On "Crime is Pride"

Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.

For class today, we are supposed to "Take some time to think about the implications of the quotation," from Sophocles' Antigone.

So. Let's analyze.

I'll start with the first line. "All men make mistakes." I hope that there's nothing to argue about here. It's clearly true. I've done wrong. I've seen you do wrong. "I don't regret anything!" you shout. Right. Like when you were three and you bit your cousin? No, nothing wrong with that. If you take a good, honest look at your life, you'll see that you have made quite a few mistakes.

The next phrase goes on to say that "a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong." That's always a great place to start. To be considered halfway decent, you should be able to recognize when you are doing something wrong. Once you get to a certain level of development, your conscience starts to tell you, "hey, buddy, this isn't right, what you're doing right now." From there, you get to choose whether or not you want to listen to that voice in your head or not. Sophocles states that a good man would be one who chooses to stop doing what he perceives as wrong.

Sophocles addresses this choice that must be made in the next two lines, saying "... and [a good man] repairs the evil; The only Crime is pride."

Being a good person not only means recognizing that you are doing wrong or stopping doing what you believe is wrong, but also fixing whatever wrong you have done. That could mean that if you hurt someone, you do your very best to mend and heal that hurt. That could mean apologizing and doing your best to right whatever bad situation you have created, whether it was purposeful or not.

The last line is the line that I find most effective. "The only crime is pride." This phrase means to point out a major flaw that exists in all humans. Pride. It's the reason that so often, relationships are never healed. If you are prideful, you are apt to not forgive and forget. Prideful people don't like to admit that they were wrong, or even sway and say they might have been partially to blame. Most of all, if you are prideful, you won't give up and just let others be "right," whether they are or not.

I think Sophocles knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote these lines. Sure, all men make mistakes. But that doesn't mean that we are all bad. However, what sets you apart, is being able to recognize your wrongdoings, mend them, and not repeat them. It's as George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." As previously stated, I love the last sentence. "The only crime is pride." The only reason we don't admit we're wrong is due to our pride. We are often too prideful to let another be right and us be wrong. 

Sophocles had it exactly right in Antigone. Humans are flawed. The good ones, however, are the ones who recognize this and decide to do something about it.