In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Creon, the king of Thebes, best represents a tragic hero. Creon demonstrates goodness in his intentions for Thebes as well as his fragile state due to the fact that he recently lost several family members. Creon, newly named king, finds himself as highest ranking official around, showing superiority. Creon often acts stubborn and prideful, his tragic flaw. And lastly, he must come to terms with the fact that he caused the death of his wife, son, and niece. Therefore, Creon best represents a tragic hero. For a character to represent goodness, they must evoke pity from the audience. Creon must step up to take the throne of Eteocles, one his recently fallen nephews. Meaning that Creon, still grieving, must take to …show more content…
(Scene 1. 39-42)
Creon must rule with iron fist in order to gain respect from the people. He loses two family members,, takes the throne, and must banish the prayers for his poor, fallen nephew. Additionally, Creon loses his wife and son in scene five. CREON. Oh pity! All true, all true, and more than I can bear! O my wife, my
Son! (5. 109-111)
Creon’s death sentence for Antigone led to his son’s suicide, which then caused the suicide of his wife. The reader feels pity for Creon for his lack of time to grieve and his tragic mistake that led to the loss of his family, this demonstrates his goodness.
Creon, recently succeeded to take the throne of Eteocles, making him king. Therefore, giving him the title of royalty and showing superiority. His power and control over Thebes makes him important, and this power and importance leads to a lack of mercy for criminals.. CREON. I have summoned you here this morning because I know that I can depend on you: your devotion to King Laius was absolute; you never hesitated in your duty to our late ruler Oedipus; and
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He can act quite stubborn and overconfident in himself and his ruling, and he needs to see this situation from another point of view in order to prevent anarchy. We find Creon irritated and belligerent when speaking with Teiresias. TEIRESIAS. King, you will drive me to words that - CREON. Say them, say them! Only remember: I will not pay you for them.
Creon takes Teiresias’ words with a grain of salt, if only Creon knew that Teiresias was correct all along. As the new king, Creon must make complicated decisions and the people must trust him to choose wisely. However, Creon finds himself in a difficult situation. His son, Haemon, will soon marry Antigone, Creon’s niece who just lost both of her brothers. Antigone decided to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial however against Creon’s ruling. And now, Creon must do as he promised - execute the one responsible. CREON. But this is Antigone! Why have you brought her here? SENTRY. She was burying him, I tell you! CREON. Is this the truth? SENTRY. I saw her with my own eyes. Can I say more? (Scene 2.
Another reason why Antigone was so against Creon’s decision to with held Polyneices from a proper burial was because she thought that it's not what the gods would have wanted, and that the gods are much more powerful that Creon. However, Creon didn't just affect Antigone, he affected his whole family, but in particular, his son Haemon, destined to marry Antigone, when he sent Antigone to
However, in order to hide his insecurity about whether or not he is favored by his people, he portrays himself as a powerful, monarch who will stop at nothing to show his eminent power. He comes off as arrogant and merciless, demanding the respect of the people in his kingdom without actually giving them as genuine reason as to why they should give their devotion to him. The king, instead of cooperating with the people, illustrates his absolute power with demands which can be identified in the following quote: “This is my command, and you can see the wisdom behind it” (I, l. 48-49). Using the stated quote as a source, Creon's unyielding personality comes into light, and due to his lack of concern for the people's opinion, Creon begins his descent from an egotistic ruler to someone who will lose everything that is dear to
She buries the unburied corpse of her brother. Creon gets furious when he finds out someone disobeyed him. He soon found out it was Antigone and sentences her to death. Creon's son, Haemon who also happens to be Antigone’s fiancé, proposes to Creon that he should rethink his decision.
With Creon having too much ego, it initiated all the conflicts that arose. He won 't listen to anyone, even when Teiresias tells him his truthful prophecy he thinks that he is being paid off. Creon has a certain cockiness that no one in their right mind would bare. Soon Creon suffers a peripeteia, which he was warned about from many. A king, with a kingdoms submission, is easily above others; but they still suffer.
Creon shows an extraordinary amount of stubbornness throughout the story. An example is seen when Antigone wishes to give her brother, Polyneices a proper burial so he can have a pleasant afterlife with the Gods. Creon, as king wishes to have him rot in the fields because he turned his back on the state in which the events occurred.
His son haemon is supposed to marry Antigone so this draws the father and son apart. “Do you really intend to steal this girl from your son?” Choragos says. ”No death will do that for me.” Creon answers.
Countless times, Creon was implored to change his mind to preserve the safety of others. However, due to his uncompromising and egocentric nature, he repeatedly denied this aid, and therefore caused the tragedies of the deaths of his niece and his son. The events that occurred in the play Antigone accurately represent the characteristics of a tragic flaw and subsequent suffering that define a
Worse, the body of a traitor is left to rot above ground as food for scavengers. Creon’s law conflicts with Antigone’s loyalty to the gods. She believes the laws of the gods respect the dead and require a proper burial. She does not hesitate to ignore the law of the state and fulfill the laws of the gods. When she turns to her sister, Ismene, to bury their brother, Polyneices, Ismene’s fear consumes her.
As long as I am King, no traitor is going to be honored with the loyal man. But whoever shows by word and deed that he is on the side of the State,––he shall have my respect while he is living and my reverence when he is dead ( Scene 1). Creon’s regards towards his own laws cause him to withdraw from all other beliefs or opinions that others have to offer him. He believes that the people of Thebes should obey his rules if they want his support.
In Sophocles's epic play Antigone, Creon is a leader who is too prideful and his hubris is the reason of his downfall. Creon’s fatal flaw is his hubris. Creon’s downfall includes the loss of his family and losing the trust from the people of Thebes. Pride will always be a problem.
Teiresias tells Creon that about how he had a dream and saw that the gods aren’t please with Creon. They aren’t happy with how Creon is punishing Antigone for trying to uphold their laws. “Wise art thou as a seer, but too much given to wrong and injury” (Sophocles, ln. 1215-1216). Earlier in the play Creon was talking about how Teiresias as a seer is very reliable and has never been wrong. However, in this quote, the reader can see that Teiresias is advising Creon to give Polyneices proper burial rights and free Antigone because it will please the gods, but since Creon is too prideful and stubborn to admit he’s wrong, he blames Teiresias’ visions as being wrong.
(Antigone 8). This quote shows that he wants everyone to obey him and anyone who disobeys him will get in trouble. The last support can be found when Creon said, “But he who crosses law, or forces it, or hopes to bring the ruler under him, shall never have a word of praise from me.” (Antigone 23). This means that Creon is “madly in love” with his power and thinks that he can do anything because he is the king.
In the first scene of the play we meet Creon. The overly prideful power hungry King of the City of Thebes. His City has recently been met with terrible strife as his nephew Polyneices has attacked the former leader Eteocles. Being abruptly placed into power so soon after the city lost their previous leader, Creon needs to show his people that he is a strong trustworthy leader.
Creon, with his hubris, does not listen to the words of his son, Haemon. When he reluctantly calls for the release of Antigone from her imprisonment, he is too late. She has died and Haemon kills himself after failing to kill his father. “Nothing you say can touch me any more. My own blind heart has brought me.
Antigone’s love is so great for her brother that she went against the king and buried him with religious rights. Then Haemon kills himself because Antigone had died and he wanted to be with her. In the end Creon’s wife killed herself because her son had died. Creon is perceived as the tragic hero of the play when he is talking