Civil disobedience is the act of refusal against laws, taxes, or demands by a government usually staying peaceful in nature. Martin Luther King Jr. and Antigone implement civil disobedience to defy unjust law; however, both approaches used to go against the wrong laws are different. Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader for the civil rights movement to put an end to segregation through civil disobedience by stressing the importance of peacefully protesting; while Antigone purposely went against the law, knowing the consequences, to follow God’s law instead of man-made law in a holy effort to bury her late brother Polyneices.
Martin Luther King Jr. goes against unjust laws through civil disobedience by initiating peaceful protests. He believed that using nonviolent tactics are better at showing the immorality the unjust laws’ and calls for black people to fight the long battle against segregation. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he reveals the unjust treatment going on in Birmingham and why it is important for him to be there helping, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already …show more content…
Instead of peacefully protesting the ruling by Creon that Polyneices’ body cannot be buried, Antigone just goes and buries Polyneices herself. Antigone does this because of her feeling of obligation toward God’s law to bury the dead instead of leaving Polyneices to rot just like Creon wanted. Antigone does not fight back after she is caught, instead she civilly decides that she will continue to go and bury Polyneices until she dies, and she threatens Creon to kill her in the case that Creon will not change his manmade law. Creon speaks in Sophocles “Antigone,”
But his blood-kin, his brother – I mean Polyneices…
…this city has received a proclamation,