Creon By Anouilh Analysis

Greek theater encompassed many aspects that reflected the moral values and ideals of society. Their customs were tightly woven into the scripts of plays. Antigone and Oedipus the King, two renowned works of the Greek playwright Sophocles, explore these values through a plot thick with corruption, virtue, and determination. These plays reveal the burdens two Theban kings, Oedipus and Creon, as their lies and poor judgment corrode the integrity of their city, their families and themselves. Possessing a strong faith in their respective gods, the characters of these Greek plays are often led astray as they try to escape the twisted hand of fate, further warping their perception of reality. As their vain

Both Sophocles and Jean Anouilh use the simple story-line of a girl defying her uncle and king in the face of death to reflect upon the events and attitudes of their days. Sophocles' Antigone models the classical pattern of tragedy by incorporating key elements such as a tragic hero with a fatal flaw and the Man-God-Society triangle. Creon is the tragic hero who disturbs the natural harmony of Thebes by denying Polyneices a funeral. Antigone is the catalyst who forces him to reckon with the consequences of his pride and arrogance. In the twentieth century, Jean Anouilh takes Sophocles' drama, strips it down to its core, and weaves an entirely different version of the story. Anouilh redefines "tragedy" by removing the conventional tragic

In Antigone, Creon’s mind is pulled in two opposite directions: His hubris, and, in contrast, his human duty to the gods. His decision to not follow the gods’ decrees and the consequences of that decision are used by Sophocles to remind the audience to stand with the gods.

Antigone’s past is a messy one: an incestual and murderous curse put on her family, her mother’s suicide, her father’s self-mutilation and banishment,

Antigone plots the burial of her brother in a conversation with her sister, Ismene. She continuously tries to sway Ismene to help her and is adamant that she will bury her brother, no matter the consequence.

Antigone is a tragic play written by Sophocles in about 441b.c. The play is a continuation of the curse put upon the household of Oedipus Rex. Sophocles actually wrote this play before he wrote Oedipus, but it follows Oedipus in chronological order. The story of Antigone begins after the departure of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, into self-exile. Oedipus’ two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, were left to rule over Thebes. An argument over rights to power forces Polynices to leave Thebes. Some time passes and Polynices returns with the army from Argos and attempts to overthrow his brother. The two brothers fight and kill one another and the war ends. Creon, the uncle of the two

Despite Antigone being written in an ancient patriarchal society that viewed women as the weaker sex, the character of Antigone defies what would have been her role as a female. Instead of quietly submitting to Creon after he gives his decree about burying Polynices, Antigone states, “he has no right to keep me from my own” (49). Even after Ismene warns Antigone about the consequences and reminds her of her status as a woman, she buries Polynices. Throughout the play, Antigone doesn’t show “womanly” characteristics; she demonstrates stubbornness, cheekiness, and pride. Therefore, she talks back and scoffs at Ismene and Creon, a male to whom she should be respectful and reverential. Because of her single-mindedness, she inadvertently destroys her life and the lives of the people around her.

“Father, the gods instill good sense in men the greatest of all the things which we possess. (page 280 Line 776) What Haemon is trying to tell his father is that the gods treat all men with good and that even if Polynecies attacked the city of Thebes, he should be treated by the gods and be buried. “And Men my age-are we then going to learn what wise from men as young as him?” Creon does not like what Haemon is saying to him and is saying he is the higher up, he’s older he won’t learn anything from him as he’s his older son.

As one of the most famous tragedies ever written, Antigone, by the Greek playwright Sophocles, has received much notoriety as well as much speculation. Set in the city of Thebes after a devastating civil war between the brothers Polyneices and Eteocles, the play begins after the brothers’ deadly struggle for the throne. Polyneices and Eteocles have already caused the undue deaths of one another, and without another man in their immediate family available, their uncle Creon travels to Thebes to seize the ruling position. The conflict occurs when Creon declares that Eteocles, who bravely fought for his city against the invading army, is to have a proper burial afforded all of the rites his noble death deserved, while Polyneices, who led the invading army, is to remain unburied in order to avoid dishonoring his brother’s sacrifice. Their sisters Ismene and Antigone are left to tackle the difficult situation that remains. While Ismene meekly accepts the law that Creon has ordained, Antigone stubbornly defies her uncle by burying Polyneices out of loyalty to her family and respect for divine law. Her actions result in a whole host of sorrowful deaths, her own amongst them, as well as an overwhelming despair from Creon who realized the depth of his unwise decisions far too late. However, despite the numerous amount of years this play has been present in literature, a tragic hero has yet to be determined. In the play Antigone, Antigone and Creon are endowed with a tragic flaw,

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

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.

Sophocles’s Antigone depiction of Creon’s enforcement of the law becomes one of fierce value to himself initially. Creon strictly believes full heartedly that the state must come before raw emotion in that one who merely crosses the figurative line between defying the state must, in turn, pay with physical torture displayed to the public to spread awareness about the dangers of disobeying decrees or laws already in force. Throughout the transpiring events of the story, however, Creon finds himself annulling his original statements of the state not offering an honorable burial due to his input from his family and through the moving delivery provided by Antigone herself saying:

As the play begins Antigone is just meeting up with her sister and is telling her about the decree of King Creon. Antigone and her sister, Ismene, had two brothers who had killed each other on the battlefield. One of their brothers, Eteocles, was buried with the military honors of a soldier’s funeral, and yet the other, Polyneices, was to be left out to be food for the carrion birds since he died fighting against the city of Thebes. King Creon forbade publicly for anyone to bury the body of Polyneices under the penalty of death. Antigone is now determined to bury her brother and wants Ismene to help her. Ismene does not want to go against what the king has ordered and is fearful of what may become of her if she

Not only is Antigone courageous and highly motivated by her morals by standing up for her political and religious beliefs, she also protects her personal ones when she buries her brother. Antigone places family above her own life, and she refuses to let a man stand in her way of maintaining her ideals. She buries Polynices out of her own loyalty to her brother even after her sister, Ismene, refuses. Antigone is cruel to her for not taking part in illegally burying their brother. Instead of being caring and considerate, she becomes irate and at the end of their conversation says, "Go away Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, for your hateful words," Antigone's flaw was her headstrong behavior and her stubbornness, which ultimately brought about her downfall and the downfall of those around her. Her persistence of course, is what forces Antigone to rashly take matters in to her own hands. Creon then decides to take Antigone's life "Away with her at once, and close her up in her rock-vaulted tomb. Leave her and let her die". To everyone's surprise Antigone does not run from her death sentence suggesting a great trait of braveness, which the chorus recognizes before her exodus from life. The notion that a person has no say in the affairs of their loved ones and the fact that those laws were defied deserves

At the end, she is faced with a load of regret because she realizes her actions has caused her the future. She then comes to the conclusion that she will not be able to experience most of the things the other women in the play have or will experience. She thinks about marriage, children, and love before she dies. Antigone proclaims, “… unmarried. I’ve had no man, no wedding celebration, / shared nothing with a husband, never raised a child. / My friends and family have abandon me in misery …” (lines 917- 19). In this part of the play, Antigone shows that she can be vulnerable and weak like traditional women, Ismene and Eurydice. It also displays that she wants the things any woman would want in life; she wants to feel the love of a man and she wants