An Effective Leader : Creon, King Of Thebes, From The Play Antigone

In the play Antigone by Sophocles there is more than one tragic hero. In the story the tragic hero of this play is Creon which is the king of Thebes. Creon’s flaw is his pride and stubbornness. He expressed these traits when challenged by his niece Antigone, and even his own son, through many different ideas, actions, and words.

Creon blatantly refuses to listen to other’s advice or criticism of his rule. His son, Haemon, argues for Antigone’s life, for she had committed an act of love and the people are in her favor. He tries to persuade his father by saying, “Those sailors who keep their sails stretched tight, never easing off, make their ship capsize—and from that point on sail with their rowing benches all submerged” (Lines

Creon was not able to lead well, because he let the huge amount of power

Throughout the whole play, Creon has not kept himself from showing his unruly attitude towards all the characters about his decisions for the people. There were many occasions in

“A man who thinks that he is only wise, that he can speak and think like no one else, when such men are exposed, then all can see their emptiness inside.” (Lines 802-805) Haemon says this to his father meaning a man of his kind is only going to be seen as a failure from words when their true self is exposed. Haemon’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character to the point of these two characters having conflicting motivations. These conflicting motivations cause the characteristics of disrespect, careless, & selfishness to be highlighted within Creon’s character. In the end, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by Haemon’s choice of word to his father and the character interactions advance the plot and develops the theme by

Creon's weakness of quickness to anger, and misjudgement causes him to not only lose respect of his city, but his son too. In the play, Haemon stands up for his city, and the girl he loves. This causes Creon to snap and become very angry, not to fully hear Haemon's thoughts. In the story Haemon says: “The city is upset about the girl. They say of all the women here she least deserves the worst of deaths for her most glorious act.” (Lines 786-788) This shows he is subtly standing up for the city, and also Antigone. He also says, “Surely she deserves some golden honour?” (Line 792) This also gives a good example to how Haemon is attempting to reel his father in on his thought process on this situation, and ease him into a different choice for the city of Thebes, and both men's sake. Although Haemon laid his ideas and thoughts on his father in a respectful and peaceful way, out of everyone he should know his father best. Creon is a quick tempered man, and in most of the conversation between the two, he replied with rude and vulgar comments, such as: “You're and womans slave- don't try to win me over.” (Line 855-854) or “You’ll regret parading what you think like this-you-a person with an empty brain.” (Lines 862-863) From just these two excerpts from the story, you can tell Creon is a very hot headed person. Haemon, who before this incident, was close with his father knew this. He

Despite being very stubborn, this wasn’t Creon’s only hamartia that lead to the downfall of his loved ones, and himself, Creon was also very prideful. When Creon set the law of not burying Polyneices’ body and his niece/soon to be daughter-in-law breaks it, he won’t let her live because he is too prideful. Creon won’t show any mercy even to his family because he has too much pride. Another example of Creon being too prideful is when Creon was talking to Haemon and he told his son that “The state is the king!”(3.107). When Creon is saying this he means that he doesn’t care about his subject’s opinion, in his

There are the reasons why Creon is a tragic hero in the story antigone. In the play Antigone by sophocles the charter Creon is a tragic hero because of the evidence in my three paragraphs. A tragic hero is born into nobility and meets a tragic death and is endowed in a tragic flaw.

Creon is first portrayed as a leader with rational laws and consequences for breaking them. But by the end of the play, Creon is a completely different character; he has let his excessive pride and hubris take over him. He doesn’t realize his change in character until it is brought to him through the prophecy of Teiresias, when it is already too late. Creon can be identified as a tragic hero because he shows great signs of stubbornness and pride. Considering he is the King of Thebes, he follows his rules and laws without listening to his citizen’s concerns, nor does he care about the gods wishes. His role as a hubris influences many of his choices, he believes in only his own thoughts and wishes. Creon abuses his power just because he can, without thinking of the consequences.

Even if he believes he is right and his son should obey him, he doesn’t show an ounce of sympathy for Haemon, who loves Antigone. Creon details his thoughts on the importance of the rule of law over other loyalties, and his belief that to allow any anarchy or, seemingly, freedom would threaten the state. Creon’s method of executing Antigone is interesting. By entombing a living person, Antigone, and denying burial to a dead person, Polynices, Creon’s laws seem to go against common sense, tradition, and nature itself. Creon does not keep a cool head, as a wise leader should, or look for a way to compromise. He is as stubborn as Antigone, as if this were a street fight, he feels he could never back down.

" Creon has also shown that he is the head of everyone, even the gods. In scene 3 line 103, Creon says "My voice is the one voice giving orders in this city." These quotes would tell someone that Creon was dignified and superior. Creon was also the person that most would say had the most noticeable tragic flaw. Creon's tragic flaw was that he was arrogant, rash, and foolish.

Creon takes the pride from his sons. Creon will never give up on his country and will keep every word he said. To be a good noble king like creon then you will say things that you mean and will take to heart and try your hardest to keep your word, and never go back on it. When you say things that you mean and show your country that then they will trust you more and give you more respect.

In the Greek tragedy Antigone, Sophocles writes that Creon has risen to power after the fall of Oedipus and has initiated new laws. When he is first introduced, Creon is represented as a strong leader who will not accept defiance, saying “...now I hold sole power and the throne…” (173-174). Sophocles wrote him at this part of the play as being an extreme leader through his actions, saying “...in this city he [Polyneices] shall be neither buried nor mourned…” (207-280) and declaring the necessity of who should do what. Additionally, Creon uses many statements regarding obedience

Sophocles portrays Creon as an ineffective leader because in Antigone, he is seen as very stubborn. Creon does not take the advice that the Guard, Chorus, or even his own son, Haemon, gives to him. For example, Haemon tried to persuade his dad to be smart and make the right decision whether to spare Antigone’s life or to punish her. Creon then replied to Creon saying “What? Men of our age go to school again and take a lesson from a very boy?”. This is a perfect example that portrays Creon’s stubbornness because he does not listen to Haemon because Haemon is a boy and not of age to be listened to by a man. Someone who does not listen to another person because they

They don’t agree with what I have decreed.”(Sophocles). When Haemon defied him, it was like a rude awakening, like ‘wow, not everyone is blindly faithful’. This showed how oblivious Creon was. He was so greedy and blinded by power that he didn’t think of how his decisions affected his people.