In the story of Antigone, Creon has a much different personality than he does in the story of Oedipus. In the tale of Antigone, Creon is most definitely a tragic hero. He is a man of high standing who undergoes great suffering. Due to his one major flaw, he will have a downfall that we the audience will accept.
You’re the mighty King and someone dares to oppose you. Of course, you would not want that to occur, so you try to obstruct them from transgressing more edicts. Well, this is how Creon tries to prevent Antigone, which led him to his own defeat. Creon is the most tragic character in Antigone because of his actions. Antigone wishes to honor the Gods and bury Polyneices, but Creon has other thoughts. His unreasonable, prideful self, wanted the people of Thebes to hold him over the all-powerful Gods, which led to his downfall. He had devastated himself because he did not listen to his family and condemned Antigone to death. Creon has such arrogance that it ruins him and his family. His senseless judgments had him face life with this grief for not listening to his son, Haemon. Creon 's decisiveness had not only killed his niece Antigone, but also Haemon and Eurydice.
Tragic heroes are apart of almost all plays worldwide weather you know it or not. In the play Antigone. One of the main characters who is the king of the city,Creon, is the tragic hero for three main reason. First of all he is born into nobility, he meets a tragic death, and lastly, Creon is endowed with a tragic flaw.
Why do people do things? Why are laws created, laws broken, and crimes committed? Behind every action is a motive. In Sophocles’ work of art Antigone, there are many possible motives for the character’s actions. Creon forbids Polyneices burial, sentences Antigone to death, locks Antigone in a stone chamber, and decides to free Antigone because his motives are to be a liked by the Greek Gods and the people of Thebes.
Creon throughout the whole play shows a discrimination toward women, in the end he ends up undergoing a terrible downfall. In the play, Antigone is the protagonist who most of the sexism is appointed toward. Creon shows a lot of feminism toward Antigone not only because of her criminal action but also that the fact that she is a female. Creon goes on to send Antigone to a cell deep in the middle of the woods because she went against his law. The fact that she was a female and went against a man’s power makes it seem worse than it actually has to be, all she did was pay her respect to her brother because no one would. Him putting Antigone to death because she went against his power clearly shows his feminism towards women. This also shows that all males had full power over society, economy, and women, which isn’t fair. Antigone displays her feminist qualities when she goes against the most powerful male, the king Creon. Her going against him shows her disrespect for Creon, her doing this and speaking like a male figure shows her push for equality between the sexes. Antigone throughout the whole play pushed for equality but she never seemed to get what she wants. In the end her push for equality’s of gender, causes her to be sent to death by the male figure she
After reading the tragedy of Antigone by Sophocles, one is left to wonder who the protagonist of this play is. Is it Creon or is it Antigone? To answer this question, one must define what a protagonist is. By definition, a protagonist is a leading actor or a character. Creon fits this description because not only do his actions lead into the whole tragedy, but his character shows a great development and the values he teaches to the readers. When all these characteristics of Creon are put together one could undoubtedly say that Creon is the protagonist in this play.
The roles and social status of women in ancient times are being described by many well-known playwrights and poets. Yet, different works shows different opinions towards “women power”. In this essay, I am going to compare Homer’s Iliad and The Code of Hammurabi along with 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
In the distinguished play Antigone, there is argument over who the tragic hero is, Antigone, or King Creon. A tragic hero must meet certain specifications, which include having a great influence, being essentially good with good intentions, having a weakness in them that leads to their fall, they must commit great sin which leads to conflict, that their story begins in relative happiness and ends in utter disaster, and that the hero commits their actions of their own free will. In this play, I believe that Creon is the real tragic hero and that Antigone sparks the reaction to his downfall.
In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, Creon is the king of Thebes. He is highly regarded and looked up to. He is a fair ruler and he does well to capture his peoples trust. However, Creon’s excessive pride leads to his downfall. He does not realize what his fate is because he is too busy trying to get revenge on Polynices.
The article “The Tragic Hero in Greek Drama” claims that Sophocles, through the tragic heroes in Antigone and Oedipus the King, suggests, “we could do everything right, act on the best information available, and with the best of intentions, yet still commit unspeakable horrors” (“The Tragic Hero in Greek Drama”). Aristotle, a well-known ancient Greek literary critic, created a definition of a tragic hero. His definition is known as the Aristotelian tragic hero, which has many requirements that the character must possess. Creon is the character that best exemplifies Aristotle’s tragic hero because of his virtue, his hubris, and his realization of his fate; however, others may argue that Antigone is a better example of a tragic hero because of
Creon and Antigone held differing beliefs concerning the rights of women. Antigone believed that women were equal or superior to men, while Creon believed women were inferior to men. Creon’s tragic flaw was revealed when Antigone disregarded his law and buried her brother. He was infuriated to discover that he had been defied by a woman. Creon’s tragic flaw was his pride and how he believed he was superior to everyone around him. He demonstrated this again when he
A tragic hero is a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for suffering and defeat. In the story of Antigone there are two possible tragic hero's; Antigone and Creon. Antigone is a tragic hero because she holds a high status, has a tragic flaw, and her punishment exceeds her crime.
Antigone was continuously persistent and believed she was whole heartedly correct while Creon might have disagreed with her for most of the novel he eventually overlooked his arrogance. During the end Creon accepts himself acknowledging that a , “doom that is heavy to bear is come down on my head”(Sophocles Antigone 72). Life and this story would be entirely different if Creon did not contain this, “tragic flaw”. Without his decisions Creon had made this would undoubtedly not be a tragic story at all.
“Antigone” is a Greek play written by Sophocles, a Classical Athens tragedian. In the play, Creon, son of Menoeceus, becomes the king of Thebes, posthumous to Oedipus. Oedipus suffered an exile after committing an unacceptable crime of killing the previous king, who was his own father. Creon was crowned king since his nephews, Eteocles and Polynices, were next in line but tragically died in a battle with each other. Creon’s first act as the new ruler ordered that no one shall give Polynices a proper burial, since he fought against Thebes. Once Antigone, Creon’s niece and Oedipus’s daughter, was caught sprinkling dust and wine over his body, she was detained immediately. Creon then sentenced her to imprisonment in a tomb as punishment for her actions. His decisions led to catastrophe as the choragus explains throughout the play. His fate and disastrous downfall were caused by disobeying the gods, mainly through his tragic flaw of pride and cruelty. He is considered as the tragic hero of “Antigone” because of his ill intentions and fated decline as king of Thebes. Creon is the tragic hero of the Greek Tragedy, Antigone, by Sophocles, because he is important to society, has a tragic flaw, and is faces major consequences as a result of his flaw.