Cardozo School of Law

On Civil Disobedience, Jurisprudence, Feminism and the Law in the Antigones of Sophocles and Anouilh Author(s): Susan W. Tiefenbrun Reviewed work(s): Source: Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Summer, 1999), pp. 35-51 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27670201 . Accessed: 11/11/2011 08:04
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f_

On Civil Disobedience, Jurisprudence, Feminism and the Law in the Antigones of Sophocles and Anouilh
Susan W. Tiefenbrun

star has shone brightly through the millennia. Antigone's has claimed a con The archetype for civil disobedience stellation of first magnitude emulators. Robert M. Cover1

/. Introduction one of the first great heroines of civil disobedience and the of of resistance movements inspiration against tyranny,2 is the prototype to the law. The myth, in resistance the and the her character, alterity play more than one hundred recreations have and interpre Antigone inspired Antigone, in the legal and literary of stature and prominence by writers to ana continue communities. Scholars of law, literature, and feminism to its the better understand and, lyze play jurisprudential underpinnings4 as in particular, law and legal positivism between natural the difference tations3 well as the effectiveness that men as a live with stirring of civil disobedience "too passive of civil example in fifth for legal reform. Thoreau, a laws," cited regard for the moral disobedience.5

noting Antigone

By comparing B.C.E. Athens, and Jean century Sophocles's Antigone? in France in 1944 during the Anouilh's Antigone? written and performed German between this article will focus on the connection Occupation, in ancient and modern civil disobedience and jurisprudence legal systems. written In Sophocles's Antigone, is represented by the ten civil disobedience act of inAntigone's sion between Antigone and Creon, most dramatically causes the defiance, which effectively Despite legal reform in Thebes. obvious differences similarities between between Antigone and Creon, jurisprudential Sophocles positions stresses the their opposing on natural

35

the argument that illegal espouses Sophocles legal positivism. can not but Anouilh does Jean protest appear to accomplish legal reform, In Sophocles's the mindset of the ruler and the agree. Antigone are ultimate which the system hegemonic8 political produced unjust law ly reformed by virtue of the insight tragedy naturally protest, a move non-violent by Antigone's enlightened has the positive effect of suggesting understanding to a of the law. conception pluralistic hegemonic as civil disobedience melodrama does not propose Eventually legal political causes for Anouilh's lying or reform. In this article produces. new Cr?ons

law and

away from a In contrast, Anouilh's an effective force for

I shall try to tease out radical change from the Sophoclean

the under source.

II What is Civil Disobedience?

of this illegal form of protest, civil acceptance a is confusing concept with no universally accepted defini as acts that are non tion.9 John Rawls defined civil disobedience "public, done with the aim of bringing about violent, conscientious yet political... a or in the law of Mere dissent,11 protest, policies change government."10 or disobedience of the law are not enough to qualify as civil disobedience. Despite disobedience are necessary as act of protest to for a particular qualify civil disobedience.12 The act must be nonviolent, ille open and visible, a moral purpose or to to protest an for and law gal,13 performed unjust to the status with the and of object expectation punishment.15 quo14 Several criteria acts on the basis of a justify their amoral to conflicts of law argument, claiming obligation perform the ille acts or, as an a to claimed, gal Antigone obey higher, natural, obligation or divine law whose line of man-made laws. This preempts authority Civil disobedients may attempt to has deep roots in the history of Western thought: Cicero, even Thomas who inscribed on the Grotius, Locke, Jefferson Aquinas, to Great Seal of the United States: "Rebellion against tyrants is obedience argument God." man St. Thomas Aquinas declared that "human law does not bind a in conscience, and if it conflicts with the higher law law, human Luther King wrote should not be obeyed."16 Martin that "an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law."17 stems from The difficulty inherent in the conflicts of law argument to the vagueness of natural law. It is impossible natural law or to codify the historical

36

determine

what

cult to determine to determine Some

or forbids. Since it is diffi that law actually commands if they are part of a legal system at all, it is also difficult how these higher laws apply to concrete cases.18

argue that the legal system itself needs people who are willing reasons. to break the law for "The legitimacy of the system itself political confrontation with disobedience defended by individuals who requires as immoral or to view compliance lawful by individuals persuade seeking change."19 to adduce a Some may attempt that civil dis argument free-speech is a form of protected political Rawls obedience speech.20 John compared an argument to in is to The issue such civil disobedience public speech.21 how far the protection of free speech really goes and whether determine the form are of illegal protest in question is like other communication: which Open tance may forms of protected acts and other nonverbal of the Constitution. impor even when it officials to

responses, gestures, symbolic First the under Amendment protected political that such conduct criticism will

and uninhibited in a democracy appear otherwise question

is of such fundamental be protected

ask literarily but answer in changing is very differently truly effective an answer unjust law and in reforming the legal system that created it. To this question one must posit the existence of an objective moral standard or laws. This objective moral standard, beyond implicit in the man-made is referred to in different ways as natural law, divine law, the law of which The iswhether civil disobedience God, human worth fronted revelation, law, which a brief this perennial or universal is otherwise to and contrasted law, is often compared It will be referred to as legal positivism. con in which of the cultural context Sophocles

rightly unlawful.22 both Sophocles and Anouilh

reminder

question. the Sophists, and Natural law

III. Sophocles, In fifth expressed gether expressed century Athens in edicts or decrees

of natural law was the marginalization that sometimes behavior alto criminalized The Greek Sophists

appropriate a concept just.23 The

to natural law norms. according of law that differed from mainstream

epitomized simply

in Socrates, who Sophists

looked upon the laws of Athens contrasted what they considered

thought, as purely and to be natu

37

is legally right, believing that the unwritten laws rally right with what were eternal, unalterable, from a higher source than the and emanating to Cr?ons decree seems men.24 of decrees objection changing Antigone's to reflect resents an to natural law. Her defiance the Sophistic adherence thus rep a new form of criminal deviance. of example ? in 440 B.C.E.? does not conclude Sophocles's produced tragedy that either natural law (the right of the family) or human law (the right of

hundred

is supreme. The fact that the play has elicited more than one since its in ancient Greece different interpretations performance is a sign of Sophoclean and the author's muted refusal to advo ambiguity cate one or the other forms of Creon both and legal system. Antigone the state) to realize that to one system of law over another has rigid adherence an to err. impasse in the Sophocles's ambiguity marks interesting debate and invites scholars to consider a more balanced jurisprudential led them

come

view of law encompassing law.25 features of both natural and positive and and Creon Indeed, Antigone represent the war of the Ancients in fifth century Athens, which was a city in transition and the Moderns bent on is between sented democracy. establishing the "archaic, familial in Sophocles's dispute play and of codes sentiment,"26 repre usage "new public of the Periclean rationality The central

and the by Antigone, moment,"27 rep Ironically, the youthful Antigone represented by Creon. resents the views of the Ancients, who revered the eternal blood ties, gods, emotion and natural the "mother law. Antigone and nature, represents the hunted her empty nest, animal, (433) (423-425) lamenting on a like who close rock. Niobe, (826-827) ivy Antigone's winding clings is with the the the associated universal, immutable, justice gods below, Creon When and Hades. asked death, (94, 451, 459-460) why she by in a famous speech describing dares disobey his law, Antigone responds the "unwritten laws" and the elements of the natural law she passionately bird" defends: For me Nor mark Nor did out did itwas not Zeus who made that order.

that Justice who lives with the gods below such laws to hold among mankind.

I think your orders were so strong that you, a mortal man, could over-run the gods' unwritten and unfailing laws.

38

Not

now, nor yesterday's they always live, no one knows their and origin in time. (450-457) is older than Antigone, idiom that for Zeus but he identifies represents the Moderns in a

Creon

characteristically Creon shows admiration

style. Sophocles's particular and Olympian 1040-1041) jus tice which presides over the civic order. Creon mocks Antigone's "rever ence of Hades," who rejects Olympian (777, 780) and Antigone, justice, as the "bride of Hades," is referred to scornfully the "bride of death." (487, is the Olympian resides comfortably with gods, whereas Antigone the chthonic Creon with deities of the underworld. rejects belief in the sanctity of blood ties (38, 45-46, 80-81 466-468,

ironic

Creon

associated Antigone's brother,

511) which Antigone defends by reveling in the glory of burying her

in defiance of Cr?ons decree. (502) Polyneices, is from the Sophoclean What clear tragedy is that civil disobedience In Greek does produce positive effects for legal and political reform. tragedy the central conflict other reflects the basically said to be incommensurate in which one is pitted against the protagonist nature of law itself, which was

contradictory with justice or morality.28

IV The Plot of Antigone

a day after the siege of Thebes, play begins during which both of sees the throne pass from have brothers been killed. Antigone Antigone's to Creon, her father, the ill-fated Oedipus, her uncle. Creon orders The in Thebes. While the leader of the siege, to remain unburied Polyneices, to forbid burial in the traduced city, itwas not itwas legal for Creon legal to for him to forbid a family member bury her dead outside of Thebes.29 Cr?ons wants to is a show of force by a newly-crowned king, who state. The the of the for disobe and preserve authority proclaim penalty dience to Cr?ons decree is stoning. decree Antigone law to which Polyneices's based on Cr?ons of her claims to bury her brother obligation the netherworld absolute gods demand cannot resist this demand an based on divine As obedience.

sister, Antigone blood ties, kinship,

for obedience

decree sister,

and an ethical bond. defies Antigone the help and twice goes out to bury her brother, without in should defy men Ismene, who does not think women

the polis.

39

nor Creon ever sees the out that neither Hegel has pointed Antigone a basic one-sided other's point of view.30 Both characters demonstrate ness. In the course of the events of the play, however, each character comes and right and partially wrong, his/her own guilt. After her incarceration Creon each acknowledges by cave and in an underground just before her suicide by hanging, Antigone that her great suffering proves her error. But the main acknowledges comes to Creon after suffering the tragic loss of his son, epiphany and the death unswerving and Tiresias, of his grief-stricken wife, Creon classical hero, listens realizes his mistakes, is seen Unlike the Eurydice. to the message of the and changes. The foreshad to know that the other is partially

Haemon, typical Chorus

in Cr?ons of Antigone's early commutation owing of this change sentence from to an in tomb where imprisonment stoning underground can to in not she Death for life." Creon realizes his mistake "pray laws and in excluding laws of the old tradition customary respecting come are to fear it's best to hold in the earth: "I've where the dead buried the laws of old tradition to the end learned the error of his ways ly admits guilt and decides, life."31 (1112-1113) Having and the unjustness of his laws, Creon final of

law. Even though Creon of the play, his life ends tragically, as he is reduced is a man nothing now." (1320) At the end Creon longing for death.

too late, to free and to change the Antigone one is of the few who remains alive at the end more "nothing stripped of dignity to than and

V Civil Disobedience

in Sophocles's

Antigone

ten In Sophocles's Antigone civil disobedience is represented by the sion between two different characters who are the pillars of multiple bipo in the play: man/woman; lar oppositions established public old/young; the living/the law /divine vision; law; dead; human need/private Olympian manipulative rationality/emotionality; etc. These reflect ten patriarchal oppositions kinship, lineage/matrilinear sions in the law and in the society of Athens in fifth century B.C.E. The gods/chthonic gods; dramatic form of tension isAntigone's is a true civil disobedient who act of civil disobedience. espouses a belief in natural of private, family ties, and in the efficacy of resis in defi laws that are unjust. Antigone's action,

most

Antigone law, in the importance tance against man-made

no

moral

is non-violent, and committed for the decree public, Cr?ons law. of purpose unjust Antigone willingly protesting her fascination with death but and the her cruel accepts punishment, critics. attach has been misinterpreted underworld by many Antigone's of Cr?ons to the is not at all due to her and the underworld gods of Hades or her "death wish" but rather constitutes the sym "love" of Polyneices, reverence for the of Antigone's bolic and literary representation ever is associated with immutable and eternal natural law, which logically life. Antigone fears fleeting and temporal lasting death rather than with to a lack of all Like heroines her "with tragic goal is grace." (97) dying accords her that honor. die with honor. Her act of civil disobedience Some requiring greatly saw Creon, also consider burial influential not Creon a civil disobedient Charles ? who violates natural law a Maurras thinker, right-wing ? Creon and called "a rebel" period as the main in the play: "The rebel protagonist It is Creon. Creon laws of the polis, to show is the punish to free himself from divine laws."32 sets out of law and order has against and the feel

anee

ment

of the dead. during

the Vichy

Antigone, not Antigone. against civil law and order is him the gods of religion, the fundamental Sophocles ings of the living polis. What ment Creon of men However, While of the tyrant who has sought stands for the principles over women Creon is not is public

in a universe

governed a true civil disobedient and visible, the motive

and the superiority difference. by gender because he is the law. eth

his decree

for his act is neither

ical nor generalizable for power ("...now throne")

ruins cities, this tears down our in panic-rout. it is Ifmen live decently saves their very lives for them."). (672-677) In the fifth because discipline an was not to B.C.E. abstract uve cause; it was a century just loyalty polis and defeat city-states was the normal condition, necessity. War between meant The only way to preserve individual freedom was by enslavement. Creon does the constant efforts and sacrifice of all citizens.33 Moreover, This not expect which punishment, is not a true Creon is the sine qua non of civil disobedience. example of civil disobedience. of Cr?ons (189) belief in discipline help fearing one cannot keep Cr?ons to

(172-173) than disobedience. greater wrong this breaks the battle-front homes,

Creon professes the need but stubbornly personal. it comes that I hold all the power and the royal to maintain in a stable polis ("There is no discipline

Therefore,

the sincerity Notwithstanding the ship of state "sailing straight,"

41

state power he unleashes. While gave its citizens, he liberty that Athens also reminded the people that the polis is more than the indi important vidual.34 Cr?ons form of government requires power and results in the and the Leviathan intransigence in the individual Pericles gloried of rise of dictatorship; Cr?ons rule includes oppression, intimida paranoia, ? of conspiracy oh it's tion, and false accusations ("These are the people ? clear to me who have bribed these men and brought about the deed.") of this and ("I charge Ismene too. She shared the planning (294-296) Cr?ons decree, which flies in the face of custom and (489-490). natural law, is less an expression of his political and more a philosophy I show of his force and fearlessness believe that the who controls ("For burial." not hold to the best plans of all, but locks his tongue up some kind of fear, that he isworst of all who are or were."). (179 through of establishment 181) His decree is a display of raison d'etat, the willful his absolute authority. act of civil disobedience has both positive and negative Antigone's act of protest is necessary, effects. Antigone's is doomed she illegal though act, by her tragic fate through her family ties with Oedipus. Antigone's not perpetrated by freedom of choice for Creon and his family. Nevertheless, but by force of fate, causes tragedy it proves to be effective. Through state and does

his tragic suffering, Creon is enlightened and by the actions of Antigone, his insight has a direct effect on reforming the flawed legal system. Robin West reminds us that Antigone does not commit the act for the purpose to follow her of reforming the legal system but merely tragic fate. "Unlike the romantic, the tragedian perceives her illegal conduct not as a freely a flawed chosen means of dramatizing and ultimately correcting legal as no for is but the sole moral there alternative; her, order, truly human is not engaging The in a free political choice. act, thereby tragedian of the the future flawed within which the act reformed system affirming occurs. affirming with West, Antigone's of freedom which ing a belief She a is engaging act and in a necessary moral, human to it."35 and her own obedience While thereby I agree

higher morality I believe it is important action is legal reform. To

is defined

is to nullify the very as an action committed good.

to that the byproduct of recognize insist too strongly on Antigone's lack act of civil disobedience, Antigone's for the moral purpose of uphold

in a higher

42

VI The Sophoclean Synthesis

readers of Antigone Many between Creon and Antigone. commensurate have observed a As George Steiner similarity profound puts it, "Creon is a

to in the other, each reads himself counterpoise Antigone; and the language of the play points to this fatal symmetry."36 Antigone's treatment of her sister, Ismene, is to Cr?ons treat intransigent analogous both of his nor But the jux dif an

ment

and of Antigone. Neither Creon son, Haemon, are in is flexible. Both their beliefs. Antigone respective dogmatic is a plea for synthesis, moderation, and unity of Sophocles's message two types of law into a more balanced system. the constant Through a like and Creon, of similarity and taposition of Antigone symphony achieves Sophocles for balance understated plea ference, a "dialectic of kindred opposites"37 events of and in the legal system. reflects the horrific

Jean Anouilh's Antigone World War; Anouilh himself reread and knew war...

the Second I read and

by heart during the rewrote resonance I in it the and of the tragedy we my way, with were was first in 1944 in German performed living."38 It occupied France at times other and the from 1939-1945 during the Occupation. Although was war of the the theater which civilized shattered progress disrupted by life throughout the world, the French under the German Occupation was was alive.39 The French of somehow theater this stage kept period marked like Anouilh's recreation of by revivals of classical works was itself often in Nazi Germany.40 performed tragedy, which Anouilh admired Sophoclean dramaturgy, Anouilh's play is Although in and from different content, form, dramatically language Sophocles's attacks literary changes reflect the nature of parody which play. Anouilh's Sophocles's vice and folly by satire and irony in order to mask the author's subversive text also Anouilh's message. rejects the genre of tragedy and produces instead a metatragedy Aristotelian drama and ten lacking conventional the tragic heroine, calls into question debunks tragedy of civil disobedi itself, and raises serious doubts about the effectiveness recreates the in very different ence.41 Anouilh of Sophocles Antigone terms not of the heroic but of the absurd. The which Antigone Sophoclean in a disguised contains, no comic relief42 tragedy with and literary form, a surprisingly optimistic is a dark sion. Anouilh

said: "Sophocles's Antigone, which forever, was a sudden shock for me

43

message Although for comic Anouilh's simistic, absurd. Such tempted Antigone tiveness

about

the effectiveness play (like about and

of civil disobedience with

Anouilh's relief message negative, a radical

ismelodramatic the colorful

for legal reform. several light passages added conversations of Cr?ons guards), of civil the tone disobedience of the theater of is pes of the

the effectiveness representative

from the original is troublesome. is One change even bothered to rewrite ask why Anouilh Sophocles's if he disagreed with basic the effec about Sophocles's premise This kind of literary disparity of civil disobedience. invites the to about had the effects to contend with of the political and cultural the German presence context in order on to

reader to think the author who

produce his play. to as a dramatiza Indeed, it is very tempting interpret Anouilh's play tion of France's political problems of the 1940s. The pragmatic collabo are can rationist policies of the Vichy in who Creon regime exemplified to the idealistic be contrasted of Charles de Gaulle's Free intransigence French forces and the Resistance movement, which are embodied in Rather than reduce the universal quality of Anouilh's Antigone.43 play by this local interpretation, it seems more useful to consider the contempo Anouilh may have felt restricted in the rary pressures on the playwright. of his speech by the presence of Germans and the Vichy collab orationists. Like many great writers before him, Anouilh turned to the to force of parody and the devices of political and satire escape cen irony on the audience is equivocal. sorship. The effect freedom more is more than vulnerable, Antigone self-doubting one even renounces her decision Sophocles's. At point Anouilh's Antigone to protest the the decree by covering body of her brother. Anouilh's king's is not a philosopher44 bent on proving the superiority of divine Antigone law over human law. Rather, Anouilh's Antigone, impassioned, youthful, maternal must, by her act of defiance, her dead brother.45 simply protect Anouilh adds new scenes, like the romantic ball, Antigone's arrest, a Anouilh's love scene between and Antigone's the Sophoclean is brief against and her betrothed Haemon (Cr?ons son), Antigone a farewell letter to Haemon. to the In of dictation guard scene between Haemon and Creon tragedy, the poignant son and diplomatic admiring, play the scene between Creon

and pits an excessively obedient, In Anouilh's his autocratic father.

44

and Haemon Haemon pointed

tyrant.

is longer, presents the picture of a more rebellious young in love with Antigone is desperately and deeply disap who in his father whom he sees, for the first time, as an unyielding rewrites a new symbol of "numbing guards into Anouilh's guards represent the indiffer to enforce the letter of the by the tyrant

Anouilh

Sophocles's apathy"46

employed are smug, and tranquil as they arrest self-righteous, is a reluctant spokesman, Jonas, Cr?ons scapegoat, Antigone.47 cringing, as he the tyrant. The guards and stammering fearfully approaches Creon play role in the plot of Anouilh's play, and their comic significant not to it but makes difficult identify their indiffer depiction impossible ence with SS officers. the excessively "civilized" Nazi Anouilh's guards a more

and moral conformity ent political henchmen law. Anouilh's guards

to represent blind obedience duty, obsession with honors and promotion, a lack of and an absence of any sense of culpability. They are imagination, to In Anouilh's oblivious Jonas, the guard, Antigone tragic suffering.48 before anything needs to consider his "own safety" (439-440) else. He is a comic character but afraid Antigone's in In her defense.49 the arrest (504-505) up speak obedi reveals the darker side of the guards's unthinking to like Falstaff, a caricature sympathetic to

plight scene Anouilh ence,

The guards accuse Antigone of being a prostitute, and conformity. an exhibitionist, a madwoman, and they compare her to an animal or a to the status of the per demon. They marginalize Antigone, reducing her verted, criminal, female Other.50 In Anouilh's represent evil, the creatures of guards who and the vivors, "tranquil inheritors of the earth." VII Anouilh Like Anouilh's Romantic Sophocles's Antigone not Creon but the play it is sur the herd, the ultimate

and Existentialism

is a rebel. But Anouilh's Antigone Antigone, is in existential revolt.51 The existential rebel is aNeo

ashamed of being human, revolted by raging against existence, the body itself. One of the strongest features of the existen identifying carcass is tial drama is its attitude toward the flesh.52 Polyneices's rotting the symbol of existential own body rot which is the microcosm view of the world in 1944. In in this dark of the world. approaches is dark, skinny, and not physically "beautiful"

Antigone's Anouilh's

play Antigone

45

comes to Anouilh, beauty Antigone's According is seen as nonetheless from within, absurd. by virtue of her deed, which to Oedipus is her Anouilh's stressed link and play, Antigone's throughout as insubordination seen is and insolence, stubborn by Creon pride, the traditional sense. explained by her fate and her father: she is, after all, "la fille d'Oedipe." as the woman Ismene is depicted of sensuous beau Unlike Antigone, a woman to contrast in incarnate her rebellious but sister, is who, ty to act even if its purpose is to protest an unjust insubordinately unwilling in role Anouilh's law. Ismene plays a more important play than in to the In drawing the reader's attention competition Sophocles's tragedy. between the two sisters, Anouilh is undertaken to a reinforces for the view that Antigone's desire of natural act of civil disobedience adherence reasons of personal in the moral and not for

law. exigencies philosophical even in the twentieth for Nevertheless, century play, the motivation act is not banal. in the fact spurns Antigone "happiness" Antigone's for she Ismene and and considers the Creon, quest happiness sought by as inferior to the satisfaction she will gain from being true immeasurably act is based on a refusal to com to herself. The motivation of Antigone's sees herself as different from Ismene, promise,53 and in that refusal she ? all survivors who from Creon, and from the guards compromise. no one is in is unwill else the Other, the one who the play, like Antigone, to her principles.54 compromise ing Creon, new Creon, state too, is a very different figure. Anouilh paints the picture a leader without a leader in an freedom role, ambiguous of a in a cer

belief

governed by the Rule of Law. Creon both obeys and disobeys is utterly meaningless; tain laws. Cr?ons view of the world he denies his one can own edict; his vision of the world is of chaos which only be saved In Anouilh's (but is actually perpetuated by) absolute authority. parody, an not is him. Creon does like power, which that overwhelms indignity on one of Reason, is Cr?ons based instead absurdity, regime, supposedly meaninglessness, Cr?ons edict, and deceit. The symbolizes Cr?ons justice.55 In Anouilh's to rot because of putrid carcass, left in which law does not absurd universe

equate with that he has a hard do what

ismore human, play Creon complains and feels himself he has to for because often sorry job, a want man to to make he doesn't do. He is also special willing and forget, if only she would that the only reason Creon agree kills

to deals with Antigone, willing forgive to save face. It appears help him

46

Antigone

is to preserve his image of absolute authority. Totally lacking in to a he mocks "natural integrity and adherence particular philosophy, it "absurd." law" unabashedly, (72) calling

A far cry from Sophocles's committed leader who stands firmly for the Creon the of law and human sanctity of the polis, Anouilh's principles to be like and ironically calls himself actually considers himself Antigone Antigone heart of the play's "a young is at the lack of self-awareness (91) Cr?ons is fundamentally irony. Creon quite different from the sensitive Antigone, reaction to his own and his shocking at 20."

and passionate wife's death is one of cold o'clock

He anachronistically indifference. holds a 5 after of cabinet meeting (122) right Eurydice's tragic sui learning never cide. Unlike Sophocles's Creon, Anouilh's Creon gains insight into never the unjustness his totalitarian of regime, changes the unjust law he act of civil dis decrees, and never learns about himself from Antigone's obedience. Creon remains Creon and carries on business as usual until the end of the play. In Anouilh's play

is enlightened but Antigone in the end realizes how much who she has caused by her act of damage a view the Cruise civil disobedience. of Such story informed Conor who O'Brien, stressed perfect in his remarks on the tragic futility of events in Belfast, when he as a the negative effects of civil disobedience and cited Antigone example The act of this dangerous of non-violent practice: civil

it is not Creon

disobedience, whereby to inter Polyneices utmost vio breeds Antigone lence: it brings on her own suicide, Haemon's attempt to slay his father and his suicide, the suicide of Eurydice, existence of Cr?ons and and the devastation personal sets out authority... political on Polyneices.56 Thus, disobedience In Anouilh's ence topsy Anouilh's a stiff price for that handful of dust

of civil about the ineffectiveness pessimistic message is entirely different from Sophocles's more optimistic view. turns wins Creon the world and of civil disobedi Antigone

turvey!

47

VIII Conclusion
Anouilh's ence and a play is parody of classical Greek tragedy, of civil disobedi rule. Although Anouilh's and of absolute its effectiveness,

absur classical tragedy, Anouilh's is less weighty than Sophocles's more to the effectiveness dist view58 is nonetheless respect negative with to reform the is Anouilh's of civil disobedience Antigone legal system. an of the in discourse existentialist encoded representative particular drama57 moment performed. and radically different por negativity as a whom tragic Sophocles painted invalidated the myth of Antigone Critics claim that Anouilh heroine. by names: Some say "un sale her caract?re." her and calling marginalizing a for a Greek tragic heroine.59 Anouilh substituted "hysterical adolescent" have criticized Anouilh's Many trayal of the character of Antigone, Anouilh's an "absurd and vain revolt, even persists in though she Antigone is not tragic at all. Her act is absurd has a choice."60 Anouilh's Antigone and committed able motivations amere actress not in the name with associated but for question of personal happiness, is and individualism. Antigone egotism the role of the tragic heroine and reducing the hero in legal and political history in which the play was written and

playing to an absurd self-involved search for self-worth. responsibility take these critical views have validity, they do not sufficiently was context in which Anouilh's into account the repressive political play ine's heavy While

written.

of the original Greek myth and intentional distortion Anouilh's writer and his public to revis enable the his parody of Sophocles's tragedy events of the first half of the twentieth centu it, in the light of the tragic to positive law. ry, the stunning Sophoclean image of civil disobedience

The Urgurlyan,

author

wishes

to extend with

for her assistance

to her her deepest appreciation of this article. the preparation

research

assistant,

Annie

Robert

M.

Cover, Press,

Justice Accused: 1975), p.l.

Antislavery

and

the judicial

Process

(New Haven:

Yale

University 2

Lloyd Weinreb,

Natural

Law and Justice

(Cambridge:

Harvard

University

Press,

1987),

p.21.

48

3 4

George

Steiner, Antigones

(Oxford:

Clarendon,

1986),

p. 121. Legal Theory: 1993), and iswhat Foundations, D.

See Robin West,

Kelly Weisberg, her argument nor values recognizes Theodore Ziolkowski, 1997), 5 Henry p.232, Law, pp. David cited and World 144-152.

"Jurisprudence ed. (Philadelphia: Temple that modern jurisprudence

an<l Gender,"

in Feminist Press,

University is "masculine" which

87, especially pp.86the rule of law neither See also long for. Press,

nor individuation, intimacy The Mirror of Justice

women

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Thoreau, in Louis

Civil Rene

Disobedience "The Oslo Journal

(1849;

Beres, \ AArizona

Politics,"

Riverside Press, 1960), Cambridge: in International Law, Natural Agreements and Comparative Law7'15, of International

728 (1997).
6 in The Complete Greek Antigone Sophocles, and trans. (E.Wyckoff, 1954), pp.162-209. Jean Anouilh, Antigone, D. Grossvogel, ed. Tragedies, D. Grene and R. Lattimore, eds.

7 8

(Cambridge: and Justice,"

Integral

Eds.,

1959). and Law, D.

"Postmodern See Peter Murphy, ed. (1984), Patterson, p. 125. See Mark Legal Edward DeForrest, 33 Gonzaga of Justice

Perspectives

in Postmodernism

"Civil Disobedience: Law Review (Cambridge: 653,

Its Nature 654 (1997/98). University

and Role

in the American

Landscape,"

10 11

John Rawls, See Abe Press,

A Theory

Harvard

Press,

1971),

p.365. University

Fortas, Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience between 1968), for a distinction legal dissent and supra note Civil Press, 9 at 655. Conscience, Tactics, and

(New York: Columbia illegal civil disobedience.

12 13

DeForrest, Carl Cohen, University

Disobedience: 1971), p.4:

the Law

"An act of civil disobedience

(New York: Columbia is an act that breaks the law."

14 15 16

DeForrest, See, generally, See Heinrich

supra note id. Rommen, Thomas

9 at 656.

The Natural trans.

Law:

Philosophy, cussing Thomistic 17 Martin Luther

R. Hanley, philosophy.

(New York:

in Legal and Social Study Book Company, B.Herder

History 1947),

and dis

(New Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in Why We Cant Wait King, and See also Susan Tiefenbrun, "Semiotics York: Harper and Row, 1963), pp.84-85. in Law and Studies Martin Letter from Birmingham Luther King's Jail," 4 Cardozo Literature!^ (1992). See Cohen, Martha supra note 13 at 114. " the Law: Lawyers and Clients in Struggles for Social Change,

18 19

Minow,

"Breaking

52Harvard Law Review 723, 741 (1991).

20 Leslie Gielow the Free Balance/' expressive 21 Rawls, to Civil Disobedience: Jacobs, "Applying Penalty Enhancements Clarifying to into the Protest the Social Value of Political Bring Speech Clause Model as civil disobedience 197 59 Ohio State Law Journal 185, (1998), discussing conduct. 10 at 366.

supra note

49

22

Cohen,

13 at 179, citing The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 to the on national commitment the that debate "proud protecting principle pub lic issues should be uninhibited, and that it may well include robust, and wide open, on government and public vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks officiais." supra note (1964), supra note 16 at 8.

23 24 25

Rommen, Id., at 9.

Andrea

L. Timoll,

Opposition 26 27 28 Steiner, Id,

The Classical Problematic: Irigaray, and the Archetypical "Antigone, of Human and Divine Law," 19 Queens Law Journal 583, 593 (1994). 3 at 182.

supra note

at 182. of law as divided they expose in itself and as never as a fiction

Id. yat 152:

"Since the tragic poets present a view to be commensurate with fully positioned justice, act of reason." rather than a simple unconflicted supra note 2 at 271-272. a common this was theme Thebans

the institutions

29

Weinreb, and

did not permit the burial of the enemy dead, literature Seven Against Thebes, (Aeschyles, was a traitor and the law of Athens The Suppliant Women). Euripedes, pro Polyneices hibited the burial of traitors in Attica. But even traitors were not denied burial alto in Greek gether. See Robert Coleman, "The Role Philological of Society the Chorus 7-8 (1972), in Sophocles's 198 Antigone," at 272. cited in Weinreb

Proceedings 30 G.W.R

of the Cambridge Hegel's

of in is found "Interpretation Sophocles's Antigone" Hegel, trans. A.V. Oxford Miller, Press, (Oxford: 1977), Phenomenology of Spirit, University Lectures on Fine Art I, T.M. Knox, trans. (Oxford: secA; and Hegel, Aesthetics: chap.6, Oxford See also David A. Reidy, and Press, 1975), p.221. University "Antigone, Hegel the Law: An Essay," 19 Legal Studies Forum for an interesting 239 (1995), analysis of of the play. Cf, Elizabeth Villiers Gemmette, interpretation Hegel's "Antigone, to David A. and Captain Vere: A Response 19 Legal Studies Forum 273 Reidy," Creon, (1995).

31

All

references

from

Lattimore 32 Charles at 187. 33 Bernard University 34 35 36 37 38 Id, West, Steiner, Id, at 86.

edition, Maurras,

Sophocles's Antigone supra note 6. Verses will V??rge-Mere

are from be cited

the David in the body (1948), cited

Grene

and Richmond

of the article. in Steiner, supra note 3

Antigone

de L'Ordre

Knox,

The Heroic

Temper: p.85.

Studies

in

Sophoclean

Tragedy

(1963;

reprinted,

of California,

1983),

supra note supra note

4 at 201. 3 at 184.

at 185. ou le Roi Boiteux (Paris: La Table Oedipe et Les Ambiguit?s Dramaturgie: "Trag?die Litt?raire de la France 290, 293 (1996). d'Histoire Nicoll, p.897. World Drama from Aeschylus to Anouilh Ronde, dans 1986), l'Antigone cited in Andrew 96

Jean Anouilh, Hunwick, Revue

d'Anouilh,"

39

Allardyce 1951),

(London:

George

G. Harrap,

50

40 41

Ziolkowski,

supra note

4 at 145 12 of Sophocles and Anouilh," "Anouilh's use of comic of her tragic ges

in the Antigones "Subversive Comedy Gary S. Meltzer, Classical Literature: A Quarterly and Modern 343, 345 relief ture." is to call into question the dignity of his heroine

(1992):

and the meaning

42

"Humor Greece

is unknown and Greek Myths

to Greek

tragedy." See Marc inModern French Theater, Life, Work,

Eli Blanchard, "29 Modern

"The Reverse Drama 41, 42

View: (1986). 1985),

43

Christopher p.24.

Smith, Jean Anouilh,

and Criticism

(Baltimore:

York Press,

44

Cf, p.43:

B.A.

Lenski,

"Antigone's

Jean Anouilh: Stages and Joan's rebellions

in Rebellion are based

Press, 1975), (New York: Humanities on exalted heroic will rather than private

feelings." 45 Paul Vandromme, 1965), 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Meltzer, Id, Id, Id., Id., pp.98-99. supra note 41 at 330. Jean Anouilh, Un Auteur et ses Personnages (Paris: La Table Ronde,

at 353. at 358. at 349. at 354. Brustein, The Theater of Revolt (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1962), p.27.

Robert Id,

at 28. at 37 for a discussion supra note 44 of the theme of compromise in Anouilh's

See Lenski, theater.

54 55

Smith, Ruban

supra note Hewitson,

43

at 26. Antigone: A Coherent Structure," 17 Australian Journal of

"Anouilh's

French Studies 167, \77 (1980).

56 Steiner, reprinted 57 supra note 3 at in The Listener 190, (BBC citing Conor Cruise O'Brien's 10/1968). literary critics have See Hunwick, supra lecture in Belfast in 1968, Publications, play as London, as a

refuses to classify Anouilh's Philip Thody of its classification the question discussed note 38 at 291-293. Hunwick, Anouilh "The supra note 38 at 291: to a the absurd.'" of 'tragedy cited in Hunwick,

tragedy, and many or melodrama. tragedy

58

greatness

of

the Greek

tragedy

is reduced

in

59 60

Philip

Thody,

id., at 309.

Hunwick,

id., at 296.

51