S1- Unit 2 Moodle: Antigone

I define obligation as something you feel it is your duty to do, whether that be through commitment to your state, your family, or a higher power. Antigone is given conflicting obligations, she can either choose to obey Creon’s orders and leave Polynices unburied, or she can follow custom and bury her brother, but face death as a result(229-231 & 111-113). An obligation is given force through multiple ways, such as the respect, the power, or the wealth someone holds who establishes obligations. Creon’s obligations throughout Antigone are given force because of the immense power he has and the fear he wields to keep people obedient. Antigone’s obligations are given force because of both the respect she holds for her religious customs and the gods as well as the unconditional love she has for her brother. Both of these obligations are given force in different ways, but they conflict with each other so a way to reconcile this conflict must be found. One way to reconcile these conflicting obligations would be using Kant’s Formula of Universal Law. In Antigone, Creon’s order to not bury Polynices conflicts with the held custom of burial rights for all. Using the formula, if Creon says Eteocles should be buried it should then follow that everyone who dies should be buried, but instead, Creon adamantly demands for Polynices to stay unburied. This also works in the reverse, If Creon says that Polynices should stay unburried that means that Eteocles should also stay unburried. These things makes Creon’s order completely unjust to follow and therefore puts Antigone’s obligation to her brother’s burial above her obligation to obey Creon’s order to not bury him.

Works Cited

Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Books, 1984.

Kant, Immaneul. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by H. J. Paton, Hutchimon Publishing Group Limited.