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Compare And Contrast Antigone And Creon

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People can differ greatly when it comes to ideas and their actions which come into conflict when they differ too greatly in the play Antigone by Sophocles. Antigone, the main character rebels against her uncle (the new king of Thebes) because he wouldn’t bury one of the two brothers who killed each other in a civil war. Creon who refuses to bury the body gets advised to bury it under god's laws but repeatedly goes against Zeus and eventually his own son. Consequently this results in his doctrine of “State over everything and everyone” backfiring in his face with Creon’s eventual downfall.Therefore, listening to people equally; no matter the gender, race, or how wise they are is essential for anyone in power. To not do so would be any leader’s downfall.

Creon has many flaws as a tragic hero but one of his major faults during his reign as king is his inability to change his mind once he believes something is jus, which in most cases can result in him messing up so badly that his entire …show more content…

Creon on the other hand only believes that the state and to this extent his rules trump any rules set by the gods. This is strongly shown when he says to Teiresias: “Even if Zeus’ eagles should choose to seize his festering body and take it up, right to the throne of Zeus, not even then would I, in trembling fear of some defilement, permit that corpse a burial” (1160-1166). Creon’s extreme stubbornness to change his rules which conflict with the gods leads his ideals to conflict with Antigone’s who only believes that the body should be buried. Creon’s desecration of Polyneices’ body is shown how little he cares for the gods compared to himself showing him to be arrogant and stubborn, while Antigone is subservient to the gods and is willing to die to try to get the body

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