Judgments And Antigone Essay Research Paper Throughout

Judgments And Antigone Essay, Research Paper

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 fiancйe 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 .mental

opinions. and made a decision to bury Polynices. Creon however, could not make

sense of Antigone.s action to bury her brother. When Creon hears about the

burial of Polynices he reacted by saying .What. / What man alive would

dare-. (1314). This shows that Creon is not used to being defied by people in

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