacrifices them to his own unwillingness to bend.

Antigone

She says that she would only take this action for a brother. This (contested) passage helps confirm the view that Antigone is especially concerned with her the reputation and standing, with both men and Gods, of her father and brothers.

Antigone’s superiority to Creon, if any, rests in

Even while recognizing that she may be wrong, because the Gods seem to have abandoned her (1013), she holds to her principles while Creon frantically tries to change direction.

He self-obsession is not as likely as Creon’s to be directed at harming others.

There is more justification for her own inability to bend, than for Creon’s similar inability.

III. Human Limits

As indicated above, both Creon and Antigone claim to have reverence for the Gods, but seem to be truly directed by their own concerns and obsessions rather than with discerning the will of the Gods

The play celebrates human power, for good and ill, but warns us to recognize human limits which are best exemplified by death. The proper response to our limits is to weave human and divine law together (376-410).