Creon Conflict In Antigone

Creon ignores the advice of his fellow political officials when issuing a royal edict regarding Eteocles’s burial. Eteocles, Antigone’s brother, is entitled by the gods to be granted a proper burial, however Creon’s pride drives him to outlaw the burial, thinking Eteocles is a traitor simply because he owns a legitimate claim to the throne of Thebes. Like Agamemnon, Creon constantly makes decisions and conducts himself while influenced by his own hubris. This ultimately leads to the detriment of Antigone’s relatioinship with the king. Antigone defies Creon’s newly issued burial edict and does what she thinks is right: granting her brother Eteocles an honorable burial. Creon, shamed by Antigone’s challenge of his authority, becomes enraged by the thought of someone disobeying his orders, especially Antigone. The common people of Thebes agree with Antigone in the sense that Eteocles should be given a proper burial, in dissent with Creon’s belief. Creon becomes cold and tyrannical with his power. Having broken the law in the eyes of her king, Antigone is imprisoned like a common

1. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus and Creon are two very different characters. Compare Oedipus and Creon by either providing a passage within Oedipus Rex or describing their differences in character. What affect did each of these characters have in the story?

Creon shows an extraordinary amount of stubbornness throughout the story. An example is seen when Antigone wishes to give her brother, Polyneices a proper burial so he can have a pleasant afterlife with the Gods. Creon, as king wishes to have him rot in the fields because he turned his back on the state in which the events occurred.

Sophocle’s play Antigone suggests that a good leader should provide loyalty and trust, and through actions Creon, shows many reasons to be a loyal character in the play, Creon has good rational reasons for his laws and punishments that he believes that will help him as a king. Even though Creon has a hard time listening to anyone, which makes him stubborn and his pride to increase he is actually doing something that can help his people, Creon and the citizens of Thebes respect the law, which shows loyalty to the state. In the play Creon states “ For me, a man who rules the entire state and does not take the best advise there is, but through fear keeps his mouth forever shut, such man is the worst of men- and always

In the play “Antigone” by Sophocles, the question of whether loyalties to family or loyalties to authority are more significant is brought up when personal matters are intertwined with legal affairs. Antigone is persecuted and punished severely by King Creon because she buried her brother, Polyneices, whom the king believes to be a traitor to the city and outlawed any burials or honor for the fallen man. In this situation, Antigone is right in going against the king’s law because in burying her dear brother, she honors the promise she made to him before he died, she pays respect to the laws of God and not the laws of mere mortals, and she shows her commitment to family by displaying her unwavering loyalty towards them, even in death. Antigone is right in crusading against Creon because in essence, he is unjustly punishing her in trying to punish her brother, Polyneices.

Creon:“I killed you, my son, without intending to,/ and you, as well, my wife,” (Lines 1486-1487). Antigone is the story of a girl who defies the king of Thebes in order to honor her dead brother, Polyneices, who is not allowed to be buried. When the king decides to punish her, his inability to listen to reasoning and resistance to change backfires on him in a deadly way. In the play, Antigone, by Sophocles, Creon, the play’s tragic hero, brings suffering to others, such as causing the death of Antigone, his son, Haemon, and his wife, Eurydice, which contributes to the tragic vision of the play as a whole because it shows how stubbornness brings pain for others.

”Lead me away. I have been rash and foolish. I have killed my son and 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 1.5 142-146). Creon’s destruction

Creon is the protagonist in Antigone, because his motivation throughout Antigone is the stability and wellbeing of Thebes. Moreover, Antigone is the antagonist in Antigone, because her motivation is selfish and deceiving. In Antigone the setting is Thebes post the death of both airs to the throne. Eteocles dies defending his country from his brother Polynieces which died attempting to reclaim his right to the throne. The conflict throughout Antigone is Antigone’s responsibility to bury her brother Polynices and the law created by Creon, the new king of Thebes, which states that “No one shall bury him, no one mourn for him.” (Antigone 59) Antigone proceeds to disobey the law and dies in her own hands to ensure her own martyr status. Antigone is not the protagonist because of her selfish motivation and need to

Antigone was wronged and Antigone is tragic hero because she wanted to get a proper grave site, Creon was her uncle, Antigone was the good one.

In the tragic play, Antigone by Sophocles, the character Creon, who acts as the antagonist, goes though reversal and recognition. Creon is not only the antagonist, but also the ruthless king of Thebes, and Antigone's uncle. Creon inherited the throne after the deaths of Antigone's two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices. Throughout the play, Creon makes it clear that he objects the laws of the gods in favor of the laws of man. Because of this, he sates that since Polyneices was a traitor to Thebes, he must not be mourned or buried by any of the citizens. Eteocles, on the other hand, was buried will full military honors, and is considered a hero by Creon and the townspeople.

After the exile of Oedipus, Creon became the king of Thebes, which placed a lot of power in his hands. With this sudden shift in authority, Creon's tragic flaw becomes more noticeable. When in an argument with Haemon, Creon's son, he states his position on the opposite sex, “If we must fall from power, let that come at some man’s hand—at least, we won’t be called inferior to any women” (353). This reveals his excessive pride, hubris, because he worries that his image would be tarnished if ever doing something imposed by a women. With this condescending perspective, he is led to believe that he is above all others, which leads to his free choice. His free choice is represented by a quote from the guard surveying Polyneices body, “We saw this girl giving that dead man's corpse full burial rites—an act you’d made illegal” (337). Although Creon's own niece turns out to be the one that went against his word, he still chooses to follow through with the punishment even though the deed Antigone did was morally right. The punishment that he lays upon Antigone is excessive and unjust considering the crime. While in an argument with her, he calls to his guards proclaiming, “Take her and shut her up, as I have ordered, in her tomb’s embrace [...] Then leave her there alone, all by

Being very stubborn is something that I try often not to do. When somebody tells me something trying to change my attitude toward something I try to listen to what their saying and not allow myself to have quick judgment about it. I don’t want to stick to what I believe even if I strongly believe in it, I would rather like to hear different aspects to a situation. I have been in situations before where someone did not want to listen to what I was saying even though I had good arguements on the topic. Many people who are very stubborn get defensive if a person argues what they believe. Being very stubborn can be seen in Antigone when Creon speaks to Teiresias and Teiresias says what Creon is doing to Antigone is wrong, Creon believes Teiresias

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone and Creon both have qualities of a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition. Aristotle believes a tragic hero is a decent human, but falls due to a weakness in one’s character. In the plot, Antigone decides to bury her brother, which defies the laws of Creon, the dictator of Thebes. Antigone believes she must hold her family values and the gods’ beliefs with utmost respect. Antigone refuses to deny her crime, so she is sentenced to be death by Creon. Antigone is the tragic hero because she inspires pity and fear when her devotion to the gods and her morals lead to her downfall.

When accused by Creon for attempting to bury Polyneices, Antigone retorts that “I should have praise and honor for what I have done” (2.113). Antigone appeals to reason by stating that she was doing the right thing for giving respect to a deceased person. However, blinded by his own personal motives, Creon responds, “You are alone here in that opinion” (2.118). Creon feels as he is doing the right thing, and no one except for Antigone would dare challenge his opinion. Even Haimon questions Creon’s decision, but Creon asks him if it is “right to stand up for an anarchist” (3.103). Creon equates Antigone to an anarchist in this statement. The fact that Antigone would be an anarchist for paying the proper respect to the dead would seem absurd to most people. However, the failure to obey Creon’s order lends Antigone the title of anarchist even though his order was morally unjust. As king “he expects the kind of obedience that a father expects from his children, given out of trust and love, not self-conscious thought” (Epstein 33). At this point, it begins to become clear that Creon is not seeking to be correct. Rather, he is seeking to be obeyed, because obedience is required whether or not his laws are just. Despite his audacity towards everyone, Creon would soon realize that he was the wrong one all

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,