Name: Dhrubojyoti Saha
Section: 02
ID: 24101279
Course Title and Code: Ethics and Culture/HUM 103
Faculty: Dr. Anindita Chatterjee (Assistant Professor)
Semester: Fall 2024
Submitted to: Dr. Anindita Chatterjee
(Assistant Professor)
Date of Submission: 26, November, 2024
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Introduction: Sophocles’ Antigone talks about kinship, morality, and gender within the
private and public spheres. The defiance of the state law by Antigone embodies a universal
theme: the conflict between family loyalty and state authority. This essay drives into the
actions of Antigone through the lens of gender, morality and kinship ties and explores her
challenges to patriarchal norms and the implications of her defiance. The relevance of such
themes in today’s socio-political landscape made me take this question. The essay will
discuss the dynamics between Antigone and Ismene highlighting different views on kinship
and state law and then connect it with theory. I will be connecting these themes to a
contemporary example: land rights of Hindu women in Indian subcontinent.
Body: In the first scene, Antigone confronts her sister Ismene about Creon’s decree of not
giving proper burial to their brother Polyneices. While Ismene being compliant with the state
law and patriarchal society resisting Antigone not to defy it, Antigone resisted. Antigone
states, “He has no right to keep me from my own.” (Sophocles, c. 441 B.C.E./1954, Line 48).
It highlights Antigone’s prioritization of her own moral value over anything. Her actions
exemplify a moral imperative to honor her kin. The positionality of Antigone represents
courage and gendered resistance. This power dynamic between the two sisters reveals the
intersection of kinship and gender. I do not think Antigone’s act was treasonous or unethical.
Kimberle Crenshaw’s (1991) extension of ‘intersectionality’ explains why Antigone’s
gendered status exacerbates her difficulty. She was fighting against a state law in ancient
Greece, a patriarchal society, which systematically abuses her. Crenshaw, therefore, focuses
on arguing that Antigone’s resistance was informed by her gender and family roles as
females. It only exposes her ethical doctrine and challenges the frustrations that confine
women in powerless positions.
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Even Bina Agarwal’s (1994) theory of women and their control over land under patriarchy
supports the resistance. She despises their capacity to disown the ability in women to uphold
social status systems across patriarchal contexts. Antigone decision to bury her brother
challenges those limitations and puts her in a moral terrain claiming back her space which
Creon has denied right to women.
Antigone’s actions are also conforming to Immanuel Kant (1998) deontological ethical
theories of the performing of proper ethical obligations. He gives more priority to duty than
to consequences. The Kantian Ethics supports her commitment towards adhering morality
to the extent of giving her life for it. Though, such strictly defined morality raises questions
about consequences of total obedience to duty, especially when it is opposite to most
accepted rules in society.
While Antigone’s action was not treasonous, it was not without flaws. She was defying the
state law which stems from her unwavering commitment to familial duty and divine
obligation. But there remains a catch, she did not think of her sister. In scene one, Antigone
tried to get her sister to help her in burying the body. But Ismene was strictly adhering to the
state law and the concept of patriarchal society. Despite the failed act of stopping Antigone,
she buried her brother anyway. Antigone knew that defying state law will result in death but
what will happen to her sister then? She was just so indulged in her own moral values and
biased kinship ties that she forgets about her own sister’s future. These arguments can be
criticized in turn with moral absolutism by Kant, however it has the defect of rigidity in
regard to concrete social relations. Antigone’s rebellion threatens political balance in the
state, provokes the authority of the state and society. Her action of defying state law also
created ethical issues of the effect of strict ethical regime. By placing
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divine and familial duties first she ends up disregarding her own principles above the good of
others in the community. This leads to even more of political instability and even more of
mourning within the family. This is a show that the fight between morality of the individual
and that of society exposes the constraint of her action. Ethical decisions involve an
evaluation process of the individual’s own custom and general culture.
An example would be the Hindu women’s right to property. The demand for property by
women are an opposition to patriarchal society. Well Hindu legislator and leaders
have no intention of allowing Hindu women to inherit property. As a result of the Hindu
women’s right to property in 1937, a notorious British era piece of legislation that disposes
the Hindu women entirely out of their father’s or husband’s property in case there are no sons
to inherit. In the absence of male heir, only the unmarried daughters and married daughters
with sons can inherit property while childless widowed daughters or married daughters
without sons do not inherit anything (Joyee, 2020). Though the laws have been changed
several times, women always remained under oppression of patriarchal society. Bina Agarwal
(1994) highlights how women’s land rights are critical not only for economic empowerment
but also for maintaining familial stability. Similarly, Antigone also prioritizes her kinship ties
over Creon’s decree to ensure her brother’s dignity in death. Her act reflects a resistance to
public law that disrupts private, familial duties.
Property rights of women also raise the problem of the intrusion of public law into private
familial dynamics. Land rights limits of women to undermine family ties. There is, as well,
such a conflict in the denial of Polyneices's burial by Antigone, whose resistance to Creon's
order mirrors the opposition of Polyneices to him. In both cases, public laws endanger the
private sphere forcing women to resist for the good of her own family.
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Conclusion: Antigone's action is an expression of kin and obligation, over state position. The
worlds of familial obligations and public law are driven by a multitude of subversions of
patriarchal and societal norms in ancient Greece. Yet she was so morally righteous as to
blithely ignore the balance of ethics necessary for fulminating individual safety and
happiness, as well as the future of her sister. Similarly, the contest over Hindu women’s
property rights between public law and familial obligation is a struggle. These parallels more
broadly point to the continuing resonance of Antigone’s narrative in our contemporary debate
around understanding gender, morality, and kinship. These intersections provide clues on
how one life manages to flip between one’s ethics and societal norms. The system that valued
social bonds and ensured balance of power between men and women across public and
private sphere needs to be considered by the future.
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References:
1. Agarwal, B. (1994). A Field of Her Own: Gender and Land Rights in South
Asia. Cambridge University Press.
2. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and
violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review.
3. Kant, I. (1998). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by Mary Gregor.
Cambridge University Press.
4. Sophocles, Grene, D., Lattimore, R., &Wyckoff, E. (1991). Antigone. In The Complete
Greek tragedies. University of Chicago Press.
5. Joyee, A. J. (2020, September 10). We must protect Hindu women’s right to inherit
property. The Daily Star. Retrieved from [Link]
protect-hindu-womens-right-inherit-property-1958665