Prosecutor; why Creone is guilty
Creone killed Antigone because he defied his commands of not burying her brother Polyneices. She deemed Creone, her uncle to be unjust and selfish and was moved by the love for her brother to be given a burial. Creone ordered Antigone to be thrown in a cave, where she hanged herself and thus it is believed that Creone is the one who killed her. Creone is guilty because he demonstrated selfishness towards his family and Polyneices. He ignored Polyneices dignity by not burying him yet he knew that could cause humiliation and shame upon their family. Additionally, he went against the human moral rights of human beings by not giving Polyneices a burial even though he was a traitor and by throwing Antigone into the cave because she buried her brother.
Creone is blinded by power and sought to protect his power from exploitation by thinking that refusal to bury Polyneices would show how he strictly abides by the laws yet he was wrong. Also, he felt that by Antigone advising him on burying her brother would mean that she was taking power from him. Moreover, he demonstrated discrimination towards Antigone because he could not listen to her to have her brother buried for the sake of their family’s dignity and he smoothly executed her for doing what was morally right. Therefore, his hunger for power and his ego towards advice from a woman made him not to follow the wishes of the gods and ignored the morality of the situation hence his doom.
Defense Lawyer; why Creone was not guilty
Creone acts and ideas were because he wanted to protect and uphold the law to set a standard for the people as their leader. Even though he was strict but that was for the best of the people by showing resilience even if it meant losing his own family. Creone considered himself a leader of his people and therefore being strict and imposing punishment on those who go against the law was the right thing to do to contain the people under him. After all, not every code was written by religion hence should be upheld in such a manner.
What Creone only wanted was to protect the country, his loyalty to the nation made him sacrifice his family in the process to preserve the law. His dedication made him want to protect the future of their country because then, the law is the ones that made a kingdom to exist and failure to abide by the statutes meant the nation would end. By punishing both Antigone and Polyneices, he wanted people to use them as an example of people who rebel the law. All his deeds were for the love and honor of the nation and were therefore doing his job as the king of the land by protecting, maintain and implementing the law of the land.
Confucius Verdict
Creone is not guilty because what he ever did was to protect the throne as the king and to uphold the law. , Protecting the bill would, in turn, help save the future of the nation since it would act as a lesson to everyone who would want to betray the country. Additionally, laws that govern the land cannot be confined to the natural law because they will always collide. Like in this case, Antigone was upholding the natural law in expense for the law that governs the kingdom. As much as Creone was somehow strict, his decision of not burying Polyneices and punishing Antigone was to uphold the law under the ruler. He also did not demonstrate nepotism since both Polyneices and Antigone were related to him hence he was not biased with the relationship.