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Matriarchial vs Patriarchial Values

and asks her if she is ashamed. She replies, Not ashamed for a moment, not to honor my brother, my own flesh and blood (1281). Antigone does not regard her dedication to family as disloyal or shameful. Antigone places reverence to family above the law, Creons decree. Even aware of the consequences, death, Antigone buries her brother and faces her execution in glory.Closely associated with devotion to kinship in this play is worship of the gods of the earth and their laws and traditions, which Antigone clearly represents. Antigone feels that burying Polynices is what the gods of the earth demand in accordance with their rituals. Her devotion to appeasing the gods is evident when she says to Ismene, I have longer to please the dead than please the living here: in the kingdom down below Ill lie forever (1269). She lives in this world for only a short time but she will live in the underworld for eternity therefore, her devotion is better placed to the gods. According to the rituals of the gods, all corpses should be buried. This is apparent when Antigone tells Ismene that their brothers unburied corpse is an outrage sacred to the gods (1269). When she asks her sister to help bury their brother Ismene refuses. Antigone perceives Ismenes refusal to help as dishonoring the laws the gods hold in honor (1269). After Antigone is caught and brought to Creon she tells Creon that she violated his decree because of the gods. She tells him it wasnt Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation--- not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. A god or someone on behalf of the gods did not make this proclamation; therefore, it cannot supercede the laws and traditions of the gods of the earth. Antigone thinks that no mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions, not even the king (1279). She would not allow the laws of the gods to be broken in...

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