Analysis Of Creon 's ' Antigone '

In the play Antigone, Creon starts off as the loyal king of Thebes. He is loyal to the gods and loyal to the welfare of Thebes. However, over the course of the play, Creon degenerates into a tyrant. His degeneration is showing his character development. Creon’s pride about the human law also develops throughout the play, creating conflict with the divine law. When Antigone rebels against his law, he becomes stubborn, and makes myopic decisions and grows into his hamartia. Besides his hamartia, Creon’s position as the king makes him a power hungry man. His power madness degenerates him into becoming a ruthless and vindictive man, even to his family. However, over the course of the play, Creon begins to see that because of the laws of men, he was being blinded of what’s

     Finally, Creon is a dynamic character. He undergoes changes in emotion throughout the work. He realizes his mistakes when Tiresias forecasts the future. Thus, Creon attempts to correct himself by releasing Antigone. But he is too late. He is forced to live, knowing that three people are dead as a result of his actions. This punishment is worse than death. Although Creon’s self-righteousness and inflexibility did not change until the end of the play, his motivations traveled from patriotic ones to personal ones. This created a major portion of the

First off, Ismene, Antigone’s sister, actually was the one that incited Antigone's actions that led to everything else that happened in the story. Without Ismene, there would not be a plot. In lines 52-59, Ismene said to Antigone “What? You'd bury him— when a law forbids the city?” Antigone replied “Yes! He is my brother and—deny it as you will—your brother too. No one will ever convict me for a traitor.” Ismene said “So desperate, and Creon has expressly—” and Antigone interrupted with “He has no right to keep me from my own.” Here Ismene is telling Antigone that her actions are not something that are legal and that comply with Creon’s laws. Antigone, being hard-headed, decides that she is not going to let a law determine what she does for

“Tell me briefly—not in some lengthy speech— were you aware there was a proclamation forbidding what you did?” (503-505). The actions, context of Antigone’s words, and also the ideas she proposed, very indepthly contrasted with Creon’s character. Thus resulting in there being a verbal confrontation between the two characters. The conflict between the two caused conflicting motivations such as stubbornness, disrespect, and anger to be projected with Creon’s character. Ultimately, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by portraying that he knew, the decisions he made were of error, and the character interactions advance the plot by causing conflict throughout the play. Creon had also begun to change throughout the play,

Creon, unlike Antigone, shows all of the characteristics of a Greek tragic hero. He is an ordinary person, with way to much power. This is one situation as to why the sole ruler form of government was soon diminished. Creon’s actions derived from his human flaws or his fear of loosing his place as king. Creon also ends up facing suffering because due to his prideful attitude, it caused the death of three loved ones, his son, niece, and wife. Even though a tragic hero is nothing like a hero we would hear being describe today, they both teach important lessons. A hero teaches the reader right decisions and the correct course, while a tragic hero

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.

The protagonist in  a story makes key decisions, experiences consequences for those decisions, and affects the circumstances of the story. In the Greek tragedy Antigone Creon displays being the protagonist. Creon in the play made a key decision to place a decree. He affected the circumstances by deciding to punish Antigone for her actions and he experienced consequences for those decision resulting in unexpected deaths. Creon demonstrates being the protagonist based on making key decisions, experiencing consequences, and affecting the circumstances.

Like Creon, Antigone also never falters in standing up for what she believes in. Although Creon fights for stubborn pride, Antigone is trying to promote what is right and shows her higher reverence for God’s law rather than for Creon’s laws. In the eyes of the townspeople, Chorus, Choragos, and Haimon, Antigone is sacrificing herself to give her brother Polyneices the rightful honors due to the dead. Many side with this brave, honorable girl because she would rather suffer persecution and even death rather than give into Creon’s illogical demands. In the play, the chorus says about her, “You have made your choice, Your death is the doing of your conscious hand”. Antigone knew of the consequences before she acted and in doing so she chose her fate. At the time, she pleaded her sister Ismene to help her bury Polyneices but was rejected. Despite being alone in trying to rebel and perhaps she may have been afraid, Antigone goes out of her way and puts her life on the line to bring her brother respect.

Pride, one of the seven deadly sins. It is arguably the most dangerous of the seven sins, making people act irrationally when they are insulted and almost unable to see reason. This is demonstrated very well in Antigone by Creon and Antigone. Civil law dictated that Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, was not to be buried, while religious law dictated that anyone not buried could not be put to rest. Creon believed his law, the civil law, should be listened to over religious law. Antigone believed that religious laws should be listened to above civil laws. Despite having opposing views on whether to follow civil or religious law, Creon and Antigone’s own pride and refusal to back down led to their downfall.

Pride acts as another major theme; it is what got Creon in this situation in the first place. Creon has too much pride to admit to anyone that maybe he was wrong. Even when he has Antigone he has too much pride to let her go. Creon's own son questions him and he replies, "Am I to stand here and be lectured to by a kid? A man of my experience"(1063)!Creon shows that here he is too proud to change his decision for his own son even if he made the wrong choice. The king's friend the Leader tries to convince Creon to change his mind by telling him "My king, ever since he began I've been debuting in my mind, could this possibly be the work of the gods"(1050). The Leader was trying to tell

When Creon asked Antigone if she knew about his previous promulgation, she replied, “It was public. Could I help hearing it?” (783, 63). Because Antigone knew he would have to execute her, one can imply that one of her intentions was to make Creon seem unjust. The king was forced to deal with being the “bad guy” for protecting the law, which he created for the best interest of the state. Creon explains this point when he says, “...I have nothing but contempt for the kind of Governor who is afraid...to follow the course that he knows is best for the state” (777, 21-23). Despite the harshness of his means, Creon’s intentions were to create a more effective government, which could ultimately succeed in helping the people. Given this perspective, one may begin to appreciate Creon’s devotion in restoring order in the Thebes. One can additionally feel sympathy for the desperate measures Creon had to take to protect the law. If even he didn 't obey the law, who else would? Even though his methods gave him the reputation of being an immoral king, one can sympathize with Creon due to his unyielding concern for the welfare of Thebes.

However, the central conflict is between the protagonist, Creon, and the antagonist, Antigone. This conflict can be classified as Man vs. Man. Creon and Antigone compete with one another on the basis of which law is superior, man’s law or god’s law. Creon believing that man-made laws should not be defied, is forced to, due to his beliefs, sentence Antigone to death upon defying the law. This leads to the internal conflict present within Creon. Should he kill Antigone for defying man-made law or acquit her because her intent to follow god’s law? Due to his relentless and uncompromising beliefs of man-made law being superior to all other laws, he is forced to sentence Antigone to death, though many disagree. It seems as the moral thing to do, however, in the end, it turns out to be more than he could bargain for.

The main difference between Antigone and Creon is their different stances on law. Antigone values moral and religious laws while Creon, values the laws of the state. In Scene II, Antigone is asked why she broke the law to bury her brother. She says, “It was not God’s proclamation. That final justice that rules the world below makes no such laws… [the laws of God] are not merely now, they were and shall be operative forever beyond man utterly.” Antigone’s disregard

The story “Antigone” had multiple themes. One of the many themes of “Antigone” was determination. A determination is one of the themes because throughout the story most of the characters showed great determination. Although at some point in the story determination ruins it all.

What if both of your brothers had killed one another? In Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, the hero of the story, Antigone, was in this very situation. After one of her brothers, Eteocles, had killed her other brother, Polyneices, Antigone was enraged to learn that the new King, her uncle Creon, had forbidden Polyneices from receiving the proper burial rights as punishment for leading an army against his own country. Additionally, he was giving the traitor Eteocles a proper burial. Antigone decided her brother would not be disrespected in this manner and buried him in secret one night. Creon was furious upon finding he’d been disobeyed, and he knew at once who was responsible. Some say that Antigone should have disobeyed Creon’s edict because she was sticking by her principles and following Greek tradition. However, Antigone should not have disobeyed Creon’s edict because when one is deciding whether to follow one’s principles or whether to follow the law, as in all situations, one must weigh the benefits of doing either. The benefits of obeying Creon outweighed the benefits of disobeying Creon because burying her brother wasn’t the best course of action to give Creon his just deserts, Antigone endangered her own life, and she inadvertently caused the death of several other people.