Creon Character Analysis

In the play Antigone, the idea of a tragic hero is thrown between characters. Two of the characters that are best described as tragic heros are Antigone and Creon. In the play, the main character, Antigone stands up for what she believes is right and honorable. To do this, she has to break the law. As a result she is prized with death just because of standing up for what she believes in. Creon, however creates the law because he feels that it will protect the citizens of Thebes and be the best king he possibly can. But nobody else sees it that way. They all hate him for this, and because of it, he is also punished for doing what he thought was best. The expression of these characters is very impactful, but the most impactful tragic hero in my opinion is Creon, because he makes the reader feel more sympathetic by having an anagnorisis, feeling ashamed

The way I viewed his heart’s desire made me feel like he is less of a bad person than people might think. I thought his heart’s desire was to be the best king he could be. This is an important reason because all he wanted to do was be the best king he could be, while others thought otherwise. In this case, he thought it would be best to kill Antigone because she broke a law and he wanted to protect the people of Thebes from a felon, even if it was somebody else. In line 1228 he says to the leader: “Oh it’s hard giving up on the heart’s desire… but I will do it” after he is convinced to let Antigone free. This quote says, Creon does not want to go back on his word and does not want to let a criminal get away, but he has to so his people can view him as a better ruler than they initially thought. This made me feel sympathetic because he was willing to give up something he cared about for the life of someone else. It shows a change he undergoes but was never able to fix his mistakes because Antigone had already killed