Haemon In Sophocles Antigone

In contrast to this, in Antigone, Creon is a tyrant-like leader who lacked empathy and care for others. This can be seen as he forbid the burial of Polynices, which defied Greek custom. This act results in the death of Antigone, his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice (“Play Summary Antigone”). Contrary to Oedipus, Creon’s Hubris lead to a series of conscious actions that negatively affect the characters in the story. In the end, Creon can be seen to have learnt his lesson as the chorus states: “Of happiness the crown And chiefest part Is wisdom, and to hold The gods in awe. This is the law That, seeing the stricken heart Of pride brought down, We learn when we are old.” (Sophocles 162). Therefore, Oedipus is the better

Everyone faces difficult choices throughout their life, and many of these choices are due to the pressures of society. Society is cruel and everyone, at some point in their lives, has been at the receiving end of that cruelty and felt the sorrow it brings. In Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone finds herself faced with the choice of doing what her heart says is right, and burying her dead sibling or following what society has decreed as the right thing to do and leave him “to be devoured by dogs and fowls of the air.” (Sophocles, page 12) Antigone’s sister, Ismene, faces the same choice though she is less willing to defy society in favor of family obligations. The sisters are not the only ones that must face such choices, Creon’s son, Haemon, is in a dangerous position by fighting for Antigone and betraying his father's wishes.

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.

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.

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.

In this story Haemon shows his determination in many ways the first way is that he is determined to free Antigone from her stone cell because like I said he is her fiancé (Sophocles 775). Another way Haemon is determined is that he wanted to change Creon's mind about freeing Antigone because of what she did (Sophocles 775). Haemon is also stubborn in the story one way he is stubborn is that he wouldn’t listen to his dad when they were arguing and that if the would have kept going he could have been thrown in a stone cell as the same as Antigone or even worse he could have been killed but Haemon should have listened to his dad( Sophocles 774-775). So there was 2 ways Haemon was determined and 1 that he was stubborn. Now onto the last and final character, the real tragic hero of this story

“Persuasion is often more powerful than force” once stated by great greek fabulist Aesop, Many of the characters follow this advice throughout the story (“Aesop Quotes”.). As Creon gives a speech to his city he uses ethical appeals in hope to assert his power and make himself look like a trustworthy leader.. Antigone does not listen to this and decides to disobey her uncle, sister Ismene tries to plant logic into her head not to disobey in fear that her sister may end up dying in result. Haemon being both the son of Creon and the fiance of Antigone he should have a hard decision to make but he cannot get behind his father in putting his future wife to death. Ismene, Creon, and Haemon all use the rhetorical appeals of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to be persuasive towards their goals.

Creon explains that his harsh punishment is just, as the law must be followed always, especially when dealing with a woman (107). Haemon and Creon disagree about Antigone’s punishment and while their argument started civil, it devolves into a verbal dispute, with Creon saying that his son is fighting the woman’s battle (108). This is meant to insult Haemon and imply he isn’t fighting for any moral reason, but instead because he cares about a woman. Creon also accuses his son of being a plaything of a mistress (108). These belittling remarks show that Creon’s anger about the situation comes from the fact the transgressor of his will was a

Creon, with his hubris, does not listen to the words of his son, Haemon. When he reluctantly calls for the release of Antigone from her imprisonment, he is too late. She has died and Haemon kills himself after failing to kill his father. “Nothing you say can touch me any more. My own blind heart has brought me. From darkness to final darkness. Here you see. The father murdering, the murdered son––And all my civic wisdom! Haimon my son, so young, so young to die, I was the fool, not you; and you died for me.” Creon implores that he has been blinded by his pride and that he didn’t see that Haemon’s ultimatum and love for Antigone would be the reason why Haemon would kill himself. Creon’s decisions have lead him to lose his son and his wife, which is where his downfall begins. Creon becomes the tragic hero because he has endured pain from the deaths of his family. By not listening to Teiresias or anyone, but only to himself because he believes what he is doing is right, the death of his loved ones were

“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

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.

“A city which belongs to just one man is no true city.” (lines 838-39) Throughout the play, Antigone, written by Sophocles, the character Haemon constantly tries to persuade his father, Creon, to listen to the people of his city and to become a more humble leader. Haemon’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character. Which results in the two characters having continual conflicting motivations. These conflicting motivations cause the characteristics of anxiety, anger, and selfishness to be highlighted within Creon’s character. Ultimately, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by giving Creon his free choice that makes his downfall exclusively his own fault and the character interactions advance the plot by pushing King Creon to insanity and showing that even the King’s own family was trying to urge him to change his decree, and develops the theme of love and loyalty by showing the struggle between faith and family.

The tragedy, Antigone by Sophocles is a well developed take on the fight between who is applicable to be the protagonist of a story. In most stories, plays, poems, written works in general from the first literary works discovered surrounded the Hero’s Journey. The tragedy of Antigone is the one play that seems to accept Joseph Campbell’s theory but master the ideals of a protagonist but still battle for the position at the same time. It’s more or less a toss up to put it simply, but there are strong events and decisions within the tragedy that unfolds somewhat who the antagonist and protagonist is. Similar to the characters in Finding Nemo, Nemo and his father, Marlin, are a debatable pair in deciding who is the lead in the film. They, as do Creon and Antigone, follow the Hero’s Journey rather fluently making the end choice in who is the reliable protagonist a hard choice to even think about. The thing that must be considered most is a definition, being protagonist. What a protagonist is, is the leading character or one of the major characters

Throughout the play Antigone by Sophocles Creon is seen as a tragic hero, due to the fact that he is rude to others when they try to talk to him and acts childish when insulting others. When someone is trying to give him advice he lashes out and is ignorants he thinks that everyone that tries to give advice is wrong. Until it's too late is that he realizes that he should of listened, but his pride prevented him from doing so. Love is a strong feeling yet some people have a hard time seeing it. Some are too late to notice it and lose everything that is valuable towards

In Sophocles` play, Antigone, he shows a story of a crazed man who lets pride takes over his actions causing the deaths of his loved ones. This essay will discuss Haimon, King Creon`s son, through statements that Sophocles himself wrote and inferences of his perspective. During the story Haimon does major actions such as; plea for his fiancée, commits suicide and even cast death upon King Creon.