Pub #1: Law and Morality

                Since the origins of written law with Hammurabi, the Babylonian ruler of the 18^th century BCE, to the Constitution of the United States of America, laws have been passed down orally and etched in stone. When we think of a law, we think of something that binds us, often with a punishment of varying severity for said law’s breaking. In post-modern society, we see laws revolving around verbal and physical assault, drug use, and financing alterations. Often, the laws of the land are in an existential conflict with the laws that govern the mind of the individual. Morals, such as treating everyone with respect, no matter their actions, or taking care of yourself before others, are something that humanity holds within the deepest points of the mind. They subliminally control our actions and, depending on the person, can force them to do things others might view as offensive, or have a lack of care for anything other than their own gain.

In the point of time that the play Antigone takes place, the laws reigning over the lands are often extensively detailed and the punishments being barbaric in nature. These laws are established by a king or other ‘divine ruler,’ and often can range to the most logical rules or a list of the demands of a corrupted madman. Creon is the latter, seeing the world around him as his sandbox, with no form of justice served due to his status, along with himself being this almighty power that must be worshipped, seeing others as his inferior, with the opposite gender viewed as dirt on the ground. “Die then, and love the dead if thou must; No woman shall be the master while I live” (Sophocles 524). In the preceding quote, Creon shows the readers his true colors; he disrespects his own culture, desecrates the body of his kin, and punishes anyone who so much as speaks against his word, showing how written law can be corrupted by the will of man.

                On the opposite side of this metaphorical spectrum, we have the laws of the mind; the laws of the soul. Morals are what philosophers claim to be the line between human and beast. Morals guide our thoughts and actions, determining what is the proper thing to do and what is a horrendous endeavor. More often than not, morals are at a constant battle with the laws of a region or state. For instance, in a darker time, such as during the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, when the Catholic church was grasping Europe at a ravenous pace, absorbing more and more into its congregation, the Church demanded each individual to follow the Word of Christ. However, there have been religions dating far before the Judeo-Christian lore. Those that didn’t follow the Word of Christ, such as the druids, the wiccans, the Jewish, and the Muslims were beaten, incarcerated, or, more frequently, killed. These groups that rejected the constant spread of Christianity believed that their religion was more important to them than their lives, and thus they denied the teachings of the Church, and, inevitably, were killed by the Inquisition, the judicial arm of the Roman Catholic Church. In Antigone, Antigone’s morals ranked higher on her scale of importance than the laws her kin placed regarding her deceased brother. She fought constantly to give him a proper burial, and, against the odds of her uncle, Creon, the entire guardsmen of Thebes, and the people, she faced death itself if it meant to show Polyneices a proper burial, as to not disrespect his name and memory, as Creon demands. Antigone states “I would not welcome such a fellowship. Go thine own way; myself will bury him. How sweet to die in such employ, to rest, -- sister and brother linked in love's embrace-- a sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth, but by the dead commended; and with them I shall abide forever. As for thee, scorn, if thou wilt, the eternal laws of Heaven (69-76),’ which has her depicted as someone who welcomes death if it meant to show respect.

                Looking at the large picture, and taking in both viewpoints, both morals and a code of written law are important in modern society. Morals differentiate us from animals, and keep us human, they individualize us, making our society unique and different. However, written law keeps order, it keeps us checked, and prevents rioting and murder for the most diminutive things. In the end, moral law is more important. Society would throw themselves to the wolves if it meant their offspring were to nibble at the fat lingering on the bones of vermin; they would incarcerate themselves if it meant to show the memory of a long-gone relative the respect they deserved while air circulated through their lungs and blood through their veins. Morals are one thing humans must have, and a high standing of those morals are what makes us truly human.