As stated beforehand, Antigone has made it clear she is going to bury her brother Polyneices and she will shout it out. So by doing this, she has the mentality that she has nothing to live for anymore due to having nobody left. Yes, she has her only sister Ismene, but due to all the death that has happened, Antigone questions whether it is worth it to live making her go to this decision mentally. This sense of rebellion that Antigone reflects towards Creon shows us that she's frustrated and filled up with everything that has accumulated over the time this has happened, in consideration Antigone's “worldview and values” of everything would be very altruistic yet egoistic. This is by reason of her risking her life to save her brothers “honor” being altruistic, but also her values are too egoistic because at the same time her pride is consuming her, not realizing Ismene is the only family she has and still taking the risk of death would show her arrogance. “Take heart; you are alive, but my life died long ago, to serve the dead” (Antigone 613-614). Antigone's altruistic mindset can be shown in these lines due to the no fear and pride she has when talking to Ismene, even though death is the reward so to say what she's doing. Her values can also be scrutinized as an “on the fence” type of way, meaning she views the world as people filled with false criticism (being Creon not knowing the whole situation, which was Eteocles not sharing power ) but also the world can have people with dignity (which would include herself in).
When Antigone mentions “I shall be a criminal- but a religious one” (Antigone 84-85) many would say that she is being a righteous lady protecting the family name that “gods” have given them, but still defying the law and going above her social status. But another thing that can be said here is she could also be defying the gods by touching this body and burying it somewhere to lay it to rest. As stated before she is a criminal in this sense because Antigone is going against what Creon said, which was to let Polyneices rot in the street because he isn't the hero he's the antagonist. But the way she could be a so to say “a religious criminal” is because she's messing with the dead, and in Greek Myth the god of the underworld/ the dead is Hades. By moving this body in the street that's been there for a while, Hades could be a bit irritated because that's nature's course of death and Antigone would be interrupting it. Hades couldn't be the only god that would be provoked but as well as the Greek Goddess of the earth and its personification Gaea, due to Antigone again messing with the natured course of death. Since Antigone is causing trouble in the mortal world with Creon and causing sin with the gods, this would hence give her the title “Religious hero”.
In the process of everything unfolding, the real conflict in the play Antigone comes to not be Antigone giving a proper burial for her brother but, it comes to the internal conflict that Creon would have to face with. Creon in the play is viewed as the antagonist due to him restricting a proper burial for Polynices, this is what tried to limited Antigone but yet she didn't care because that was her family honor and love for family which made her reach the decision. But for Creon, the huge internal conflict would be other people's lives. Since Creon is in charge now, he gets to decide who lives and dies. Antigone's life was in his hands but ultimately she killed herself after being known that she was going to give her brother a proper burial. Not only Antigone died, but his own son Haemon killed himself in remorse of Antigone after begging to let her go. So in spite of everything Creon wanted to do, he lost his own son and now he's alone. Ismene and Creon ultimately become the last characters in the play which makes it very sad because both families are now alone. Compared to modern day history and literature many people have arisen that can have connections to these greek tragedy characters, Creon is the character that can be seen in third world countries because the rulers of these countries would have the same characteristics and traits that he would have (these people can be Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Un etc.) . These traits can include judgemental, arrogant and selfish which would lead to a downfall of civilizations. One more thing to add would be that Creon can be used to make comparisons to the seven deadly sins the important ones to describe him being greed, envy, rage, and gluttony. Even for modern day dictators, they all can be related to Creon's attitude unfortunately which isn't good for society. People should be like Antigone these days, selfless and honorable.
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