Mortal Law Verses Divine Law Essay

Laws were just as important to ancient societies as they are today, keeping an essential balance between interacting individuals. With bring out them, extremitys of a partnership would be able to treat their fellow citizens in any delegacy they wished, even if for purely personal gain. Some of these rightfulnesss were made by the loss leader or leaders of the society. These were accepted as being for the common good. opposite laws were developed within the society, things deemed socially acceptable. Examples from today might be manduction with your mouth closed and dressing formally for a church service. in that location were in addition laws that were set by religious beliefs or moral codes and were extremely respected. Brea pansy these laws would sloshed doing something like stealing, killing, or cheating. As cultures evolved, and beliefs changed, written, social, and ethical laws very a great deal conflicted with each other and created conflicts in society, as describ ed by the piddle Antigone by Sophocles. In this play, there is a clear conflict between the written law made by the king, and the higher law, dictated by the religious beliefs of the time.When Creon, the king of Thebes, decrees that the body of Polyneices should be left un bury, he believes he is doing the right thing. He sees this law as good for the mountain because they allow for see him as a good, strong king who will non tolerate traitorous behavior from anyone, including his give birth nephew. When the body is disc all overed to befool been covered with dust, the first person that Creon looks to for taking the pat is the unfortunate vigil who brings Creon the news. Creon tells the sentry that if he does not bring him the person who disobeyed his law that he is going to string you up alive, and there will be authoritative ways to make you discover your employer before you die ( p. 314).The king is expect that there is an entire group of workforce conspiring to defy his law and they bribed the sentry to cover the body out of spite. The king seemingly feels that the law was only justified and that his people felt the same way. He feels that only men out to do great wrong would oppose it. The king is also using the poor sentry as a scapegoat so that he will feel, and have his people feel, that justice has been done, even if the malefactor is not found.When the guilty party is found to be merely a young girl who loves her b languishher and wanted his spirit appeased, the king is appal because she blatantly states that his laws are incompatible with the laws of the gods. She also refuses to feign innocence. Fully confessing her actions indicates that she feels no guilt or remorse astir(predicate) what she has done. Creon interprets Antigones attitude to mean she is equivalently traitorous to her brother and that she should share his fate.Ismene, her sister, was also guilty of shift a written law because she knew that Antigone was going to co mmit her crime yet did not tell anyone. This means she broke a frequently lesser law than her sister, but she is innocent of the crime involving burying her brother. Creon, however, feels that she is just as much a traitor as her insolent sister.Antigone is also guilty of shift a social law of her time. It was expected that people respect the kings laws without question. She t centenarian him to his face his law was corrupt. This socially unacceptable behavior is subsequent repeated by Creons son, Haimon, and the blind prophet, Teiresias. Haimon tries to be discrete with his upbraiding and uses logic to attempt to convince his father that what he is doing is wrong. Despite Haimons efforts to evade his fathers bad appease, a fight breaks out and Creon stubbornly insists that his law is not only justified, but the only reasonable course of action for any respectable king.Surely if Creon would not bear in mind to emotional or logical line of descents he would listen to the prop hetic argument provided by the infamous Teiresias. He has much less to worry about when it comes to the unspoken laws of society since he is not a conventional member of society. When he approaches the king, Teiresias is very clear in his opinion of the situation. This causes Creon to lose his temper again and he accuses Teiresias of taking bribes, just as he accuses both the sentry and Haimon when they tried to tell him what he could not see. Later, however, the king realizes that the old prophet has always been right before and is in a much better position to place blame than Creon himself is in.As obstinate as Creon is, the fact that he only realizes that his law is wrong when Teiresias tells him that he is breaking the gods laws demonstrates how highly regarded higher set of laws are. The people of Creons time believed that everyone must have a proper burial. When Creon left Polyneices in the field to rot and be devoured by animals, he was guilty of a true atrocity. rase thoug h he was clearly guilty, he continued to put the blame on others, even those close to him when they tried to inform him of his grave mistake. Antigone effected that the higher law was more important than Creons law. That is why she defied Creon and buried her beloved brother. Antigone is the only person in the play who chooses to face the animosity of a mere mortal rather than suffer the wrath of gods.Everyone mint identify with Antigones attitude because all people have their own set of higher laws or moral grades. These values have changed over time. Different people from different times and different cultures are obviously going to have varying views. In the days when everyone had the same value system because they were all the same religion, these values were reflected in the laws. As people progressed, they separated into different religions and beliefs so the laws changed with them, becoming more based on fairness and equality than enforcing moral values. This made it poss ible for people of some(prenominal) different beliefs to live together in relative peace and harmony.