Antigone Quotes About Creon's Downfall

After pushing away every member of his family and causing confusion throughout the kingdom, Creon is faced with a new reality- he lost everything. He sent Antigone away to be locked up till her own death takes her, his son Haimon and his wife Eurydice took their own lives, and the prophet and people of the city look down upon Creon as he aches for his own death. Creon comes to a quick realization of his misfortunes at the sound of his poor wife 's last breath. With fear, he states "I have been rash and foolish. I have killed my son and my wife. I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead. Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust" (Sophocles 14). Creon learns that his actions set off the events leading to his family 's death and his ultimate downfall. Though this realization comes quickly, it appeared lucid far too late for him to

Another characteristic that defines a tragic hero is that they experience misfortune that is not entirely deserved, and in this case, Creon did; he experienced the loss of both his wife and son. In Antigone, it states, Messenger:“we saw Antigone hanging by the neck/… Haemon had his arms around her waist-/ he was embracing her and crying out in sorrow for the loss of his own bride/...Angry at himself, the ill-fated lad/ right then and there leaned onto his own sword,” (Lines 1359-1377). After Antigone decided to take her own life, Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s husband, saw Antigone’s body and decided to end his own life as well. Not only did Creon cause the death of Antigone, he also inadvertently caused the death of his son, Haemon. In addition to the death of his son, Creon also caused the death of his wife, Eurydice. In Antigone, it states, Messenger:“She killed herself,/ with her own hands she stabbed her belly,/ once she heard her son’s unhappy fate,”(Lines 1460-1462). Once Creon’s wife, Eurydice, received the news of her son’s suicide, she decided to take her own life as well. So, in addition to Antigone’s and Haemon’s death, Creon also caused his wife’s death because he refused to let Antigone go sooner than he did. This whole ordeal stems from Creon’s stubbornness which embodies the play’s tragic vision because it shows how one’s

The two examined characters show that one’s positive or negative decisions can affect the nature of one’s fate. Antigone made positive decisions throughout the text, and when her fate was before her, she was able to understand and come to grips with it. While, on the other hand, Creon made negative decisions throughout the text, and when his fate was upon him, he was overwhelmed with despair. The idea of decisions and fate is important because they are both key parts of Ancient Greek culture. From works like Antigone, we can learn more about specific aspects of Greek culture. In this case, we learn that Ancient Greeks used the idea of fate in order to explain the occurrences of their everyday lives. This idea of decisions and fate contributes to the higher meaning of the text by highlighting the contrasting decisions made by two main characters, and also by giving the audience a valuable lesson in

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.

Antigone's actions consistently display her dedication to the will of the gods, and Creon's behaviour steadily exhibits his fierce devotion to state laws. Thus, this Greek tragedy compellingly establishes and thoroughly explores the intricate and perplexing relationship between the two themes by utilizing the literary device of

Creon is a very stubborn person, this leads him to make very harsh and rash decisions that he will eventually regret. “The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first.” This quote is explaining how Creon is very stubborn in his decisions and he will not change his mind. This leads to the fall of creon because him being stubborn causes most of his family to die. Creon eventually ends up sentencing Antigone to death. His son haemon is supposed to marry Antigone so this draws the father and son apart. “Do you really intend to steal this girl from your son?” Choragos says.”No death will do that for me.” Creon answers. This quote is other people noticing that what creon is doing is wrong. He is killing his son’s bride and this will lead to the death of his son due to his sadness without

Creon was completely blinded by his pride and power that he lost those closest to him. Starting with his son...“Then she’ll die-- and in her death kill someone else.”(Haemon; line 859). Creon thinks that his son is threatening him, and doesn’t pay attention to what his son is feeling towards Antigone. He doesn’t see the signs and advice his son gives. He lost his whole family his sons and wife. “ I killed you, my son, without intending to, and you, as well, my wife. How useless I am now.”(Creon; lines 188) Creon realizes it’s too late his mistakes, and now that he lost his family, he realizes he should of listened. All his family dead, he is now alone because he was blinded by his pride that he didn't listen.He realized too late of all the consequences that his ignorance brought upon him.

At the beginning of the play, he is presented as a character fully committed to the ideas that his father presents and the respect towards the country and the law of the state. In spite of this, Haemon is in love with Antigone and is therefore opposed to the idea that she has to be punished for her actions. “Not here, she will not die here, King. And you will never see my face again. Go on raving as long as you’ve a friend to endure you”. Creon’s son ends up committing suicide, and this is reflected both as an act of love towards her fiancée, when he discovers her dead body, as well as a sign of his divergent ideals contrasting the city ones.

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

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 is an example of a tragic hero. He is one of the major characters in Sophocles’ trilogy that consisted of ‘Oedipus the king’, ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ and ‘Antigone’. Over the course of this saga, we see Creon’s character develop with noticeable flaws. In the first story, ‘Oedipus the king’, Creon is portrayed as a cool and rational advisor to Oedipus who tried to prevent him from taking rash decisions such as banishing himself. Creon ultimately fails, and his hamartia is revealed in the subsequent story ‘Oedipus at Colonus’. Creon’s hamartia was that he had a strong belief that his reasoning and decisions were

The play, Antigone, is a tragedy written by the Greek poet Sophocles. A common theme among tragedies is that they have a tragic hero, and Antigone is no different. The tragic hero of this poem is Creon, the King of Thebes. Creon is faced with the difficult task of punishing his niece, Antigone. She has broken one of his laws stating that no one is to give proper burial rites to Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, because he tried to overthrow Creon. 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. Both of these flaws lead Creon down a path of destruction that he is unable to return from.

In this scene, Haemon confronts Creon over his merciless treatment of Antigone and Creon’s reaction is to explode into an ageist themed rant against his own son, in which Creon finally blows up and calls Haemon a “degenerate” for “bandying accusations” (lines 830-831) against him. Not only is Creon calling his own son an inexperienced, inadequate fool, he earlier in the scene describes Antigone as a “worthless woman” and tells Haemon to “show me the man who runs his household well” (lines 725-739). Each of these statements not only denounce a woman’s worth and status in comparison to a man, but also succeed in fluffing Creon’s ego when he follows with “I’ll show you someone fit to rule the state”(line 740), again stating how “qualified” and “adept” a ruler he believes himself to be. Shortly after this discussion, Creon changes Antigone's punishment from public stoning to being suffocated in a tomb. This change hints that Haemon’s words may have affected Creon enough to make him doubt the populaces affection for him. Furthermore, the exchange between Haemon and Creon also serves as a reminder that a ruler should never denounce or be biased against a specific group because it leads to irrational and selfish decision making, that lead to the destabilization of the community as a

His power as a king allows him to make his own laws, and even give sentence to those who can defy him. Because of his law, Creon has so much arrogance that when Teiresias informs Creon of his doom-laden prophecy,

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” said historian Lord Acton. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Oedipus the King of Thebes newly departs after disgracing his people, and his successors to the throne, Polynices and Eteocles die in battle, thus leaving his brother Creon to inherit his throne. From the beginning, Creon uses his newfound power to impose excessive punishments against not only the people of Thebes, but also his family. As a result, the Thebans recognize his abuse of power, and express their fears through not only the chorus, but also his son. To finalize his play, Sophocles exposes how Creon uses his power to manipulate the hierarchy in Greek society; consequently offending the gods. Therefore, through King Creon’s