Following the Higher Law

Defying the laws of the land requires great courage and carries even greater significance and implications when this is done for reason of morality. Being able to recognize the inherent immorality and disrespect which is bound up in a higher authority, and act against it, not to purely rebel, but for advocacy and protection of moral obligations is extremely profound and encourages correct living in society. Antigone clearly does this through her action of burying her brother, considered a traitor to her city of Thebes, although this defies the law set in place by King Creon, who was also her uncle. While her action was viewed as outright disobedience and treason to authority, it was a display of true courage and advocacy, treating her fallen brother rightly, with dignity even in death, as all people deserve. Antigone’s courage was ultimately rooted in firm commitment to principles which no human ruler could restrict. She demonstrated that these values of honoring the dead, advocating for the vulnerable and devotion to family, are fundamental to being human and cannot be compromised to appease a flawed human ruler. Antigone’s actions emphasize that morality cannot be defined and mindlessly followed by laws or government. Creon represents that moral flaws within human laws that can occur, and the consequences which follow when these are bound to so tightly, even when it is clear that they challenge what the human heart recognizes as righteous and correct. Antigone’s resistance reveals the tension between adhering to what is legal versus what is ethically right, which exists to this day. In the end, Antigone finds favor in the eyes of the gods, dying with honor and their approval, as they praised her bravery to defend higher moral laws although this guaranteed a consequence of death. On the other hand, Creon created discord within his family, with his son and wife ending up committing suicide in a rippling effect of his stubbornness and refusal to withdraw the law; he lived on but was emotionally destroyed by grief. Such different ends for these two more profoundly indicates that dignity and compassion must be upheld, and losing sight of these is destruction of self and one’s humanity. Moral courage should not be an exception reserved for the especially bold, but an action everyone must be willing to take to uphold dignity, even when it is dangerous.