Haemon Vs Creon Essay

A hero is not always someone with power. A true hero can be a person that inspires you to be better in life. Many heroes simply help other in danger. Police officers, firefighters and even doctors give people strength to overcome problems. What kind of qualities makes a hero? In the play Antigone, the play writer Sophocles had different type of qualities for a hero. The character of Creon is a true tragic hero that wants to be respected by the city. His pride for the city caused pain to his family and himself.

Antigone's actions consistently display her dedication to the will of the gods, and Creon's behaviour steadily exhibits his fierce devotion to state laws. Thus, this Greek tragedy compellingly establishes and thoroughly explores the intricate and perplexing relationship between the two themes by utilizing the literary device of

In the short story titled “Antigone,” the author portrays Creon as a tragic hero by displaying flaws in Creon's character shown throughout the story. Creon’s character contains many flaws which lead to many problems. His decisions end up deciding the fates of his son, his wife, and Antigone. Creon finally realizes that what he has done is sinful to the gods. He has put his own pride over the appreciation of the gods.

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.

“For me your judgments and the ways you act on them are good- I shall follow them.” (Lines 720-22) Haemon says, as he assures the integrity he has for his father. The actions and viewpoints of Haemon and His father, Creon, are greatly differing as one has the view of making himself happy and the other cares about the city of Thebes. The conflicting views have caused Creon’s; anger, fear, and pride to shine through his character. Haemon slowly started to realize that the view he had of his father wasn’t as he thought it was. Creon’s rage stemmed from his fear of weakness and horrible ego, which Haemon brings out in their communication. The actions and motives of Haemon in the interactions with his father

“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, 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

Say: Within this section on page Haemon starts his speech off with, “father,” as he is talking to Creon the king of Thebes. Creon’s actions are being tested by Haemon questioning if his father has any reason or not. Wondering if his father will ever make a slip in speech Haemon will never correct Creon if he is wrong, but someone else might. He then states that everyone around him is being nice, afraid of criticism. When Creon sees someone in the street or around town they will hate his look at them. Fixating on the fact of how the town mourns over this girl. Assuming that the ,“action,” done by this girl for sure deserves death and , “none the less.” Haemon then speaks about her brother, “lying,” in his own blood, She could dare leave him

He cleverly links Creon and Antigone together in order to stress the duality between Creon’s laws, and the divine laws; exposing how Creon will abuse his power by any means to ensure his laws are obeyed. He then expresses the severity of Creon’s abuse through his supporters, the chorus and Haemon, for it induces both to desire rebellion. To finalize his play, Sophocles successfully discourages anyone from abusing power by making it Creon’s tragic flaw, for he warns that it will always end “with mighty blows of fate” (Antigone

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.

As a noble king, the mistakes and errors you make can affect you in the future and other people. Creon is a king and he makes a lot mistakes that will affect him and others from death and a lot of sadness. The claim that Creon is a tragic hero is that he was born into nobility, doomed to make serious errors in judgement, and there is a lot of suffering and calamity and its widespread.

“Your gaze makes citizens afraid-they can’t say anything you would not like to hear”(783-784). King Creon has so much power that the citizens of Thebes fear him. In the play Antigone, Sophocles uses Haemon’s ideas to contrast with Creon’s idea to punish Antigone which makes him into a tragic hero and advances the plot to show him what the people of Thebes believe about Antigone’s act.

His choice to kill Antigone creates a problem with his son, Haemon, who disagrees with the course that his father is leading into being the murder of his fianće. Haemon expresses his anger when the character reveals "She'll not die with me just standing there. And as for you- your eyes will never see my face again" (Sophocles scene 3: 871-873). When the character Creon is being unreasonable, he losses the relationship he shares with his son. For instance when Creon witnesses his son "While still conscious he embraced the girl in his weak arms, and, as he breathed his last, he coughed up streams of blood on her fair cheek. Now he lies there, corpse on corpse, his marriage has been fulfilled in chambers of the dead" (Sophocles exodos: 1378-1382). With Creon's determination to hold control over other people, the more suffering and damage he will cause not only for his people, as well as

In this scene, Haemon confronts Creon over his merciless treatment of Antigone and Creon’s reaction is to explode into an ageist themed rant against his own son, in which Creon finally blows up and calls Haemon a “degenerate” for “bandying accusations” (lines 830-831) against him. Not only is Creon calling his own son an inexperienced, inadequate fool, he earlier in the scene describes Antigone as a “worthless woman” and tells Haemon to “show me the man who runs his household well” (lines 725-739). Each of these statements not only denounce a woman’s worth and status in comparison to a man, but also succeed in fluffing Creon’s ego when he follows with “I’ll show you someone fit to rule the state”(line 740), again stating how “qualified” and “adept” a ruler he believes himself to be. Shortly after this discussion, Creon changes Antigone's punishment from public stoning to being suffocated in a tomb. This change hints that Haemon’s words may have affected Creon enough to make him doubt the populaces affection for him. Furthermore, the exchange between Haemon and Creon also serves as a reminder that a ruler should never denounce or be biased against a specific group because it leads to irrational and selfish decision making, that lead to the destabilization of the community as a

Sophocles’ play, Antigone, presents conflicts such as Antigone vs. Creon and Antigone vs. Ismene. However, there is also a prominent conflict between Creon and his son, Haemon. This father-son conflict stems from the view that a son should be submissive to his father. However, Creon and Haemon each view submission differently, and this difference propels them a step closer to their fates. Also, the father-son relationship serves as a metaphorical relationship between the city and the state. Analysis of the relationship between Creon and Haemon serves to provide another reasoning to their fates; and furthermore, sheds light on the underlying issue between democracy and tyranny in the Greek society.