Antigone Rainy River - 1181 Words

Personal Law Vs. Written Law Morals are defined to be the principle of what is right from what is wrong. What defines whether something is right or wrong is based purely on ones judgment and perspective. Staying true to personal beliefs and morals can sometimes be problematic to retain when conflicting with the written law. In Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone disregards the decree of her uncle Creon, King of Thebes, which forbids anybody to bury Antigone’s brother Polynices who was killed in battle. Although Polynices is considered a traitor to the land of Thebes, Antigone feels that to respect the wishes of the gods she must burry him. She faithfully acts upon her morals, even though they oppose the law. However, in the story â€Å"On the†¦show more content†¦Tim says he wants to run away from the war in fear of breaking his morals. He feels that the war goes against everything that he stands for, â€Å"If you support a war, if you think its worth the price, that’s fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line† (O’Brien 2). Tim does not think he should have to fight in a war that he is against. Even though Tim seems to live by his morals, some of his actions are ironic. Tim is a pacifist, yet he watches pigs get killed everyday. He works in a slaughterhouse, taking out the blot clots from dead pigs by shooting the carcass with a water gun. For someone who doesn’t believe in fighting or killing, his job is pretty gruesome. Tim has an internal struggle deciding whether or not to go to the war, â€Å"My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame.† (6). Tim knows that if he does not go to the war he will feel guilty. He will not be able to handle the amount of â€Å"shame† he would feel if he ran away. The â€Å"shame† he talks about comes from, â€Å"All those e yes on me---the town, the whole universe---and I couldn’t risk the embarrassment. It was as if there were an audience to my life† (10). Tim thinks that other people will judge him for not going to the war. The pressure of having his family and friends disapprove of his actions is what