Choices

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus believes Tiresias and Creon are working together to overthrow him. During this time Creon gives a prolonged speech, how he doesn’t want to be the King, but in Antigone, Creon is seen as a unswaying sovereign, unwilling to listen to anyone. Creon is likewise blinded by his own corruption. His excessive pride gets the best of him. Antigone, Haemon, and Tiresias warn Creon

     Oedipus and Creon are alike in yet another way. They both committed vile acts of hubris. Both of them went against the gods for feckless and pointless reasons. Oedipus committed hubris by insulting Tiresias. He accuses Tiresias of “betraying us, destroying Thebes” (177). Tiresias is a prophet of the gods. He is just telling Oedipus what he has seen. Tiresias’s refusal to tell Oedipus his secrets only results in more name-calling and humiliation. Oedipus calls him the “scum of the earth” (178). Oedipus is so enraged by his prophecies that he accuses him of “helping to hatch the plot” (178). Oedipus suspects that Tiresias is being bribed. “Who primed you for this? Not your prophet’s trade” (179), he says. Oedipus’ rashness lead him to accuse Tiresias, a prophet of the gods and a wise seer, that he is corrupt and a fraud. This is obviously

Creon’s flaw of judgment is the reason for his family's

Due to his unwavering pride and refusal to see through the eyes of others, Creon falls from his position of immense power and wealth which in the end doesn’t matter because all his loved ones and family are now dead.

In the first paragraph of the play it reads, "My darling sister Ismene, we have had a fine inheritance from Oedipus. God has gone through the whole range of sufferings and piled them all on us, -grief upon grief, humiliation upon humiliation"(1042). This just shows how terrible fate has treated the family of Oedipus. Creon has a different fate, one that he brought upon himself but it is much more dour than anyone else's. Creon's fate was to lose all of all of his family and the rest of his life knowing it was his entire fault because of his selfish actions and his stubborn ways. In the end of the play Creon says, "Nobody else to share the blame. Just me . . . I killed you. I killed you my dear"(1078-1079).

This is one of the reason why he sees supremacy in authority because it will “enlarged our state”(Sophocles, 7). Therefore, valuing authority and power is affecting Creon’s ability as a

I agree with your intentions here. I think that they may be brief descriptions of some greater implications. When we look at who did the least amount of wrong we can have something tangable to analyze in regards of weighing the dishoner, or the reverse effect. which would give us a broader range of judgment in what they did wrong, or who was "most right" in this case. I would look into something like a majority vote in this regard. If the backlash of Creon's decisions were to fall on the whole state being upset, or just Antigone, and maybe a family member or two. When we look at it in this way, I feel that putting someone else above all others would be an injustice to every single person of the state. To be a regulatory society no one should

There is no point when choosing between loved ones and what is deemed correct by the law can be an easy task—an idea seen in Creon’s extreme idealism of law over love, which costs him his family. In the recently war torn Thebes, Creon plays the valiant king who is forced to dictate for the good of his polis. He forgoes forgiveness to take up the hard, impartial mantel of the law, and takes the city-state’s will fully on his shoulders saying, “Never at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state, I’ll praise that man in death as well as life” (232-235). Creon’s commitment to his duty conveys his ideology of putting the city over others to secure justice. This commitment is what instigates

Creon although taking initiative, Just wants to support Oedipus and get the situation figured out. Or so it assumed. Although Oedipus isn't entirely sure where Creon stands, he trusts him enough to put him in charge of him children. While Creon is happy to be rising as Oedipus is growing weak, he doesn't give Oedipus a straight answer, responding “what I do not mean, I do not say” ( Oedipus the King. IV. 80).

Antigone, a tragic play by Sophocles, demonstrates that characters dictate free choices which derive from the fate of devestating events from the past or the future. Despite the countless attempts to avoid the fate, determined by an Delphic oracle, of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus’ outcome was exactly as foretold. Before the death of Oedipus, he foretells that his two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, will kill each other in the coming battle (Sophocles, 1984, p.365). Antigone's decision to defy Creon’s edict was one of free will, “Ismene: I scorn them not, but to defy the state or break her ordinance I have no skill... Antigone: A specious pretext. I will go alone to lap my dearest brother in the grave...” (Soph. Ant. 82-83; Sophocles, 1984). This clearly depicts the contrast between Antigone and her sister Ismene, as Antigone is empowered to influence her own fortune, while Ismene does not. It is the Antigone’s exercise of free will, then, that ironically binds her even more surely to the thread of destiny. Creon, although he remains stubborn, is warned by the Prophet Tiresias of that his bad decisions he has made from his free will, will greatly influence his fate (Soph. Ant. 1099 - 1100; Sophocles, 1984). Sophocles indicates that characters are unable to be entirely responsible for their actions by elevating the

When Teiresias asks in Antigone (line 1051), "What prize outweighs the priceless worth of prudence?" he strikes (as usual) to the heart of the matter in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Sophocles dramatizes the struggle between fate and free will, in one sense, but in another sense the drama might be better understood as the struggle between the will of the goods (which it is prudent to follow, according to Teiresias) and man's will (which is often imprudent). Sophocles' characters are moved by their own wills, of course (either in accordance or in conflict with the will of the gods). Oedipus in Oedipus the King is determined to pursue the truth in spite of the objections of Jocasta, the priest, and his own misgivings. In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus "cannot rest" (line 1773) until he has served both Antigone and the late Oedipus (implying that conscience is his motivator awareness, in other words, of his duty towards them). In Antigone, Antigone acts in accordance to the will of the gods (but in disobedience to the will of Creon) and does so knowing the punishment that awaits her: "Go I, his prisoner, because I honored those things to which honor truly belongs" (lines 178-9). This paper will show how while fate is a powerful force in The Theban Plays, the characters themselves are still left to exercise their own free will (either with respect or disrespect to will of the gods). Thus, the main drama consists not in the

Throughout Antigone, fate is responsible for many of the most devastating and critical events. The characters Antigone, Creon, Ismene, Haemon, and Tirasias experience many occasions that change their destiny, some events of which were predestined. It is frequently shown that fate and free will are intertwined. Each individual has a destiny, but it can be changed if they use their free will. Sophocle’s message is portrayed throughout the story through the actions of different characters. The individuals predestined fate and willingness to change it creates the series of events.

The tragic play ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles is a tale that will forever project different interpretations and meanings, one no more accurate than the other. The play’s protagonist, Antigone, is typically always seen in an innocent aspect, and Creon is always seen as a villain due to the ongoing quarrel between the two. But, who is to say that either one is heroic or villainous? Sure, there are many admirable qualities that Antigone possesses, but she also shows that she is unwilling to change her ways or her mindset even if she is wrong. Creon, who undoubtedly has harsh ways of ruling, does show that he has some compassion in his heart and is not a complete scumbag. This leads us to really debate the conflict, and dissect the facts from what we tend to think is truth. The nature of the conflict is that both Creon and Antigone are both so set in their ways that they fail to see the error within them. It is not a story of a terrible king or a brave woman, but rather, two individuals so caught up in defending what they believe in that they fail to realize how gravely their choices affect the family and Thebes as well.

Creon, the tragic hero of the story, is similar to Oedipus in the way that their errors of judgment were caused by their hubris and that it lead to their downfall, but they were different in the sense that Oedipus was told his fate before he made his errors of judgment whereas Creon never knew his fate. One error of judgment caused by hubris took place when Creon’s son Haemon tried to warn him that the people of Thebes were not happy about his decision to imprison Antigone and if he didn't let her go they might turn on him. Creon refused to take Haemon’s advice because he’s so stubborn that he believed that he's in charge of the state not the people, so they don't have any say in government matters. Eventually the conversation got so heated to the point that Creon screamed “You shall not rant and jeer at me without reprisal. Off with the wretched girl! I say she dies in front of him, before her bridegroom’s eyes.” (Roche and Sophocles 225). The error of judgment caused by hubris that Creon made during that scene was not listening to Haemon’s advice and being too harsh on him. The reason is because if Creon wasn't so over prideful of himself then he would have listened to Haemon about releasing Antigone and could have possibly avoided his downfall because Antigone would have released in time and Haemon would never have committed

In the story of Oedipus the King, the tragic hero, Oedipus, is masked in ignorance from the reality of his ruling of Thebes. Because of his ignorance, he is fast to make assumptions and tends to stick with them. He makes the speculation that Creon is manipulatively trying to kick Oedipus out of his position as king.