Antigone: The True Tragic Hero

Antigone buries her brother Polynices’s corpse, against the decree of Creon, the ruler. She has several excuses she uses to justify her actions. First, she argues that Creon is unjust and she should not obey him. Second, she says that the gods are not defied by her actions, since she believes Creon is not accurately interpreting their wishes. Third, she believes that regardless of his political standing, her brother deserves a proper burial. Lastly, she says that she must try to bury Polynices, because it is in her nature to act according to love and not to bear grudges.

With Antigone's betrayal of King Creon by burying her brother Polyneices, it is only seen fit that she is to be punished. At Antigone's trial, “she denied nothing” because the gods had not made the law and she believed it was her right to bury her brother's policies despite Creon's warnings (Scene 2). The unfair disposal and non-burial of Polyneices is seen as an “evil” by Antigone, so much so that when Creon threatens her with death Antigone welcomes death and states “I should have suffered. Now I do not” (Scene 2). On the contrary, Creon believed that Antigone's “pride” had blinded her and since she chose to “defy the law” it would seem fair that she “win a bitter death” (Scene 2).

In Antigone there were some difficult choices that were made. One of them was deciding to bury Polyneices when Creon said not to bury him. But the God’s laws believe that the people’s body should be buried so their souls wouldn't linger the city. King Creon refused to have Polyneices buried, and Antigone sees otherwise. So Antigone takes it upon herself and put a little dirt on his body and Creon didn't like that. Creon asks who put the dirt on the body and he finds out that Antigone done it. Then Antigone tried to get her sister to help her bury him but she didn't want to disobey Uncle King Creon's laws,so she didn't help Antigone.In the ending of the story Antigone ends up killing herself.

He gets upset and doesn’t understand why she would go against his own laws. He sentences her to be put to death,but after Creon has a talk with some people he decides that he is going to put Antigone in a cave which is her deathbed and is going to put a stone in front so she can’t get out or escape. “

A tragic hero is noble and has a personal flaw; the one character that fits this is Antigone. She went against the kings rules by burying her brother, she knew her consequence, and as Antigone faced death she wasn’t scared of it at all. On the other hand, Antigone was also impatient.

Antigone was a princess of Thebes, the niece of Creon, who sought out to go against the king’s edict in order to bury her deceased brother. A significant imperfection to her personality was her everlasting stubbornness. In one part of the play, Choragus has even proclaimed that Antigone was “headstrong” and “ deaf to reason”, who has “never learned to yield”. It is this imperfection that influenced her to provoke Creon by saying “I beg you: kill me”, as well as calling him a “ fool that convicts me of folly”. Antigone did not entirely deserve to be buried alive in an enclosed cave for her actions, yet is was herself that brought about her miserable outcome, by committing suicide. She may be a tragic character in the play, but she also had characteristics that contradict with the definition of a tragic hero. She was always aware of the effect her actions would have on her wellbeing, yet did not gain this understanding after her death sentence. Also, Antigone’s misfortune was not completely unfortunate, for in the end, Haemon joined her in the underworld and “ she is at last his bride in the house of the

All of Antigone’s actions are resistance to Creon’s threats and powerful decisions. Creon had the power to decide what happened with Eteocles and Polyneices and he decided to only bury Eteocles. After Antigone was caught in the act, Creon sentences her to death. As a result, Antigone kills herself before Haemon and Tiresias change Creon’s mind. This happens midway through the play.

Antigone is an honorable character in this story of love and rebellion. The only thing that she does is disobey an order that is unjust and bury the remains of her

A tragic hero is a character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw, which combined with fate, results into a tragedy. The tragic hero must fall from good luck and well being to misery and misfortune. The tragic hero causes a sense of pity through the tragic downfall that weakens the character. In Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone follows her own beliefs by giving her brother a proper burial, even if she has to break the law of King Creon. Because of her innocent actions, Antigone is punished unjustly and unfairly. Through her risky and unselfish actions, ability to follow her own beliefs, and perseverance Antigone is the tragic hero of this play.

            To identify the tragic hero in Sophocles’ renowned play “Antigone”, we should first consider both the elements present in Greek tragedies and what characteristics define a tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is: “Tragedy is a story taking the hero from happiness to misery because of a fatal flaw or mistake on his part. To be a true tragic hero he must also elicit a strong emotional response of pity and fear from the audience. This is known as catharsis or purging of emotion.” In most cases the tragic hero begins

A tragic hero is a person of nobility with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering. But the tragic hero struggles to a great extent against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration. I would argue that Antigone is considered the hero in this amazing tragedy written by Sophocles. She has many tragic flaws which lead to her downfall.

Antigone is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. Tragedy is defined as an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress. The story begins with a death and ends with a death, and Sophocles does an excellent job employing many different types of ways to include fear and pity and this brings the tragedy alive. Especially with the fear of death when is abundantly rampant throughout the entire play. Although, written around 442 BC, it is just as well applied now as it was then.

The tragic hero of a story has to have his/her tragic flaw. Creon and Antigone both shared the beliefs of freedom and the protection of personal dignity; those must be their tragic flaws. Creon believed that if he made a direct command he would carry it out all the way and not bend the rules for anyone. That shows how stubborn he was and how heartless and vile he was. Those are the traits of his tragic flaw. Antigone believed that everyone has their equal rights no matter whom they are fighting for, especially if they are part of her family. She would be stubborn and would not bend her ideals for anyone like Creon. She would go as far as it would take for her to get her point across. A tragic hero must realize that he/she has a tragic flaw and must then try to change themselves.

Sophocles, a great tragedian, was the one who gave Greek tragedies their traditional form. An important part of traditional Greek tragedies is the presence of a tragic hero. All tragic heroes should have the characteristics of rank, a tragic flaw, a downfall, and a recognition of mistakes. The seemingly tragic hero is Antigone. She wants to bury her brother Polyneices even though this would be going against Creon, who is her uncle and the king. When Antigone buries Polyneices Creon sentences her to death because of it. In Antigone by Sophocles the tragic hero is not Antigone because she only meets the characteristic of a tragic flaw, hers being pride, but doesn 't meet the other three characteristics of a

Now when the guards discovered that someone buried the body of Polyneices, the head sentry went to tell the king, whereupon Creon became enthralled with anger. He told the sentry that he judged him to be a bribed soldier and that he could not return unless he found the person who had buried the body or told of whom it was that had bribed him. After this the horrified sentry and his men brushed off the sacred burial dust from the body and kept watch from a distance to see if the rebel would return to bury the body. Sure enough, during a sandstorm Antigone was seen burying the body that she had cared for so well before. The guards grabbed her and she showed no fear. She did not try to evade her pursuers and she was brought before the king. The king first asked her if she had heard his proclamation concerning the burial of her brother. She blatantly told him that could not have helped hearing it. If she had denied hearing it, she may have escaped death, but she did not want to escape it, and she felt that she had done nothing wrong. She believed that her death would be of no importance, but that the death of her brother would