Sunday, October 14, 2012
Empathy for Antigone
According to Aristotle, "pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a character like ourselves," the character that I feel more empathetic for is Antigone. Antigone's personality displays that she cares about family and religion more than state laws. Antigone's loyalty to her family enables her to break the laws and bury her dead brother, who was a traitor to the state. Antigone is royalty and would be thought to value her state more than her family. In reality, she proves to be more loyal to her family than the state. Even though her brother was a threat to her state, she buried him after a law made it forbidden to bury Polynices. She simply states that she buries her brother because her religion insists her to. As she tells Creon, " Nor did I think your edict had such a force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are not alive, not just today or yesterday, they live forever.." (Lines 503-507, page 82). She verbalizes that she cares more about her religion and her family than she cares about Creon's laws. I put my family in front of the laws as well. I believe that I should help out my family even if I get in trouble for it. I don't believe in betraying my family so that I don't get into trouble. My beliefs cause me to feel more empathetic for Antigone than I do for Creon.
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