The suffering of man is a very complicated matter that is most likely impossible to understand completely. It is a subject that people have grappled with since the dawn of recorded history. In fact, suffering is evident in every form of art man has created. Suffering is in our paintings, our poetry, our music, our plays, and in anything else that is conceivable. But still, we as a whole still struggle with the idea of suffering. It is my opinion that some individuals may grasp the notion of suffering more than others, but that no one person will ever fully understand suffering in every form.
A person may only understand his or her own personal suffering, not suffering as a whole. It is the next step to then say that “understanding comes through suffering,” which I also believe to be true. It is impossible to fully know what the suffering of a person is like, unless you have experienced the same thing in his own shoes. Death is the reward of Life Life is considered, by some, to be a journey towards death and the great reward of afterlife. This traveling process is held in many different views and is expressed in numerous manners in literature.
In these works it is very easy to see that they experience great misery, but it is impossible to understand their suffering. Their suffering can only be identified, and compared to an individual’s own suffering. One must experience suffering in order to fully understand what it was like. It is entirely a personal experience. It is for this reason that understanding comes through suffering. Suffering is one of the things that make us human, it is what lets us enjoy the good times and thank God for them.
Because it is though suffering and trials of life that we come to know our true selves. Suffering is a gift from God that people many times don’t realize. Now we have this idea of suffering but what is suffering really? Is it evil? Is it physical? Does it just pertain to one area of life? Suffering is emotional pain that runs deeper than physical pain. Suffering runs deeper and longer if someone suffers emotionally from something, which could take a lifetime to recover.
Suffering also forces us to usually ask for help; to search out others for strength, for many of us that are when some of the greatest bonds of friendship will be made is helping someone that is suffering. In the play Antigone we see much suffering mainly by the main character that was persecuted and eventually committed suicide in a cave after being buried alive. Antigone came from a messed up family her father Oedipus killed himself after he found out that he had killed his father and married his real mom. Then not too long after that Oedipus’ sons kill each other in a battle to become king.
So Creon becomes king and declares Plyonises an enemy of the state so he won’t be buried. This troubled Antigone because she believed that if Plyonises weren’t buried he would not cross in to the land of the dead but be forced to walk the land as a ghost. We see that Antigone held her brothers and the laws of the gods sacred were as her sister just thought well of the laws of Zeus. We can tell this because she wasn’t willing to risk suffering to bury her brother. Where Antigone not only went and buried her brother but she also wouldn’t hide that fact from her uncle the king.
Suffering is something that tests our faith and values; it is like the tests of fire in the New Testament were Paul says that we will have our actions tested by fire. Suffering is like that fire it will separate something that we idealize from something that we hold sacred. One thing that I find many people miss is that suffering is caused by evil in this world but people forget that many times suffering is caused by other people’s sin. Such as Antigone’s suffering was because her brothers couldn’t get along and because her uncle felt that he was better than the gods law and wouldn’t bury his kin.
We must not forget compassion in dealing with each other, for if we help others and forgive we will save others from suffering and maybe even ourselves. We see that in the case of king Creon, if he had given Antigone grace for doing the right thing even though it was against his law. He would have saved himself a lot of pain and saved his family from the on going curse of death. What I believe Sophocles is trying to show in the area of suffering is that we show our true colors when we are suffering. We see that even though her life was in danger Antigone did the right thing.
Sophocles shows us also that suffering can be one of the best teachers “Creon: Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded. The mighty words of the proud are paid in gull with mighty blows of fate, and the long last those blows will teach us wisdom. ” One of the best stories that parallel this play is the story of Job. Job is taken from being a rich man to being a poor, sick, lonely man. He never gave up what God told him to do, but at one point he asked God why was he letting Job suffer.
This angered God because he is sovereign and we: as his creations have no right to question his motives and standards. What we forget many times when dealing with God is that he made us and he is so superior to our minds that he can handle his greatness and his ways. Lets for argument sake change the story of Antigone and make her God, Yahweh but she is still punished for doing right why? That is because evil works or thoughts cause suffering, these don’t have to be because of something that you personally did.
In her situation it was more the sins of her father, brothers, and Creon. For example the farmer has to work hard and sometime even after a whole season of hard work, there is still a weak crop. This is because of the evil that Adam and Eve did and God consequently cursed the ground. Also God maybe teaching this family to depend more on him we never know the complete reason for our suffering we must know that it is for us to gain wisdom as Sopicles said.
If this play had the real living God in it this is what Feinberg has to say about the actions of the characters (Finberg pg. 0), ”In particular, I hold that an act is to be done, not because of its consequences. But because God reveals that it is the right thing to do, Regardless of its consequences. ” We should follow with faith the direction God points us in, whether that is to brake man’s law. Man’s law isn’t always perfect and that evil is what causes the servants of Christ to suffer. Some might bring up why should I obey God’s law if it goes against man’s laws. This is really a basic question; think of life like a computer game and you are play that game with the guy that made the game.
You try to cheat but he already knows what you’re going to do and he has already programmed a response in the game. To follow God and face persecution is better than to go against God. So Antigone was right according to this theology, where she would have gone wrong was when she expected God to deliver her from Creon. There will many times be consequences to your action even if you try to do the right thing. Where Antigone gets in trouble is when she questions God, because she expected God to role out the red carpet for her because she did what was right in God’s eyes.
The thing we for get is that God isn’t about to be judged by men it is always the other way around. The dog doesn’t judge its master we don’t judge ours. God is a being above everything he created us and allowed us to see evil and experience suffering as a gift. So we could better understand love and happiness. We are not able to question God on this one because he is omnipotent; he knows what is best for us. This is where faith becomes so important we must trust God for everything. Antigone had faith in the gods and trusted them to take care of her situation.
