King Creon Core Values

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

     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

Haemon stated that his father had dishonored the gods by sending Antigone off to her death, but Creon responded by saying, “You, you soul of corruption, rotten through-/ woman’s accomplice!” (836-37) Creon refused to acknowledge his son’s point, therefore, not changing his mind on Antigone’s fate. In another scene, Creon showed his independence by refusing to listen to Tiresias’ prophecy. Knowing that Tiresias’ prophecies were never wrong, Creon still ignored him. Creon stated, “You and the whole breed of seers are mad for money!” (1171) He claimed that Tiresias was wrong, and he was doing the right thing. In this scene Creon showed his independence in a cruel manner by disrespecting Tiresias. Antigone and Creon both showed that they wanted to be independent. Antigone’s will to be independent ultimately caused her death, and Creon’s caused him to lose his son, niece, and wife.

Creon was not able to lead well, because he let the huge amount of power

In ‘Antigone”, Ismene says, “To them that walk in power; to exceed is madness, and not wisdom”. Her statement makes it clear, those who “walk in power”, allow it to corrupt them. Throughout the history of humanity there has been a correlation between those who have excessive power and corruption. Webster’s Dictionary defines corruption as, “impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle”. In the story of Antigone the tragic hero Creon, shows all of the common characteristics of corruption. Before one can analysis the character of Creon they would first have to look at the story of Oedipus the King.

Creon states “am I to rule this land for others, or myself”? (Sophocles, 441 BC, line 823). This statement shows how Creon has little consideration for others around him. He does not care that

“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,

Creon said, “And death it is; yet money talks, and the wisest. Have sometimes been known to count a few $100 dollar bills to many.”

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

Even after Tiresias explains to Creon of his wrong doing, Creon refuses to change his mind and begins to insult Tiresias by claiming the prophet is only out for money. In anger, Tiresias unleashes a brutal prophecy to Creon, giving him one last warning:

Pride acts as another major theme; it is what got Creon in this situation in the first place. Creon has too much pride to admit to anyone that maybe he was wrong. Even when he has Antigone he has too much pride to let her go. Creon's own son questions him and he replies, "Am I to stand here and be lectured to by a kid? A man of my experience"(1063)!Creon shows that here he is too proud to change his decision for his own son even if he made the wrong choice. The king's friend the Leader tries to convince Creon to change his mind by telling him "My king, ever since he began I've been debuting in my mind, could this possibly be the work of the gods"(1050). The Leader was trying to tell

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,

Creon was close-minded and unreceptive of anything Haemon had to say, despite the fact that he presented such a strong argument, displaying both a wise and well thought-out case. Creon overlooked Haemon’s advice and chose to focus on the insignificant detail that he was simply too young lacking life experience, rather than concentrating on what he was actually saying. Truth

In this quote Creon is making himself look like he is taking charge and punishing Antigone harshly. He is trying to amplify what he plans to do to Antigone. He is being too proud. In reality, though, he did not do these things to the degree he boasts about to Antigone. Creon makes it seem that he is cruel, but he really is not as cruel as he appears. Another time, the prophet is calling Creon out.