Creon's Pride In Sophocles Antigone

“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” says the writer C.S lewis. Indeed this is evident in Sophocles’ Oedipus The King. The rather disturbing events that takes place during the play. The pride of Oedipus, the tragic hero of the play, sets off a chain reaction of events that could have been avoided if Oedipus kept his pride in check. However, he can not and his ego inflates to the point his persona can only be described as a mental disorder. Through analyzing Oedipus’ behaviour and his interactions with the other characters in the play, it can be concluded that he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Pride, one of the seven deadly sins. It is arguably the most dangerous of the seven sins, making people act irrationally when they are insulted and almost unable to see reason. This is demonstrated very well in Antigone by Creon and Antigone. Civil law dictated that Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, was not to be buried, while religious law dictated that anyone not buried could not be put to rest. Creon believed his law, the civil law, should be listened to over religious law. Antigone believed that religious laws should be listened to above civil laws. Despite having opposing views on whether to follow civil or religious law, Creon and Antigone’s own pride and refusal to back down led to their downfall.

Tragedy always involves human suffering, but not everyone who suffers is a Tragic Hero. According to Aristotle, there are five basic criteria that must be met for a character to be considered a Tragic Hero. Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy were recorded in his book of literacy theory titled Poetics. In it he has a great deal to say about the structure, purpose and intended effect of tragedy. His ideas have been adopted, disputed, expanded, and discussed for several centuries. In this essay, I will examine these criteria in regards to Antigone’s Creon, King of Thebes.

Hero. Hero comes from the greek word heros meaning “A person who faces adversity, or demonstrates courage, in the face of danger.” Growing up we have always read stories about heroes coming to save the day; for instance, Captain America. Being that our whole lives we were mostly exposed to heroism, have you ever asked yourself what is the opposite of a hero? A villain is the opposite of a hero, but their is another opposite form of a hero; a tragic hero. A Tragic hero is “A literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction” (“Tragic hero as defined by Aristotle”). For instance, in the play written by Sophocles Antigone, the tragic hero is Creon. Creon who is Antigone’s

It is hard to accept your faults, when the end outcome is to beneficial for everyone involved. “That’s your truth? Now hear mine: honor the curse your mouth spoke. From this day on, don’t speak to me or to your people here. You are the plague. You poison our land (Bagg 495).” Here we witness Tiresias – a blind prophet, informing Oedipus that he is the reason that their land is going through so much turmoil. Oedipus is in denial to Tiresias beliefs for many reasons: he has been welcomed in, been ruling Thebes for many years, received praise from the people of Thebes and the Priest of Zeus for restoring life to the city, and by solving Sphinx riddle. Sphinx, (a winged female half part human, part lion) terrorized the city of Thebes, by not allowing anyone to enter the city unless they were able to solve her riddle, if the riddle was answered incorrectly she would

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

Pride is a quality that all people possess in one way or another. Some people take pride in their appearance, worldly possessions, or position in society. The story of Antigone written by Sophocles has two characters who have a tragic flaw of pride. I will show how Creon’s pride of power leads to his destruction, and how Antigone’s pride makes her an honorable character who should be treated as a hero.

The story Antigone by Sophocles, a Greek tragedy, the story of a downfall of a good and noble individual who has a tragic flaw, unwittingly tempts fate and brings upon themselves great amounts of sorrow and suffering. Transition any consider Antigone a tragic hero because she is a good and noble individual, Creon has more characteristics of a tragic hero and Antigone seems to be more of the antagonist of the story. Transition Creon is the true tragic hero because he shows a flaw in his character, he tempts fate by putting a law, and he brings to himself a great amount of sorrow and suffering. Throughout the story, Creon the self centered protagonist will lead to his own downfall Creon and Haemon speak both of their point of views and after Creon disagrees with Haemon they get in an argument and Creon ends up saying, “The people of Thebes!/ Since when do I take my orders from the people of Thebes?/(...

   This essay will compare two of the characters in “Antigone”, Antigone and Creon, in an effort to determine the identity of the tragic hero in this tale.

wife, and his will to live, but is doomed to live on in his pain. Antigone

Oedipus exclaims forcefully that he is the king and reminds everyone of his victories. As Oedipus becomes more agressive, Tiresias notices the adamance of Oedipus and sees that Oedipus is blinded by this character flaw: TIRESIAS. So,

Teiresias: “You’ve thrown down to those below someone from up above- in your arrogance you’ve moved a living soul into a grave, leaving here a body owned by god's below- unburied, dispossessed, unsanctified.” (Lines 1196-1200). Teiresias has given Creon insight on how he drove his fate to its edge. In Antigone by Sophocles, Creon is portrayed as a tragic figure who functions as a tool for suffering because he had brought a series of unfortunate events to those who were close to him by not allowing his emotions to surpass his overwhelming power and taking drastic actions towards Antigone and Haemon leading to unwanted deaths.

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.

621 ln. 149-150) after Creon tells him why they stopped searching for Laius’s killer. Dramatic irony is present when Oedipus tries to skirt the horrible prophecy of him killing his father and coupling with his mother, because in fleeing Corinth to avoid murdering Polybus, he is actually taking the correct path to fulfill the prophecy. Again his overconfidence and pride contributes to his impending doom; in believing that he has outwitted the gods he challenges his fate. Although he has enough reverence to the deities not to assume himself to be an equal with the gods, but greater than them it is clear through the word usage that Oedipus perceives himself to be of a greater importance than the lesser mortals that surround him “One of you summon the city here before us, tell them I’ll do everything. God help us, we will see our triumph-or our fall” (p. 621 ln. 163-165). He is conceited to think that he can shape his own destiny and the gods punish him for this arrogance.

The Fisherman shows his courage by being able to move forward from his mistakes and try to solve them. Soon after the realization of the vanished skiff sets in, “He simply {sits} down and {forgets} everything except the marvelous mystery” (Hall 611). Moving forward from his mistake, the fisherman starts focusing on fixing the problem at hand. Not only does he rightfully view himself as the leader in this situation, his son also looks towards him and asks “‘Dad….what do we do know?’” (Hall 611). Not only is he looked upon as a leader, but his action are what transform him into a hero. Numerous plans are made to save the family. He ponders the option to swim for it but rules it out in order to execute another plan. His next plan to fire the guns periodically in a pattern shows another vital quality of heroism. A hero has to be not only good willed but also willing to solve the problem at hand with clear logic. The Fisherman executes these heroic qualities and is proven to be a hero through his