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Theme Of Mistakes In Antigone

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Mistakes in Thebes In the classic play Antigone by Sophocles, two characters are established, Antigone and King Creon. When the two characters are juxtaposed due to Antigone being loyal to her family and Creon being loyal to his state leads to fatal consequences. The tragic hero depicted in the play is Creon due to the fact that he is a man of high noble power and his epic and tragic downfall is foreshadowed after the conflict between his rule and Antigone’s beliefs. Creon, the king of an ancient city thebes, is characterized as a manipulative, ruthless and has many other problems. However, his hubris is Creon’s biggest hamartia. As a king, Creon leads with his pride, he accuses and makes decisions before allowing other’s actions and advice to effect his rule. He believes that he is an equal to the gods, a high figure with control of nature and humans, being just superior to gods is a huge deal itself and to add, Creon places himself much higher on a scale of women to men. Although, …show more content…

When Antigone loses all regard for the law and allows others in Thebes to follow in her actions and question the authority, the first part of Creon’s hubris is then destroyed; his ability to rule. After Antigone is sentenced to death as punishment, Creon’s other part of pride is soon to fall. Haemon, Antigone’s husband, is distraught by the death of his wife and decides to kill himself so he can be set to rest with the love of his life. Soon after finding out of the death of her last son, Creon’s wife takes her own life. Which is the complete downfall of Creon with no power or family, he has nothing. Making him the tragic hero. The juxtaposition of Creon and Antigone pushes the overall theme of actions and individual fate. Free choices, such as Antigone burying her brother, leads to the most tragic of events of “Antigone” all individuals have a choice in their fate no matter the other

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