Antigone

In Sophocles’s Antigone, Antigone wants to bury one of her brothers who was ordered not be buried by Creon. She is not afraid of death in the case that she is caught. It’s a pretty straightforward plot even though there are multiple themes that present themselves through Creon and Antigone’s conversations. But there is a larger idea in the story which is quite ironic when put into context – no, I did not talk about this in my essay, though I should have. Would you really risk everything just for a noble act?

Probably not.

An easy example of this came up in a Socratic Seminar from my last year’s English class. We were talking about Nazi Germany, and someone asked if we would help the Jews – or any other victims – if we were a German safely living in that area. Most of us said no, and Mrs. Valentino literally asked “what is wrong with all of you?” as she was astonished with our answer.

I’m not trying to call her out or anything, but she really shouldn’t have been surprised. In hindsight, it’s easy to say what we would have done if we were in that situation, but we weren’t, and we probably wouldn’t have done the noble and moral thing. Sure, when the risks are low, you might give in: like if you snitch on someone to a teacher. But when the cost – if caught – of acting nobly is death, most ordinary people wouldn’t risk it because survival is the most important thing in that situation: that’s just how we have evolved over thousands of years.

So what’s so ironic with this and Antigone? Well Antigone is basically an ordinary person. I know her parents are messed up, but she hasn’t trained to give up her life for any cause or anything which would result in her absolute devotion to burying her brother. Philosophers were known for exploring morals and human nature, yet Antigone acted in the exact opposite of human nature. The whole story hinges on something that would almost certainly – from a morality perspective – never happen in real life.