The Central Conflict in Antigone

The central conflict in Antigone has to do with someone’s deep respect. If the respect should be higher towards the laws of man, or the laws of the gods. This central conflict came about, since the people that lived in Thebes are used to living their lives peacefully. While the people of Thebes are living there lives peacefully the battle against the Argive army begins. The end results of the war are that the Thebans defeat the Argive army. After the war as tradition all of the Theban dead are buried out of respect for the gods and for the loved ones that the dead leave behind. However, the Theban King, Creon decides to implement a law won’t allow for the disloyal Thebans to be buried. This new law conflicts with his niece, Antigone. This is a problem for Antigone, since she obeys the rules of the higher moral authority, than the laws that the Thebans create. 

Even though Creon creates the law that no one is allowed to bury a disloyal Theban, Antigone still believes that the laws of the gods are much more important than the laws of man, so she still tries to bury her brother Polyneices. This is a problem, since Creon had said that anyone who buries any of the disloyal Theban will die. Creon believes that the laws of man are higher than the laws of gods. He believes that everyone should follow the laws of mans no matter who you are. Haemon who is Creon’s son, as well as Antigone’s fiancé, knowing Antigone’s beliefs on the law and Creon’s beliefs on the law, begs for Creon to change his rule. Creon still doesn’t listen and doesn’t change his ruling until it became too late. Creon still can’t accept what Antigone is doing and sentences her to death for disobeying the law of man.

There is a lot of symbolism in Antigone. Antigone and Creon who were the two characters involved in conflict also have symbolism in their characters. Antigone is driven by family, impulsive action, she represents nature, she looks for support from God and Goddess closely associated with nature, and she represents femininity. Creon, however, is driven by integrity of polis, calculates his actions, represents human-made institutions, he looks for support from official God and Goddess of the state, and he represents masculinity.

What qualifies Antigone as a heroic figure is that she didn’t listen to the rule that said no one was allowed to bury the disloyal Thebans. She honored her brother Polyneices’ dead body. Her character also throughout the story showed that she wasn’t going to give up on her brother Polyneices’ no matter what the consequence was. She showed strength and she didn’t even listen to her uncle Creon. She showed very strong power, since she went against the king Creon wishes. She stood her ground and never gave up no matter how bad it got. She also did this all by herself, since no one wanted to help her bury her dead brother. Antigone, since she went against the king’s rule was dealt with a lot of backlash. Even when she dealt with backlash and she was also going to be faced with death penalty, she still didn’t care and buried her brother. With her dealing with backlash, shunning, and the death penalty she still buried her dead brother and that is what classifies Antigone as a heroic figure.