Rhetorical Analysis Of Creon

Creon cares extremely about his country of Thebes and creates his own laws. He mentions that, “There's been a group of grumblers in this town: men who can hardly abide by my rule, who nod and whisper, chafing beneath my law, who are not in love with it at all,” (Sophocles, 203). He speaks these words with anger towards whoever disobeys him. His extreme love for his country shows his noble stature which causes him to punish those who do not love Thebes as passionately as he does. Creon has the appearance of good, but when he chooses to not bury Polyneices, which goes against the beliefs of the Gods by not honoring him, he shows his tragic flaw. He says, “But Polyneices, killed as piteously, an interdict forbids that anyone should bury him or even mourn.” (192). Through disobeying the Gods, Creon implies that his laws are more important than the Gods. Creon’s disregard towards the Gods, explains why he dismisses Tiresias’s power. Creon’s overall power grants him his free will. He says, “I know. You point the horns of my dilemma. It's hard to eat my words, but harder still to court catastrophe through overriding pride.” (240). Creon tells the Leader that even though Tiresias has shown the truth of his actions, he cannot admit them or change them because he has no power left, no free will. The amount of chaos that Creon has caused forces such a harsh punishment upon him. Tiresias warns him to

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.

She thinks that,”all these men here would praise [her] if were their lips not frozen shut with fear of you” (Antigone 210). She tells him that people only obey him because they are too afraid of Creon’s wrath if they disagree with him, as the case is with Ismene. His son, Haemon, further elaborates on this point by confessing he thinks his father’s,”temper terrifies them - everyone will tell you only what you like to hear,” which further proves that Creon is an unjust and volatile ruler who cannot be depended on to make important judgements or decisions (Antigone 218). Haemon reports to his father that he hears the common citizens whispering,”no woman has ever, so unreasonably died so shameful a death for a generous act,” which reveals that the people believe Antigone is worthy of praise for going out of her way to provide for her family, and that Creon is being illogical in his decision-making in this situation (Antigone

Correspondingly, Creon's bona fide adherence to the laws of man is evident in the defense for his resolute actions. In the conversation aforementioned between Haemon and Creon, the latter defends his decision by declaring it is to "respect his own authority". As in his opinion, a respected ruler who is in the early stages of establishing authority must be uncompromising and resolute in making decisions. Creon rejects using divine laws to rule his people for they are irrational, and trusts that solely following man made laws will he be able to guarantee a peaceful and prosperous existence for his city. Creon says that the laws enacted by the city’s leader "must be obeyed, large and small, / right and wrong." Which is to say, Creon contends state law as the basis for justice, hence there can be no such thing as unjust laws. Undoubtedly, Creon's symbolic values within the play is displayed by his fierce dedication to state law and order, contrary to the symbolism Antigone embodies.

Antigone uses both emotional and logical appeals to persuade her sister, Ismene to go against Creon’s rules and laws, to help honor her brother giving him a proper burial, thus giving him a chance at an afterlife. There brother risked his life for others and Creon allowed one of the men to have a proper burial but not him so while Antigone was trying to get Ismene to help give him what he deserves she said “He is my brother. and he is your brother, too.” (Sophocles et al. 191) This is logically persuasive because it is usually common sense to help your family through everything and to do what 's best for them. By choosing to use logic, Antigone is hoping to get her sister to help her. It is also very emotionally persuasive because shes saying that he 's her brother and

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

Creon that Ismene had nothing to do with the burial of Polyneices. In scene five

Antigone is one of the greatest tragedies ever written by Sophocles. There is a controversial question about this play: Who is the tragic hero? Could it be Antigone or Creon? Even though the play’s name is Antigone, but as I read the story. A sensible and responsible king, Creon, is a tragic hero because of his power madness, self-righteousness, and ruthlessness. He is the center of the play, which causes events to happen.

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

Throughout his speech Creon was able to effectively achieve his purpose of convincing his audience to agree with his decision on not burying Polyneices with the use of contrasting diction. In order to convince his audience that his way of ruling is the correct way Creon uses the rhetorical device of contrasting diction in his speech. This is done when Creon announced, “Eteocles, who died as a man should die, fighting for his country, is to be buried with full military honors, with a ceremony that is usual when the greatest heroes die…”. When talking about Eteocles and his honorary death, Creon uses words with a positive diction such as “honors, ceremony, and greatest heroes”, each of these words are linked to the positive connotation of a man with honor and great dignity. On the other hand, when speaking of Polyneices, Creon turns to the use of negative diction. Creon declared, “...Polyneices, who broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and the shrines of his father's’ gods, whose one idea was to spill the blood of his blood and sell his own people into slavery….is to have no burial”. While discussing the terms of Polyneices’ burial, none, Creon is sure to include words with negative diction linked to dishonor. Some examples of these words in his speech include “exile, fire, sword, spill the blood, and slavery”.

In Antigone by Sophocles, the purpose of Creon’s speech is to explain his new leadership. First, Creon wants to gain the loyalty from the citizens of Thebes. A great king would first need the trust of his state in order to rule effectively. Especially, Creon would need trust from his state after the tragic events that happened beforehand, which was Polyneices and Eteocles dying. He state this fact in his speech: “I am aware, of course, that no ruler can expect complete loyalty from his subjects until he has been tested in office.” Creon is guaranteeing that he can be trusted and how devoted he was to gaining their trust. These words alone shows how much he wants to be king and rule them the correct way which is without betrayal. His tone is sincere to show that he actually means what he says. Creon proves his devotion in his speech by stating,”No one values friendship more highly than I; but we must remember that friends made at the risk of wrecking our ship are not real friends at all.” He is referring to Polyneices and how he betrayed his people. Creon is making sure that his state knows that his people comes before anything else and that they are his prime priority with security of their lives. These are the oaths or promises that Creon shall make as their new leader.

Furthermore, throughout the play there are other important forces that act as an influence to the characters and the implementation of their actions. First of all, one the most relevant should be considered pride. Both Creon and Antigone show signs of hubris. In the ancient Greece this was considered a character flaw and was contemplated a sin as it generated too much emphasis on the ideals and what the desires of a particular character, which could eventually endangered other people. This enabled them to accept other people’s counsel and usually performed bad

Despite Creon’s past successful leadership, it often appeared as though Creon’s common choice of decisions and following threats led to his loss as his actions caused his people enough fear to want to either escape his rule. Such examples are seen with the guard who says “you won’t see me coming here again.”(Sophocles, 286) which clearly showed his loss of loyalty to Creon after he and the other guards had been threatened under false accusations, or Antigone whose main purpose in the story was to cause to incite conflict by defying Creon’s laws. The worst example of his ignorance to other’s opinions was when Creon’s own son Haemon one of the few people who would be in his favor, enraged Creon into a blind fury simply by stating that he disagreed with his choice in “No, not when I see you making a mistake and being unjust” (Sophocles,847/848). Unfortunately for all involved, no matter their intentions or actions, it always seems as though Creon’s judgements were precisely incorrect and poorly

This is especially true in the way Ismene reacts to the laws Creon puts in place. Under Creons authority, she refused to help even her sister bury her own brother. She was so obedient to Creon she wouldn’t even help her own family. Even when Antigone tries to tell her about how they were family and her brother deserved a proper burial, Ismene said: “They mean a great deal to me; but I have no strength. To break laws that were made for the public good.” She is so obedient to Creon she even goes as far as to claim the laws set in place are for “public good.” This can be linked to how during the experiments mentioned in The Perils of Obedience the testers would sometimes do everything asked of them, no questions. This is similar with Antigone. Even if she does know in her heart that it’s wrong, she lets what is happening happen. That is where Antigone can be connected to The Perils of

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.