Antigone: Creon As A Tragic Hero

Creon, Tool of Despair Of the one hundred and twenty plays and tales Sophocles had written during his time, only seven have survived to today and Antigone a tale of the constant turmoil of the royal family of Thebes is one of those few ancient tales. Creon, the new king of the city of Thebes, strives for justice and absolute loyalty to the crown, however, after he discovered that an unidentified citizen had defied one of his recently announced laws, he inflicted his fury on himself and those around him. Creon is the tragic figure that functions as an instrument of the suffering of others and contributes to the tragic vision of the story, Antigone by Sophocles, as a whole by threatening his subjects and family with death, ignoring the thoughts of his elders and peers, and bringing the feeling of death to himself and also death itself to those around him.

Creon’s strong feelings about Antigone burying of her brother transgressed him as the tragic hero because his stubbornness against her caused everyone to turn on him. Such as when Creon is talking to Antigone and he tells her “ In all of Thebes, you’re the only one who looks at things this way.” To which Antigone replies “They share my views, but they keep their mouths shut just for you.” This shows how Creon’s slowly being turned against because his stubbornness.

In the short story titled “Antigone,” the author portrays Creon as a tragic hero by displaying flaws in Creon's character shown throughout the story. Creon’s character contains many flaws which lead to many problems. His decisions end up deciding the fates of his son, his wife, and Antigone. Creon finally realizes that what he has done is sinful to the gods. He has put his own pride over the appreciation of the gods.

Tragic heroes are apart of almost all plays worldwide weather you know it or not. In the play Antigone. One of the main characters who is the king of the city,Creon, is the tragic hero for three main reason. First of all he is born into nobility, he meets a tragic death, and lastly, Creon is endowed with a tragic flaw.

The tragic hero is a character in a book that comes from a noble background that has a tragic flaw which brings the character the greatest suffering which results in their downfall. In “Antigone”, there are two characters who can be considered the tragic hero of the story: Creon and Antigone. Antigone is a brave and fearless women who dies for a noble cause, while Creon is a controlling and powerful king of Thebes. Both Creon and Antigone have qualities to make them the tragic hero, but Creon is the true “tragic hero” because his hamartia causes his downfall. Creon is the tragic hero of “Antigone” because his hubris muddles his judgment and makes him cause his own undoing.

When asked, “Who is the tragic hero in Antigone?,” you might automatically think of the character Antigone. The character’s name is the title of the play like in “Hamlet”. The only difference is that Hamlet was the tragic hero in “Hamlet” moreover Creon is the tragic hero in “Antigone”. It all comes down to the definition of Aristotle’s tragic hero. Aristotle states that a tragic hero is, “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through an error of judgment.” Notice that Aristotle uses the words he, man, and him and not she, woman, or her. This hints that the tragic hero must be a man, not a woman. A tragic hero must also have certain characteristics such as hubris, hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis, and catharsis. These all mean that the character’s tragic downfall must have a beginning, middle, and end and emanate a feeling of pity and fear in the audience.

Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust”(Sophocles 1.5 142-146). Creon’s destruction resulted because of his misdeeds in having too much pride. His pride and his personal instability were the worst combination of possible qualities he could have. Creon’s past sins have built up and eventually burst and gave this man the worst punishment of all the characters in the play. In Antigone by Sophocles, Creon displayed many failing qualities as a king; most notably having displayed a giant ego by not accepting help from others, which warns the audience of the dangers

Against the warning of others, Creon goes on with his plan to essentially sentence Antigone to her death. Creon continually ignores what others counsel him to do because he believes that just because he is king, everything he does is right. It is this thinking that ultimately leads to the death of not only Antigone, but also Creon’s son and wife as well. All tragic heroes suffer from a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. Creon suffers from two tragic flaws, pride and stubbornness.

As a noble king, the mistakes and errors you make can affect you in the future and other people. Creon is a king and he makes a lot mistakes that will affect him and others from death and a lot of sadness. The claim that Creon is a tragic hero is that he was born into nobility, doomed to make serious errors in judgement, and there is a lot of suffering and calamity and its widespread. As being born into nobility is that he said that “ as next in blood of full power of the throne” meaning that he is related to the king.

Creon is a tragic hero because he was born into nobility, had an endowed with a tragic flaw, and realized they have made an irreversible mistake. There’s three characteristics that show’s Creon was a tragic hero. One of the characteristics that show that Creon was a tragic hero was he was born into nobility.

Creon is a tragic hero because he was born into nobility, had an endowed with a tragic flaw, and realized they had made an irreversible mistake. There’s three characteristics that shows’s Creon was a tragic hero. One of the characteristics that shows that Creon was a tragic hero was he was born into nobility.

“Whatever I touch has come to nothing.” Creon shouted this when he met his downfall. Antigone is about a princess named Antigone who buried her brother for moral beliefs. This was illegal at the time in the city of Thebes because the first thing that Creon did as king was make the law that no one can bury Polyneices and she was sentenced to death for this. Creon, king of Thebes, filled the prophecy and met his downfall with everyone he cared about had died and lead him to emotional death. A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction, or at least to great suffering. Birth into nobility, responsibility for their own fate, and endowed with a tragic flaw, most strongly identify Creon as the tragic hero of Sophocles 's Antigone.

Antigone Expository Essay Glory; it was the only the thing that mattered in Ancient Greece. To receive honor from the gods is the only thing for many greeks. In the play, Antigone, written by Sophocles, the protagonist, Antigone, encounters many conflicts. One major conflict is with King Creon over the honoring of her brother.

Correspondingly, Creon's bona fide adherence to the laws of man is evident in the defense for his resolute actions. In the conversation aforementioned between Haemon and Creon, the latter defends his decision by declaring it is to "respect his own authority". As in his opinion, a respected ruler who is in the early stages of establishing authority must be uncompromising and resolute in making decisions. Creon rejects using divine laws to rule his people for they are irrational, and trusts that solely following man made laws will he be able to guarantee a peaceful and prosperous existence for his city. Creon says that the laws enacted by the city’s leader "must be obeyed, large and small, / right and wrong." Which is to say, Creon contends state law as the basis for justice, hence there can be no such thing as unjust laws. Undoubtedly, Creon's symbolic values within the play is displayed by his fierce dedication to state law and order, contrary to the symbolism Antigone embodies.

(Antigone 8). This quote shows that he wants everyone to obey him and anyone who disobeys him will get in trouble. The last support can be found when Creon said, “But he who crosses law, or forces it, or hopes to bring the ruler under him, shall never have a word of praise from me.” (Antigone 23). This means that Creon is “madly in love” with his power and thinks that he can do anything because he is the king.