A tragic hero is defined as someone of high power or royalty who brings upon his or her own downfall as a result of a flaw found within the character. In Sophocles’s “Antigone” there are possibly two tragic heroes. Both Antigone and Creon have similar traits of a tragic hero. Although the story is named after Antigone, I believe that Creon is the true tragic hero of the story as his ignorance and pride prove to be his tragic flaws. As both Creon and Antigone are royalty, Creon is the king of Thebes which is of higher stature than Antigone, this is a trait of a tragic hero. Creon shows his ignorance by dishonoring the gods and refusing to bury Polyneices. He forgets or ignores that Eteocles and Polyneices shared the throne, and to “attack” Thebes was the only way for Polyneices to obtain his kingship back from his brother. Creon is also ignorant to the fact that Polyneices is his nephew and should be buried alongside his brother and the rest of his family. As Antigone defies Creon's word and buries Polyneices, he is oblivious to the fact that she is to be wed to his …show more content…
As his inner self shows, and so does his own downfall. As he has already angered the gods by not only refusing burial rights to his nephew but also punishing his niece Antigone for burying him anyway. Creon does not fall from power, he fell from his ivory tower, he come back into the era of reality. As Creon did not listen to his son Haemon, the people of Thebes, and also the prophet Teiresias’s order of which to save Antigone, Creon brought forth upon himself his own downfall due to his pride and ignorance to others. These tragic flaws are present in tragic heroes. Even though the name of the story is “Antigone” the main character and tragic hero is Creon, because of his high power, and also the fall of his family. His fate is his own doing, he had the opportunity to fix it, but his tragic flaws kept him from doing what was