How do you define obligation? What gives obligation force? What constitutes an authentic obligation? How do we reconcile conflicting obligations? Ground your response in your reading of Antigone.
Obligations are multifaceted forces an individual develops or has imposed onto them throughout their lifetime.
These forces bind an individual to themselves or others as moral, legal, religious, or societal duties. Moral duties emerge from within the individual through introspection and are influenced by external forces, these obligations are more likely to change as the individual transforms and grows. Though moral duties are impacted by external forces, they are not entirely reliant on them to sustain themselves. As a person grows and becomes more independent, their morals become more individualistic depending on what they value most. Societal, legal, and religious duties are other types of obligations that earn their authority through the collective consensus of various individuals. Unlike moral obligations, these manifest themselves through multiple individuals, not just one.
Moral obligations should be the underpinnings of all other types of obligations in order for a community to function properly, this is not the case in Antigone as well as several extant communities. Antigone struggles to balance both her moral, religious, and legal obligations resulting in her demise. Creon denying her brother burial rights forces Antigone to choose between divine and societal, or legal, obligations. Since she weighs her faith much more heavily than her duty to the crown and society, she would rather give up her life to give her brother a proper burial.
When the values of the individual are not taken into consideration by the community, the individual becomes fractured. Societies are made up of individuals bound together by law or circumstance. If an increasing number of individuals are in moral anguish, it is bound to affect the whole community. The suicides of Haemon and Eurydice are caused by the distress of their moral obligations being in conflict with their obligations to the state. Conflicting obligations do not always have to end at such extreme measures. Had Creon taken into account what his people value, he could have prevented the destruction of his family and healed the strife within his kingdom. As the king of Thebes, he holds the most power over what obligations his people will pursue, he forms the systems they operate under.
Systems that give obligations force are oftentimes religious, legal, and cultural. All of these are the ‘external forces’ that a person takes into account when cultivating their moral obligations—obligations make more obligations. This loop makes it difficult to know what constitutes an authentic obligation; if there is no identifiable root how can we know what to reference?
Authenticity would imply that these obligations are genuine to the individual, the closest thing to this definition are moral obligations. An individual’s morals are used as measurements for what actions they believe to be justifiable or necessary. By removing the external obligations, we are left with what the individual holds closest to their heart. Antigone’s actions can be viewed as authentic obligations. When rebels against Creon by burying Polynices, she satisfies her moral obligations to herself and ultimately her family. Her morals are shaped by her devotion to the gods meaning that when she acts in accordance to them, she is acting authentically.
Works Cited
Sophocles, et al. Antigone. Penguin Classics, 1984.
