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The Importance Of Pride In Antigone By Sophocles

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Pride is the feeling of high satisfaction in one’s self. This emotion can be the result of high self-esteem in personal achievements. Confidence can often be confused with pride when one becomes too self-obsessed. When too prideful, judgement may be affected. The mind changes from selfless to selfish in an instant when one’s actions are based on stubbornness. This feeling of pride is what led Creon to his demise. The play, “Antigone” by Sophocles is about pride and reveals to the readers that too much pride leads to destruction.
The first time this theme reveals itself is while Antigone is consulting with Ismene about burying Polyneices, their brother who died, and was thought to have dishonored the family in Creon’s eyes. Due to these circumstances Polyneices was banned from being buried and from taking the journey of the afterlife to heaven. As Antigone tries to convince Ismene to help, she exclaims, “Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way.” She feels as though honoring her brother is worth dying for and that Creon can not “stand in her way.” When Creon hears of this startling news, he questions the ability of women to stand up to him in which he states, “Pride? In a slave?” At this point in time women are not seen as equals to men. Women are viewed as lower class, or “slaves”. So when Creon heard of Antigone’s actions, he is in disbelief and thinks her actions should be punished by death. In response to Creon ordering her to her death, she sneered, “Then I beg you: Kill me… I should have praise and honor for what I have done.” She has accepted consequences and is welcoming her fate of death. She is proud in the fact she buried her brother …show more content…

Antigone’s pride led her to a fate of death, and Creon 's pride lead to a tragic ending caused by a curse. Too much pride can cause one to not be aware of their actions and cause a long path of

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