CONCLUSION

On the surface, the Antigone vindicates piety. Creon is punished for having violated the divine law and, though Antigone dies in her attempt to uphold that law, her death is avenged.

Yet, of the two, it is only Antigone who truly comes to wrestle with the question of piety and justice in the course of the play. By the end of the play, she begins at least to face the questions of whether her actions were just, pious, and wise, whether justice truly means devotion to the family, whether she was right to sacrifice earthly happiness for the sake of happiness in an afterlife, and whether it is wise or even possible to live primarily for others. Creon never exposes himself to such ques­tioning. He is either adamantly confident that justice means devotion to the city or adamantly confident that justice means devotion to the family. The moment before he begins to yield to Haemon, Creon threatens to execute his fiancee before his eyes (758—61, 770—80). The moment before he completely yields to Teiresias, he bitterly denounces him as one who “loves to do injustice” (1059; see 1033—63, 1091— 1114). Creon lacks the strength to face uncertainty. Just as he believes that “there is no greater evil than anarchy” (672) in the city or in the family, so he believes that there is no greater evil than anarchy within one's soul. But it is only if one is willing to experience such anarchy in one's soul, to wonder which beliefs are true and hence truly deserve to rule one's soul and one's life, that one has any hope of discovering the truth and of living a life based on the truth. Antigone demonstrates her superiority to Creon by daring to expose herself to the anarchic expe­rience of wonder. Rather than simply clinging to, or simply jettisoning, her most cherished convictions about justice and about the possibility of happiness, as Creon does, she genuinely questions them. In her willingness to wonder about justice and piety, Antigone proves to be stronger, more courageous, more “manly,” than Creon.^[105]

Through the character of Antigone in particular, the play invites the audience to think through the ultimate consequences of their beliefs about justice and piety. It invites the audience to go further along the path of doubt and questioning followed most clearly by Antigone. In this way, the play invites us to ascend from the pious heroism of Antigone to the humane wisdom of Sophocles.