Antigone. She is the daughter of a former king of Thebes named Oedipus. After the death of Oedipus, his two sons quarreled and killed each other in a
battle. Creon as the closest relatives then becomes a king. She rebels against the new king of Thebes who due to th
e king‟s decision that is not suits her very well. The king decides not to burry Antigone‟s brother named Polineices due to
the fact that he is considered as a traitor while her other brother get a very proper burial. Antigone dares to fight against king‟s law which is very
powerful. What actually makes Antigone dare to fight against the powerful law of the king is the next thing that interests the writer. Furthermore the writer
tries to see such a phenomenon that religion and also religiousness could affect peoples behavior very much. It will be done by looking at the characteristics of
the main character of the play named Antigone throughout the story Sophocles‟ Antigone.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the topic and title of the study stated previously, there are three problems that are going to be answered throughout this study. The problems
are: 1.
What are the characteristics of Antigone? 2.
How do Antigones characteristics reveal her religiousness and attitude toward religion?
3. How do religion and religiousness affect Antigones decision to fight against
Creons law?
C. Objectives of the Study
Mainly this study aims to find out the power of religion in Antigone‟s decision to fight against Creon‟s law as described in Sophocles‟ Antigone.
Specifically, there are three problems to be answered in order to reach the conclusion for the main objective of the study. The first one is to find out the
characterization of Antigone. Looking at the characterization of a certain character will surely helpful to find out everything about the character itself.
This characterization then will be used to find characters perspective of religion. Second is to find out the description of Antigone‟s religiousness in her
characterization. One of many aspects that can be found through a characterization is character‟s belief, including religion. The last and the most
important one is to find out the influence of Antigone‟s religiousness towards her decision to fight against Creon‟s law. The description of religion seen
through the characterization of Antigone will be very useful to find out its influence towards Antigone‟s decision to fight against Creon and his law.
D. Definition of Terms
1. Religion In order to get a clear understanding of what is discussed by the writer
in this study, a clear definition of specific terms related to the study is needed. The main problem in this study is related to religion; therefore the
writer tries to find out some definitions of religion. Halls statement about religion can be seen in the following quotation:
In the International Encyclopedia of Government and Politics, religion is described as “people‟s understanding and practice
regarding God, the gods, or transcendent reality” Hall, 1996: 1157.
Religion is not merely a thing that every person could simply believe or possess but it requires a deep understanding and then the practices out of
that understanding. Another explanation of religion was stated by Kenneth Pargament as
quoted by Paloutzian on his book. Here Pargament emphasizing on the idea that religion can be understood both at personal and social levels of analysis.
Religion can be found in every dimension of personal and social life. We can speak of religion as a way of feeling, a way of thinking, a way
of acting, and a way of relating Paloutzian, 1996: 8
Pargament stated above that religion could be feeling, thinking, acting and relating. Again, here religion is not merely a single thing that could be easily
stated and understood by many people.
2. Religiousness Another term that is also important on this study is religiousness.
Paloutzian quoted a definition of religiousness stated by Tamminen on his book The Invitation to the Psychology of Religion second edition as seen in
the following quotation: religiousness is a conscious dependency on a deity God and the
transcendent. This dependency or commitment is evident in ones personality - experiences, beliefs and thinking - and motivates ones
devotional practice and moral behavior and other activity Paloutzian, 1996: 12.
Thus by looking at the quotation above we could clearly understand that what so called as religiousness is a dependency on God that is possessed by
people. This dependency could motivate a persons behavior. In other words due to the religiousness, a persons attitude could be very different than
others.
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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
