Is Creon A Tragic Hero

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

     Finally, Creon is a dynamic character. He undergoes changes in emotion throughout the work. He realizes his mistakes when Tiresias forecasts the future. Thus, Creon attempts to correct himself by releasing Antigone. But he is too late. He is forced to live, knowing that three people are dead as a result of his actions. This punishment is worse than death. Although Creon’s self-righteousness and inflexibility did not change until the end of the play, his motivations traveled from patriotic ones to personal ones. This created a major portion of the

Aristotle once said, regarding his principles that a certain character is a tragic hero, "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." This quotation is an accurate statement regarding the actions between Creon in the beginning of the play, and at the end once he has lost his family. A tragic hero is defined as a character of noble stature, the hero is imperfect allowing the audience to relate to him, as well as the hero’s downfall is caused by his own fate, leading to the punishment exceeding the crime and the character’s realization leading to the fall. The audience experiences a catharsis at the end of the play, which allows the audience feel that society is “right” again. All six of

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.

Aristotle describes a tragic hero as someone with good intentions, high class, and must suffer a fall from grace. Creon, the new King of Thebes, fits this bill quite nicely. While other tragic hero’s have suffered horrible fates, like Hamlet or Antigone, they did it with a selfish pursuit. Creon’s journey involved the country of Thebes scrutinizing all his actions; this influenced his actions and the tragedy he suffered. In literature history, Creon proves to be the most tragic character because he fulfills all the qualities Aristotle deems as a tragic hero while also trying to balance his powerful position.

   In the Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the play is not the title role. Instead King Creon, the newly appointed and tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just seen the suicide of his son. However, despite this pitiable fate for the character, his actions and behavior earlier in the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity at his torment. The way the martyr Antigone went against the King and the city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or without ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact

“Antigone” is a play written by Sophocles. It is a dramatic play that focuses on a feud between a royal family where Antigone, the princess is set on giving her dead brother a burial but this is restricted by the present king, Creon. Both of them have a tragic story. Many may believe that Antigone is a tragic hero, I think Creon is more of a tragic hero.

The qualifications of a tragic hero vary between Aristotle and Shakespeare. Aristotle thinks of a tragic hero as someone who is a noble character by choice and makes his/her own destiny, while Shakespeare sees a tragic hero as someone who is born of nobility and born to be important. Although both tragic hero's end in a tragic death that effects many people, not all tragic hero's fit perfectly into both categories. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon is considered a tragic hero. Creon follows Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero by being a noble character by choice, having important potential, and falls due to "miscalculations" with circumstances that are beyond control.

The conflict between law and morality has been in existence since the beginning of human society, and to this day still greatly influences people and society. Written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BCE, Antigone is the tragic story of a young girl who goes against the king’s edict and buries her brother, a traitor to the state, sentencing herself to execution. The conflicting ideals of logos - moral, divine, or natural laws, and nomos, or man made laws are Greek virtues explored in the characters of Antigone and Creon, both of whose lives end horribly. Although nomos is often too concrete to manipulate to one’s advantage, logos is much more open to interpretation, and in the case of Creon, whose tragic flaw is hubris, the fluidity of logos allows him to use it to justify and influence his actions, ultimately harming him much more than nomos, and causing his story to end in tragedy. After investigating societal gender roles and the effect they

There has always been a great debate over who is the true tragic hero in Sophocles' Antigone. Many scholars would stake claim to Antigone possessing all the necessary characteristics of a true tragic hero, but many others would argue that Creon holds many qualities as well. It is hard to discount Antigone as a tragic hero, because in fact, the play bears her name, but from careful reading, Creon meets Aristotle's criteria exactly and fits perfectly into the role. In order to determine whether or not Creon is the true tragic hero, one must answer the question: 'What is a Tragic Hero?' In Aristotle's Poetics, he discusses the basic criteria regarding a tragic hero. Aristotle

Heros today can come from all different walks of life. They can be wealthy, poor, strong, or weak, but that was not always the case. Before the modern definition of a hero was introduced, which is someone who displays bravery and courage, there were every strict rules on who could be a hero. Sophocles was a Greek tragedy writer, who wrote Antigone. In this play, a girl named Antigone buries her brother Polyneices.

Creon was a bad king because he was paranoid as well. You constantly see his fear of anarchy and it causes him to make bad decisions. Anytime someone mentions that he should change the law because it is his own blood he refuses. He is scared of the public’s opinion of him, he makes irrational decisions because he is always worried that he has to be the best king and that if he makes the wrong choice the people will rebel. He constantly thinks people are out to get him. Even though when someone says that all of his people disagree with his decision but they are to scared to tell him, he still

“For of our two brothers, Creon/gives honorable burial to one,/but dishonors the others”, Antigone cried to Ismene in the play Antigone (4). Antigone’s brother Polynices started a war against Eteocles, when Eteocles decided not to give up the throne. The new king of Thebes, Creon, believed Polynices should not be buried because he was a traitor. However, Eteocles would be honored with a burial because he attempted to save the city of Thebes. Since, Polynices was a traitor, Creon created a law that prohibited one to honor Polynices with a burial. Antigone believed her brother deserved to be honored with a burial. Without anyones help, Antigone attempted to bury her brother. She was caught and Creon was sentenced to death. Since, Creon is the King, he expected everyone to obey the laws he has created. Antigone felt she had a legitimate reason for breaking Creon’s law. Throughout the play, I thought Antigone would be considered a hero to her brother only. Creon would be the hero overall because of his dedication in following through with the law.