82 year old South African social rights activist, Desmond Tutu once said "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them". This quote exemplifies the perfect reasoning behind Antigone's actions in burying her brother Polyneices. In Antigone by _______ despite the threat of death for defying Creon's edict, Antigone goes ahead and buries her brother simply because of her strong sibling love, religious obligations and taking a stand in the social/ political view on women in Athens. .
Antigone buries her brother simply out of loyalty to her family. Eteocles, they say, has had his burial according to our customary rites, to win him honor with the dead below" () Antigone says. She wishes that Polyneices got a proper burial so he too will have the "customary rites". Although she is aware of him betraying the city (according to Creon), he still deserves a proper burial, as he is her brother. Antigone knows that her family is anything near good; therefore, with her brother trying to invade the city, she still believes that he deserves the respect the dead receive. Ismene is quite timid at the thought of trying to bury her brother and represents the majority of the people at the beginning, that of being too afraid to go against Creon and the law. Later in the play, Haimon comes to his father Creon and says ""(). The people do not understand the law and many don't agree with it. However, it is not because of the law that she is attempting to bury her brother. If Creon hadn't made the law, Antigone still would have made an attempt to bury Polyneices. Her issue was being that of the importance of family and doing what she believed was right. .
Antigone's prime motivation in burying Polyneices was her religious obligation of burying the dead. Although Antigone is set on burying her brother, Ismene is a little reluctant, as she does not want to go against the law of the city.
