The tragic hero in this play written by Sophocles, “Antigone”, has to be Antigone, the main character, or Creon, the King of Thebes and Antigone’s uncle. “Antigone” is about Antigone’s disobedience towards Creon and her death sentence that would cause the suicidal deaths of her own, and Creon’s wife, Eurydice, and his son, Haemon. A tragic hero is a character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction, and in this play that tragic hero is Creon. A tragic hero usually has characteristics such as hamartia, a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of the hero, and hubris, excessive pride and disrespect of hero for natural order (Beers 263) Creon’s tragic flaw is his excessive pride. When Creon is speaking to Tiresias, a blind seer, he states, “Thou art a wise seer, but in love with wrong” (Sophocles 57). He does not believe that Tiresias is …show more content…
Haemon is Antigone’s fiance and when he found out that his soon-to-be wife is going to be killed, he confronts his father about it. Sophocles foreshadows Haemon’s death when he says, “Bring out the wretch, that in his sight, at once, here, with her bridegroom by her, she may die!”(Sophocles 42). Haemon ends up killing himself because he did not want to live without Antigone, for he loved her too much. Once Eurydice found out what had happened to her son, she could not take it. “...a voice of woe to my own household pierces through my ears; and I sink backward on my handmaidens afaint for terror…” (Sophocles 64). All of this was too much for her to handle so she decided it would just be easier if she just took her life. Creon finds out the death of his wife through a messenger and blames himself, for his actions led all of his sorrows to happen. “I, I was the slayer, I say it, unhappy, of thee!” (Sophocles
A Tragic Hero: Creon In Sophocles’ play, Antigone, horrific events describe the makings of a tragic hero. Antigone contrasts with Creon when they are on the other side of the argument of whether Polyneices should be buried. In Antigone, royal sons kill each other but only one gets a burial because he was the king. This lead to Antigone trying to bury her brother in which she is sentenced to death.
Creon believes she should die and sentences Antigone to death, but Creon is convinced it is wrong to do that, but before he can redeem his punishment for Antigone, she hangs herself. This causing a rippling effect of Haemon, Creon's son, and the Queen killing themselves. This all happened because of the tragic hero Creon, causing him to be the blame of the whole story, losing everything he had. Sophocles uses the tragic hero archetype in order to demonstrate the theme that what seems right is not always the best way to handle something. Creon, the tragic hero, the ruler of Thebes has many values in this story like wealth, family, and respect, but loses all of this.
Almost always, in Greek tragedies a “tragic hero” has a hamartia, or tragic flaw, which will cause their concluding demise. In the Greek playwright, Antigone written by Sophocles, the interesting character, Creon, is a prime example of this. According the Aristotle’s theory, to be a tragic hero you have to have three traits: a flaw, a fall, and acceptance of your current situation. Creon’s flaw is his ego, which blinds him and lures him to do rather profane activities. Due to Creon’s ego, him losing everything caused by that very hamartia, and acceptance of the series of unfortunate events that occurred; Creon is the tragic hero in Antigone
A tragic hero is a character who makes a mistake due to a flaw that inevitably leads to their own destruction. The play Antigone is a very good example of showing what a tragic hero is. This play was written by Sophocles and tells the story about Antigone’s uncle, Creon, declaring to only bury only one of her two brothers after they killed each other in a battle over ruling the kingdom. She goes against her uncle’s law and buries Polynieces, who was left unburied while Eteocles was. Creon finds out about her doings, and sentences her to live in a cell until her death.
In lines 599 to 601, Creon’s states that, due to his selfishness and stubbornness, he will not allow a woman, that woman being Antigone, to change his mind and defy his judgement. He declares that, if Antigone chooses to not change her ways, she will be killed, as to not waver from his own decree. Antigone therefore dies as a result of Creon’s insufferable and ignorant ruling, causing her to suffer at Creon’s hand. Creon’s ruling for the murder of Antigone also causes Haemon to suffer. Creon finds Haemon, in his last moments, mourning the loss of Antigone, “now among the dead, his father’s work,” as described by the messenger in line 1364.
Creon the Tragic Hero In Antigone, Creon conveys a portrait of a tragic hero. His characteristics lead to his downfall, and his reality displays the humanity of people. He is the image of a tragic hero in Antigone because he portrays the traits of ruthlessness, irritability, and loyalty. Creon was so stubborn that he did not listen to anyone, and this eventually caused his tragedy.
Creon exhibits great pride in his decisions since he believes that everything he says or does is in the well interest of everyone when in reality that is not the case. Creon wants to be a great king , one who has control over his people, but while trying to be a great king he ends up misusing his power. His power becomes his pride ,and his unwillingness to listen to others. As a result his wife commits suicide in the grief of her son whom Creon had not listened to. The messenger claims , “And for Haimon dead, her sons; and her last breath Was a curse for their father, the murder of her sons.
Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust”(Sophocles 1.5 142-146). Creon’s destruction resulted because of his misdeeds in having too much pride. His pride and his personal instability were the worst combination of possible qualities he could have. Creon’s past sins have built up and eventually burst and gave this man the worst punishment of all the characters in the play. In Antigone by Sophocles, Creon displayed many failing qualities as a king; most notably having displayed a giant ego by not accepting help from others, which warns the audience of the dangers
In Sophocles's epic play Antigone, Creon is a leader who is too prideful and his hubris is the reason of his downfall. Creon’s fatal flaw is his hubris. Creon’s downfall includes the loss of his family and losing the trust from the people of Thebes. Pride will always be a problem.
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.
“Not so self-centered that you never listen to other people” (Hugh Hefner). In the story of Antigone, Creon shows the characteristics of a tragic hero, as he is the king he shows his self-confident and he does not recognize his flaws until the end of the story. All of this leads into his downfall in the tragedy and causes him to realized what he had done. Creon is a tragic hero because of his self-righteousness, his excessive pride, and he does not listen to the opinion of others.
However, Creon finds himself in a difficult situation. His son, Haemon, will soon marry Antigone, Creon’s niece who just lost both of her brothers. Antigone decided to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial however against Creon’s ruling. And now, Creon must do as he promised - execute the one responsible. CREON.
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.
He is stubborn, and his pride is so great, he cannot bring himself to acknowledge that he could ever wrong. King Creon also possessed the character trait of being very strict and inflexible, even though his character may have brought protection, or a sense of safety among the Theban people, even when his. When Creon is talking to Teiresias, he thinks that he is being paid off. He does not want to believe he could be wrong about Antigone. Creon even says, “Whatever you say, you will not change my will.”
Antigone’s love is so great for her brother that she went against the king and buried him with religious rights. Then Haemon kills himself because Antigone had died and he wanted to be with her. In the end Creon’s wife killed herself because her son had died. Creon is perceived as the tragic hero of the play when he is talking