Creon Is The Tragic Hero In SophoclesAntigone

In the Greek tragedy Antigone, the characters Antigone and Creon can both be thought of as the tragic hero of the play. Though Antigone does show some of these characteristics of a tragic hero, Creon demonstrates the attributes more clearly and concisely. Creon is the King of Thebes, as well as the uncle of Antigone. Creon took the throne after a tragic quarrel between his two nephews, Eteocles and Polyneices. Despite his harsh governing and his crude ideals, he is not good or bad. Creon is the tragic hero of the play Antigone, because of his superiority in his society, his nobility, and his tragic flaw, self-pride.

Every Greek tragedy must have a tragic hero. In Sophocle’s play, Antigone, the most tragic hero is Creon. He is an essentially good man of high position who takes pride in his role as king. He possesses the tragic flaws of excessive pride and an oversized ego. This causes the tragic reversal that leads to his emotional ruin and eventual remorse and repentance.

Creon is first portrayed as a leader with rational laws and consequences for breaking them. But by the end of the play, Creon is a completely different character; he has let his excessive pride and hubris take over him. He doesn’t realize his change in character until it is brought to him through the prophecy of Teiresias, when it is already too late. Creon can be identified as a tragic hero because he shows great signs of stubbornness and pride. Considering he is the King of Thebes, he follows his rules and laws without listening to his citizen’s concerns, nor does he care about the gods wishes. His role as a hubris influences many of his choices, he believes in only his own thoughts and wishes. Creon abuses his power just because he can, without thinking of the consequences.

Sentry says, “It is not what I say, but what has been done, that hurts you.” (141) Creon responds, “You talk too much,” showing how once again, Creon is in denial and does not want to hear that he is wrong (142). He is does not let anyone, even the Sentry speak showing that he is stubborn as well as unlikeable. Creon says to his son, “Not to lose your head over this woman. / Your pleasure with her would soon grow cold, Haimon, / And then you’d have a hellcat in bed and elsewhere. / Let her find her husband in Hell! / Of all the people in this city, only she / Has had contempt for my law and broken it” (22-27). Creon insists that his decision is the right one and Antigone deserves to be killed for not following his absurd orders. Creon states boldly, “I would not yield. I am not afraid of pollution: / No man can defile the gods” (48-49). Creon shows his stubbornness when he says that he is not afraid of the Gods. Although Creon shows the love for his son in the ending scenes, in the beginning he shows his anger problems and stubbornness which make him

Creon, the king of Thebes, is the tragic hero of Antigone. A characteristic of being a tragic hero is possessing a tragic flaw, a hamartia, which in Creon’s case is his overbearing hubris. Creon admits to his pride, “but it is worse / To risk everything for stubborn pride” (Sophocles 699). As a tragic hero, Creon follows a path with several factors leading him to his demise. What sets Creon down this path is his hubris. His conceit, possibly caused by his new found condition of power and wealth, blinds him to the opinions of others and takes over him. From his blinding pride he puts Antigone in a stone vault to die and does not allow anyone to bury Polyneices, who attacked Thebes earlier. These

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon wants Polyneices to remain unburied throughout eternity for fighting against Thebes. As a proud leader of the nation Thebes, Creon takes any action against his country to the heart. Polyneices fought against Thebes in an army titled the Seven Against Thebes while his brother Eteocles fought for the other side. Both were killed in combat, but only Eteocles was viewed as a hero by Creon. Creon’s role in the play remains static until the end, because he is to his word and an overly confident leader.

In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Creon has erroneous belief, suspicious nature and tyrannical bend, which identifies from first episode that Creon, is a bad king by having the above qualities in his character. Apart from this, Creon has fear, which is an insecure feeling after getting the king position as he thinks that people are conniving against him. At first in the first episode after taking over the king’s position, the king Creon keeps a proclamation claiming that Eteocles will be buried with honors while the other son of Oedipus, polyneices not getting buried, but to be left as a disgrace in people’s eyes and waiting to be eaten by dogs and birds. This had been a Tyrannical Bended decision taken by the Creon, as he didn’t know that he should not punish the dead ones as end of life means end of sins because death itself is considered as a punishment to all of the sins that a person makes according to the Greek gods rules and regulations. The next event that occurred in the episode 1 was Antigone secretly burying her brother polyneices and when sentry came and informed about the event that took place secretly was considered mysterious to the sentry and to other guards who guarded there, Creon gets suspicious on the sentry and on the other guards with his suspicious nature and says that it is money

Creon does everything in his power to be a good king for the people of Thebes. He prioritizes the city over all else. He sets himself up to the chorus to be an awe-inspiring leader, one who doesn’t have anything but a vast amount of respect for his city, and he fulfills this mantle completely. Creon knows not to “expect complete loyalty from his subjects until he has been tested in office”

Creon, through his lapse in judgement, and poor decisions brought upon his own downfall. While it is easier for the reader to be more sympathetic toward Oedipus in Oedipus the King, Creon demonstrated the remorse and suffering of a classic tragic hero. There were several factors that led to Creon’s downfall. Creon had self-destructive pride, impulsiveness, excessive stubbornness, and inability to accept other’s judgements and opinions. All of the factors leading to Creon’s downfall were self-inflicted, and were brought upon by Creon’s lapse in judgement and evaluation of the war’s aftermath.

Since he was a king, plus a father and husband, he had a choice on what to focus more on. Although Creon acted with much pride and authority, the love for his family took over every time his family was threatened of some sort. After speaking to Teiresias and finding out his fate, Creon quickly did what he was supposed to do so his family won’t get hurt. “It is hard to deny the heart! But I will do it: I will not fight with destiny”

Teiresias’ commentary leads the reader’s initial view of Creon’s main issue to a new area. From this point, it may seem that Creon’s true flaw is his pride as opposed to his earlier offenses. It’s

When Creon is visited by the blind seer Teiresias, he realizes he has made a mistake. Yet despite threats from Antigone and his son Haemon, Creon continues with his original intentions until Teiresias declares:

In the play Antigone, Creon’s admirable personality, noble stature, and tragic flaw makes him one of the main tragic characters in this particular play. In the beginning, Sophocles reveals Creon as only a leader. He has legitimate reasons for all of his punishments. Creon’s hubris by the end of the play has completely taken over him, in conclusion, this leads him to his death. Once Creon finally realizes the effect his hubris has on his problems, it is far too late. Creon lost his son, wife, his kingdom, and even his will to live. This is the journey of a tragic character.

Creon creates a lot of conflict because of his prideful behavior towards everyone around him. Creon is especially prideful when a situation involves Antigone, mostly because she's a woman and he feels that she is weaker. Antigone is very rebellious against him, but he doubts her and explains to the Choragos why he has such feelings. “She has much to learn. The inflexible breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first, and the wildest horses bend their necks at the pull of the smallest curb” (Sophocles 507). Creon arrogance angers the gods and doesn't get him any further with the Antigone situation, but after all of his hubris, no major consequences for him. Later on in the play, after Creon is finally punished by the gods, he realizes all of the damage dealt

The main tragic flaw of Creon is his anger. He gets so mad to where he just blows up to where he can’t control his anger. It all starts with his pride. Since Creon is the King of Thebes, he thinks that his opinions, rules, and viewpoints are always correct. Therefore, he is always thinking he’s correct and right which boosts up his pride to where he only believes himself and what he says. So, when characters like Haimon and Sentry try to prove him wrong he gets extremely angry to where he can’t control it. For example, line 308-310 Sentry says, “ I would have sworn that you’d not see me here again: your anger frightened me so.” Creon’s anger is so intense and scary to where people are afraid of him now. Also, another example is line 550-551, Haimon