Creon Quotes In Antigone

Antigone tells her sister that King Creon has decided that only one of their brothers are getting a proper burial. Outraged, Antigone starts talking about how she was going to get her brothers both a traditional burial because that is what she believes is right. In doing so, Antigone and her sister will be honoring her father by doing this. Her sister is afraid of the repercussions and refuses to have any part of this decision. If you were not to abide by King Creon’s law, you will be stoned to death. The scene continues and Antigone is still trying to convince her sister to help move their brother’s body because he is too heavy

Creon is a man of principles, who is devoted to the state as well as upholding the law in a dominant and control freak type of manner. Creon uses his first speech as a way to explain his ideas, expectations of the people, and his first law regarding the body of Polynices. Knowing the people of Thebes will disregard his word, he explains to the populace that, “Whoever places a friend above the good of his own country, he is nothing”(67). He brings up the threat of death due to the uncertainty of future rebellion and clearly states, “Our country is our safety”(68). This type of indoctrination starts from the head and trickles its way down to the people regardless of whether they want it or not. Bribery is another one of his major concerns. Knowing that corruption leads to dysfunction, rebellion, and torment, Creon poetically makes another law regarding, “Money! Nothing worse in our lives, so current, rampant, so corrupting… No limit, you make them adept at every kind of outrage, every godless crime-money!...

In the play Antigone, Creon starts off as the loyal king of Thebes. He is loyal to the gods and loyal to the welfare of Thebes. However, over the course of the play, Creon degenerates into a tyrant. His degeneration is showing his character development. Creon’s pride about the human law also develops throughout the play, creating conflict with the divine law. When Antigone rebels against his law, he becomes stubborn, and makes myopic decisions and grows into his hamartia. Besides his hamartia, Creon’s position as the king makes him a power hungry man. His power madness degenerates him into becoming a ruthless and vindictive man, even to his family. However, over the course of the play, Creon begins to see that because of the laws of men, he was being blinded of what’s

Creon is an antagonist of the play because he refuses to allow Antigone to bury her brother Polyneices, . The antagonist often shares some of the most notable traits as the protagonist, although for different reasons. Creon doesn’t listen to anyone. He is stubborn and his pride is so great, he can’t bring himself to acknowledge that he could ever be wrong. Creon knows that the only reasonable way to promote peace in Thebes is to be strict in his punishment of those who attacked Thebes. This includes Polyneices, since he was the one who led the attack against Thebes. The range of motives he can understand is limited, including “lust for power and greed for money”(Winnington 4). He believes he is on the only possible path and his goal is noble. He is the hero of his own story and wants something that he has thought about, considered and has decided to go after. Creon rejects the rules laid down

Sophocles’ Antigone is, without a doubt, one of the greatest tragedies ever written. There are many questions that somebody could ask about this work, but this one intrigues me the most: Who is the tragic hero? Could it be Antigone? Or could it be Creon? Antigone might be the name of the tragedy, but I believe that Creon is the winning candidate. His role in the plot of this tragedy, his sensible tragic fault, and his dynamic character are the obvious reasons why I chose him as the tragic hero.

Sophocles at first depicts Creon as a ruler who values his authority and city more than anything, but he gradually becomes more despotic. With his role as king so recently acquired, Creon must first establish his position as superior to other citizens. He does so by declaring that “the ship of state is safe”(180) and “the gods who rocked her... have righted her once more”(180-182). Creon is attempting to prove that he deserves the position of authority because the gods that the citizens value so much have granted him the divine right to rule the state. By using the metaphor of the state as a ship, Sophocles shows that citizens are either in or out of the ship that Creon leads; they are either with or against his rule. He is also saying that there is a specific reason that the ship was stabilized when he gained power because he is destined to be in this position. To strengthen the citizens’ respect for him, Creon announces that it is

Creon orders the guards to take Antigone away not caring for his son's feelings, since she is his fiancée. Creon feels the law should stand despite the fact that Antigone was his niece or how moral her act was. "Bring her [Antigone] out! Let her die before his eyes..." (Scene 3, 130). This quotes shows that Creon took his position as king seriously to the point where in he was willing to sacrifice the feelings of his own son. He was willing to be the cause of son's destruction just to prove that he is the king and always right. "I will go... I buried her, I will set her free" (scene 5, 102,104). Not only does this quote show leadership but also stubbornness he was risking his relationship with his son to prove that he was the leader of Thebes. Creon says another quote which shows his loyalty to his kingdom, "I call to God to witness that if I saw my country headed for ruin, I should not be afraid to speak out plainly," (Sophocles, scene 1,24-26). It shows his strong sense of leadership which catches up with him in the end causing destruction.

“Tell me briefly—not in some lengthy speech— were you aware there was a proclamation forbidding what you did?” (503-505). The actions, context of Antigone’s words, and also the ideas she proposed, very indepthly contrasted with Creon’s character. Thus resulting in there being a verbal confrontation between the two characters. The conflict between the two caused conflicting motivations such as stubbornness, disrespect, and anger to be projected with Creon’s character. Ultimately, these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by portraying that he knew, the decisions he made were of error, and the character interactions advance the plot by causing conflict throughout the play. Creon had also begun to change throughout the play,

After appeasing the Chorus and the audience, Creon justifies his right to rule the state, legitimizing this takeover of power. He states that he “now possess(es) the throne and all its powers, as I [he] is closet kin to the dead.” Creon reiterates that his takeover was not due to individual reasons or his greed, but because of his divine rights. By putting his transferal of power due to the gods, the Chorus will be less likely to question his right to rule Thebes. Creon, as the new ruler from the gods, showcases his ability to rule by stating his principles as “a man in command of an entire city.” His political ideals largely consist of placing loyalty to polis over philos and structuring it before the justification of handing out such a proclamation seems to iterate that his proclamation was not due to his love of kin (philos) but due to his strict political approach and loyalty towards the city state (polis). Creon, as a prudent, astute politician, assigns such a structure to his speech and links the different contexts with discourse markers because in doing so, he first gains the trust and confidence of the Elders, a central party of Thebes, then justifies his power and his ability and finally provides an explanation of his proclamation regarding the diverse treatment provided to the

Throughout the play, Creon shows many examples of how he is imperfect. One example would be how he believes that the state is primary to his family and relationships, “If this is your pleasure, Creon, treating our city’s enemy and our friend this way … the power is yours, I suppose, to enforce it with the laws, both for the dead and all of us, the living,” this quotation said by the leader of the chorus describes how the elder people of Thebes respect their family more than the state, but they held back on their opinions, knowing of what Creon, the leader, wanted to hear (235-240). Another example of how Creon shows the audience of how he is imperfect is when, Creon meets with Haemon. Creon argues with Haemon about how people should act towards the country which they reside in, “But whoever steps out of line, violates the laws or presumes to hand out orders to his superiors, he’ll win no praise from me. But that man the city places in authority, his orders must be obeyed, large and small, right and wrong,” Creon believes since he has the highest throne in his country, that he should be obeyed whether the circumstance (745-751). Lastly, Creon demonstrates to the audience that he is imperfect by wanting to protect his country too much. This is visible when Creon sentences Antigone to a slow death, because of burying her brother, who was outcasted as a traitor. Creon put the state over his family which will lead to the complete

Pride is the cause of the main conflict in Sophocles’ play, Antigone. Everyone should have pride, but Creon had too much of it and that blinded him. His pride in his power and abuse of authority was his tragic flaw that ultimately led to his downfall. On the other hand, Antigone takes pride in her beliefs and has the courage to speak out for what she thinks is right. For this, Antigone is seen as an honorable character and the hero of the play. It is shown that there are often two sides to things; pride can be both a source of strength and self-destruction.

Soon after his decision of the fate of Antigone, Creon’s tragic flaw blooms the greatest. This Hubris focuses on the Creon’s relentless, uncompromising, and egotistical attitude. Many try to convince Creon to reconsider on his misguided decision, however, Creon does not yield. It is at this point when one realizes the Hubris of Antigone. Creon possesses a false sense of pride and/or confidence in his intelligence. He believes he cannot be wrong, therefore his uncompromising and egotistical attitude shines brightest. It portrays him as “superficial, pigheaded, self-important man.” (Porter) This is Hamartia, his relentless,

He uses his power to strike fear in the heart of his subjects, and through this fear he convinces the people of Thebes to keep quite and obedient to his laws. Creon’s son Heamon tells his father, “The man in the street, you know, dreads your glance. he’d never say anything displeasing to your face.” (Line 773-774).

The human struggle to defy what is intrinsically wrong but established as permissible is openly apparent in the initial scenes of the play – strong-willed and brave-hearted Antigone reveals her plan to unlawfully bury her brother, only to be rejected and dismantled by cautious and law-abiding Ismene. Although Ismene is saddened by her brother's fate, nomos renders her helpless; social constructs have influenced her belief that their standings as women and individual citizens are no match for state law. Consequently, she is appalled that Antigone would even think of defying Creon, believing their brother's fate is out of their hands. She even warns her sister, "tis witless to be over busy."1 Her chance to rightfully bury Polyneices, and more importantly, to realize her innate responsibility to her kin, is temporarily barred by human-allotted law and practice.

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