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Antigone Tragedy Analysis

Decent Essays

Tragedy is amongst us all for every second of every day. There are extreme tragic events, which bring depression to mass amounts of people, and there are small tragic events, that sometimes go unnoticed to the public eye. Antigone, written by Sophocles, is an extreme Greek tragedy, because all the protagonists have a rise and fall throughout the play, ultimately ending in death. Creon, the ruler of the state at the time, sits in the middle of the chaotic rise and fall, trying to control the fate of his surrounding peers, unaware that his fate will be surprising the worst. Creon’s rigidity to preserve the laws of the state establishes the state as superior to his own family. However, after the deaths of Antigone, Haemon, and Eurydice, the wellness of the state that Creon tries to preserve along with Creon himself is ruined, illustrating the tragic irony.
Creon’s rigid views towards the laws of the state creates the idea that the state is superior to Creon’s family. During the first encounter between Creon and Antigone: Creon announces to Antigone and the Guard: “I know that/ spirited horses are broken with a small bit,/ for no one is allowed to think big thoughts,/ if he is another man’s slave. She showed/ herself capable of insolence then,/ going beyond the laws put before her” (489-494). Creon’s claim that “no one is allowed to think big thoughts if he is another man’s slave” illustrates Creon’s character as a dictator of the state. In society, when a dictator rules, the

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