Judgments And Antigone Essays - Mythological Kings, Antigone

Judgments and Antigone Throughout history mankind has always been faced with judgments. According the Oxford English Dictionary, judgment means "the mental ability to form an opinion" (AHD, 454). We are forced to make decisions based on our "mental opinions." Then, one's actions are based on ?mental opinions' which are judged by other people. Then there is the inevitable justification of these actions by other people or the person themselves. According the Oxford English Dictionary, justify means "to demonstrate sufficient legal reason for (an action taken)" (456). Once those actions are justified, they are considered morally and legally acceptable and are therefore are left alone. However, many times in a person's life, some decisions based on judgments are not justifiable. That is what causes conflict and separation among people. Often this disparity in perception on judgment leads to crime and punishment. This is very apparent in young children. If a younger brother bothers his older sibling, the older sibling often cannot understand why. So he or she feels that the younger sibling's action is not justifiable. Since it cannot logically be justified, the older brother or sister usually decides to punish the younger sibling by hitting him or her. This leads to crime and punishment. Now it is difficult for the parents of those children to justify the reason for argument. So they punish their children by putting them in ?timeout'. And this whole concept is what underlines both Antigone, by Sophocles and The Reader, by Bernard Schlink. In both stories, judgments arise and decisions are made based on those judgments. When those judgments cannot be justified, they are sent to be judged upon by a higher authority. This is all due to a difference in opinion which leads back to whether those unjustifiable decisions were considered a crime that deserve punishment. The focus of this paper is to point out some decisions based on judgments that could not be justified. It is also a discussion questions the possibility of justification in these judgments. When a person thinks of Antigone, his or her first thought is usually, "Oh yes, I know her, she was that tragic hero." This shows that Antigone did something right, and was falsely accused because one, heroes do not ever do anything wrong, and two, something tragic or uncalled for happened to her. Basically, Antigone lived with her sister in their uncle's royal house in Thebes. Creon was king there, and his decisions, opinions, and judgments were the law in Thebes. Laws that even superceded the laws of the gods. Creon's power shows when he and Heamon are having a conversation; Heamon was angered by his fathers thought to kill his fiance and reacted by questioning. "Protect your rights? / When you trample down the honors of the gods?" (Schilb 1328). Heamon was trying to say that Creon's right to make judgments could not be defended when those judgments go against the Gods. Creon reacted by saying "Is that so! / Now, by heaven, I promise you, you'll pay- / taunting, insulting me! Bring her out,/ that hateful- she'll die now, here, / in front of his eyes, beside her groom" (1328-1329). This proves as an example of Creon's power in Thebes. Antigone did the worst possible thing in Thebes. She defied the power of her uncle. After Antigone's brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, killed each other in combat, Antigone was saddened. What made her feel worse was that Polynices was not to be buried and paid respect to because Creon did not like him. Grief-stricken, Antigone decided that she was going to bury her brother no matter what the cost. So she went ahead and buried her Polynices. Antigone's determination was shown in her conversation with her sister Ismene when Antigone said: Why not? Our own brothers' burial! / Hasn't Creon graced one with all the rites,/ disgraced the other? Eteocles, they say, / has been given full military honors, / rightly so- Creon's laid him in the earth/ and he goes with glory down among the dead. / But the body of Polynices, who died miserably/ - why, a city-wide proclamation, rumor has it,/ forbids anyone to bury him, even mourn him. / He's to be unwept, unburied, a lovely treasure/ for birds that scan the field and feast to their heart's content. (1308) Antigone was able to justify her judgment that it was all right to bury her brother because he deserved to be mourned just like Eteocles. There was nothing that could have stopped Antigone from burying her brother. So she listened to her