Sophocles Antigone: The Hero's Journey

Creon’s tragic flaw is that he is too stubborn and lets his pride obscure his decision making. When Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in battle, Creon orders his men to give Eteocles a complete military burial and decree Polynices’ body to remain unburied. Stubbornness is another defining tragic flaw of Creon. Creon demonstrate his stubbornness by not wanting to be proved wrong because of pride. When the Choragos tried to tell Creon that he made a mistake by telling that nobody can bury the body of Polyneices.

The feeling of getting revenge starts the signs of active nihilism in Hamlet. Hamlet goes through passive nihilistic views in most of the play and shows this through his lack of motivation to live. Hamlet says, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world,” (I,2). Hamlet talks on how that everything in this world is useless. This suggests that he really does not have a reason to live.

In “Anthem”, by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 is completely unaware that the Council he trusts is actually plotting against him to maintain control of the society, but comes to realize the truth about his society as he questions its morals and eventually runs away to make his own path. This leads to his ultimate realization that his society is completely and totally evil. He weeps when he discovers the word “I”. He had been searching for a word that could suffice for that meaning, but never found it until he ran away from the society to discovery it. The society in Anthem was morally wrong for a handful of reasons.

In all great literary works, there exists a protagonist. Throughout a piece of writing, the author portrays the protagonist in not just their best, but in their worst state as well. Conflict always seems to encounter the main character and both their inner and outer struggles are depicted. Even if the character is likable or unlikable, the way in how the character responds and deals with their struggles holds the audience’s attention. In the play Hamlet, written by famed playwright William Shakespeare, nearly all of the characters undergo struggles that could be linked back to the death of King Hamlet and the ensuing insanity of his son Hamlet.

The Tragedy of Hamlet is amongst the most influential and significant tragedies in English literature. Being one of Shakespeare’s most popular woks and among his most performed, Hamlet raised several symbols and themes that remains partly unsolved as its ambiguity survived to modern times. As a dramatic text, the play conveyed problematic themes through distinguished elements as well as specific modes of representation. This extract, from Scene 5.Act 1, highlights three main elements: context, form and content that not only forge the dramatization of the speech but also foreshadow the coming crucial actions. This paper sheds the light on these three elements to analyse how the relevant extract is dramatized.

The least noble character of Julius Caesar is Decius. There is a plethora of reasons as to why Decius is an ignoble character. First of all, according to the play, Decius lies to Calpurnia and says that her nightmares mean nothing. Next, Decius says he is going to affront and mock another individual. This makes Decius a heckler.

Henry lives out the maxim, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind,” throughout the whole play, specifically during a scene with Sam and another scene with Deacon Ball. In the scene with Sam, Henry refuses to pay his taxes as an act against conformity and supporting the war, this eventually results to him ending up going to jail. In addition to his act against conformity as a means of not paying his taxes, he also follows his own belief by teaching the way he wants to and questioning if God is an atheist. Again as a result of his beliefs, he ends up getting in trouble by Deacon Ball. At the end of the day, the way Henry lives his life is considered sacred because despite knowing that there will be consequences to his actions, he still follows through with them due to the fact does not care what others think of how he lives his life, he seeks change and is not afraid to act out his beliefs in order to achieve

In a situationally ironic act, Kreon orders Antigone to be entombed alive and for Polyneices to be left dead in the open. His inhumane command is a sign of his hubris, as Kreon begins to believe that human law is more important than divine justice. Here, Kreon goes against the social expectations of a king, as the Ancient Greek society believed that Zeus despised superiority and conceit. Sophocles further uses dramatic irony when Antigone refuses for Ismene to be martyred for what she did not originally believe in; this surprises the audience of the play, as Antigone is seen to value family ties above all. Eventually, both Antigone and Kreon are either killed or disgraced due to their respective obsessions with family ties and absolute power.

Creon disagrees strongly and becomes inflamed towards Haemon. Another flaw of Creon is that he is a hypocrite who does not stick to his own words, thus perjuring himself. In his initial speech he says “ - a man who does not take the best advice there is - such a man is the very worst of men and always will be.”. But later in the play Creon doesn’t listen to the advice of those around him, in the most basic sense he is saying that he is the worst of men. These tragic flaws work against him as the story progresses.

Iago is able to manipulate the other characters of the play because he is a villain who doesn't understand the morals of society. Othello and all of the immoral acts that it contains are the direct result of Iago's hatred for Othello, Emilia and women yet alone the insecurities that Iago has about his own achievements.