Creon's Burial In Sophocles Antigone

How would you feel if you were locked away to rot by one of your own family members because you did something they didn’t approve of? In Sophocles play, Antigone, this is just the case for the niece of Creon, King of Thebes. After getting word that her “own two brothers [...] slaughtered one another and brought about their common doom” (Sophocles 318), Antigone is distraught. What makes her infuriated is when she learns that her uncle, Creon, has decided that one of her brothers, Eteocles, will receive a proper burial and be honored while the other brother, Polyneices, will receive no burial and be remembered as a traitor. Soon after, Antigone takes action and performs a secret burial and ritual on her dead brothers corpse, but she is also

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.

Loyalty to the state should not undermine a person’s loyalty to their gods. When the king challenges or ignores the authority of the gods, he is headed for failure. Sophocles trumpets this message throughout his tragic play, Antigone.

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.

In the play, “Antigone” involves a young girl named Antigone who, was trying to achieve something that was against all odds. While in the play “She Stoops to Conquer” Miss Castle would try to achieve her goal by trickery and her wits to get what she wants. But the way Antigone did it, she would try everything to prove her point, even by standing up to the authority to risk her life. But Miss Castle would do this by deceiving her crush Young Marlow to fall in love with her.

Creon’s son Haemon after learning about Antigone’s fate tries to reason with his father as to why he should let her go but every point he makes only causes Antigone more trouble, rather than helping. During Haemons conversation with his father he tries to reason with his father that he is not always right and that he needs to learn to bend his own rules in order for his leadership to work. He tries to convince Creon that “for a man to learn, even a wise man, is nothing shameful, nor to learn to bend or give way”(Sophocles 39). He tries to convince his father that if he needs to learn to bend his rules or his city will snap under their pressure. He is trying to show Creon that by releasing Antigone he is not going to lose control of the city

Sophocles depicts the contrast and clash between two people with opposing views in his play ‘Antigone’. One of those people is Creon, the highly motivated king of Thebes who takes pride in his own decisions that he believes to be right and sensible for the state and believes in a form of justice that can’t be compromised. The other person is Antigone, the protagonist and the daughter of the earlier king of Thebes, Oedipus. She places her faith and adheres to the irrational laws of religion and goes against the laws of man, thus defying common reason. We see more nuances to their defining attributes throughout Oedipus’s works. Creon, who is initially portrayed as a logical and pragmatic man, reveals his obstinate nature by his refusal to acknowledge viewpoints differing from his and Antigone

“In the world below perhaps such action are no crime,” (595-596) says Antigone to Creon who overlooks the Gods. The Gods deem burial an act of justice among mankind, Antigone embodies the essence of the Gods. Themes of justice and righteousness are developed in Antigone by the dialogue between Creon and Antigone. Antigone’s reasoning is overshadowed by Creon’s unreasonableness, which highlights Creon’s characteristics. Antigone’s endeavor towards justice, and her eventual hanging, furthermore, advance the plot developing Creon’s character as a tragic hero.

”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

In Antigone as the Law of the Gods fights King Creon’s law to obey the law of the Gods. The problem starts when Oedipus’s sons Eteocles and Polyneices had to share one throne. Polyneices and Eteocles murder each other during their battle for the throne. Since their were no other male heir to Creon being the new king made a new decree that Polyneices’ body wouldn’t be buried because he was a traitor for attacking his homeland, but the divine law says that if a body isn’t buried by sundown the soul or ghost of the person will stay present on the earth eternally without resting in peace. Antigone wants to follow the law of the Gods instead of following Creon’s human law. Antigone has to face the consequences of Creon’s Law if she wants to bury

“ All men make mistakes… But when they do, they’re no longer foolish… If they try to fix the evil into which they’ve fallen… Men who put their stubbornness on show invite accusations.” (lines 1140-1147)

Robert F. Kennedy once quoted Aeschylus saying “we must suffer into truth” as the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s tragic assassination became true. The play Antigone from the Theban Plays written by Sophocles, tells the story of a king, Creon, who must learn to “suffer into truth” and change. Likewise, in the film Michael Clayton directed by Tony Gilroy, shows a lawyer, Michael Clayton, and his journey to change. Although Michael Clayton and Creon both learn they must “suffer into truth,” Creon’s delayed action condemns his family, while Michael Clayton changes just in time. Both characters experience hubris, hamartia, anagnorisis, and catharsis. Hubris translates into “excessive pride” which is similar to cockiness and arrogance. With hubris a hamartia often happens. Hamartia means a tragic mistake. After this tragic mistake, an anagnorisis, or an eye opening

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.

There are many influential leader in this world that make excellent decisions and laws for their countries. But would you listen to a god or just another human? There are 7 billion people on Earth and there are different religions that believe in different gods but there are still only a few gods or lords. Why would you follow a law created by your fellow human beings when a god wants you to do something else?

Aristophanes and Sophocles both wrote similar arts that have been studied over the years. Antigone by Sophocles and Lysistrata by Aristophanes are two works of art that have many differences but they both assess an important point at the end. Out of all the differences between both of these plays, the one I consider most important is how each play ends according to the type of style it is. Even though the main characters of both of these plays were women, in Lysistrata, both the women and (eventually at the end) the men praise her for her beliefs, while in Antigone, almost everyone goes against what she feels is right which results in her death. The reason why this difference between Antigone (tragedy) and Lysistrata (comedy) is most important