Essay on The Arrogance and Hubris of Oedipus and Creon

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 came into power when Oedipus was exiled and died. Throughout the play, Antigone, Creon exemplifies many characteristics. Some are selfishness, stubbornness, and pride. He is selfish because he does only want he wants to do and listens to no one else. He shows his stubbornness when he is unwilling to let Antigone live even

     Oedipus and Creon are alike in yet another way. They both committed vile acts of hubris. Both of them went against the gods for feckless and pointless reasons. Oedipus committed hubris by insulting Tiresias. He accuses Tiresias of “betraying us, destroying Thebes” (177). Tiresias is a prophet of the gods. He is just telling Oedipus what he has seen. Tiresias’s refusal to tell Oedipus his secrets only results in more name-calling and humiliation. Oedipus calls him the “scum of the earth” (178). Oedipus is so enraged by his prophecies that he accuses him of “helping to hatch the plot” (178). Oedipus suspects that Tiresias is being bribed. “Who primed you for this? Not your prophet’s trade” (179), he says. Oedipus’ rashness lead him to accuse Tiresias, a prophet of the gods and a wise seer, that he is corrupt and a fraud. This is obviously

Hubris is Oedipus's tragic flaw. He is now overly full of himself because: he rescued the city of Thebes from the Sphinx, people admire him, the citizens worship him as if he were an idol, the citizens think of him as their hero, and the Thebans have such a high esteem for him, that they made him King. One instance that proves he is filled with overbearing pride is when he proclaims, "I, Oedipus, a name that all men know." (8) This statement also brings about irony. It is ironic because his name will be remembered and well-known everywhere--as a polluter, the

“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,

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.

Oedipus seems to believe that he is some sort of god, and that he is omnipotent. He tells the priest, “I see – how could I fail to see what longings bring you here?” (575, 70-71). Towards the beginning of the play, Oedipus is accusing a man, Tiresias, of trying to overthrow him and of killing the old King Laius. Keep in mind – Tiresias is blind himself. Oedipus condemns, “…short of killing him with your own hands – and given eyes I’d say you did the killing single-handed” (583, 396-397). This is just one of the first instances where loss of vision is mentioned. Oedipus is blindly calling him a liar, while he does not even know the truth himself. Oedipus many times claims that Tiresias cannot see something; however, the “things” he cannot see are almost always moral, not physical. It seems as though Oedipus blames Tiresias’ blindness for not being able to understand ethical situations. For example, “…you cannot see how far

In the story Antigone by Sophocles there is a character named creon. Creon is the king of Thebes and he has too much power are makes a very big example of people who do wrong and gives very harsh punishments. In the story creon says “Nothing you say can touch me any more. My own blind heart has brought me From darkness to final darkness. Here you see The father murdering, the murdered son–– And all my civic wisdom!” he acts like he doesn’t care. He killed his dad and wife, if that’s not ruthless I don’t know what is. This shows he even knows he in the darkness. He puts antigone in a cave and lets her starve to death and he also want polyneices to never be buried and just rot. Creon also says “Go join them, then; if you must have your love, Find it in hell!” this clearly means he could careless about Anyone one. Crean is just saying this Brazen and with no care in the world. People are ruthless when they are given too much power some people just can’t handle it all and just become careless and do whatever they

Creon is the real tragic hero in the Greek Tragedy, Antigone. He was a leader, who had pride, and had laws/punishments. First of all Creon was the king of Thebes, which made him a leader. “Have they told you the new decree of our king Creon” (Sophocles 1068)? After king Laius’ death the word king got passed down to Creon. Since then he had been the leader/king of Thebes. King Creon was full with so much pride. “No; Death will do that for me” states Creon (Sophocles 1086). The pride that Creon had played a big role on why he would act the way he did. Creon was a very stubborn person, who wants things his own way. With that being said, Creon wanted the people to accept his laws and punishments. As Creon said in the play, “You will give no support

In the two plays written by Sophocles (Oedipus the King and Antigone),Creon displays hypocritical mannerisms in Antigone, the sequel of Oedipus Rex. In the First play of the Oedipus Cycle, Oedipus the King Creon acts humane wishing peace from the Gods and eluding controversy with their punishment of the plagues. He listens more than

Because of his commitment to his people and their suffering, he sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to Delphi to see the gods to find out why his city is under such a great plague and what he can do to stop it. Creon returns and says, “… It was murder that brought the plague-wind on the city” and that it was King Laios that was murdered years ago (Prologue, 104-105). Vowing to bring the murderer to justice and being a just King, Oedipus decrees that if the murderer reveals himself he will not be killed, he will be exiled. This determination and tenaciousness was the beginning of the end of King Oedipus.

Creon shows his self pride obviously when he said, “But whoever shows by word and deed that he is on the side of the State, he shall have my respect while he is living, and my reverence when he is dead” (Sc. 1, lns. 52-55). Antigones’s tragic flaw can be seen as an act of justice to some and just breaking the law to others.

As King, Oedipus feels like it is his duty to serve the needs of his people over his own. In other words, he feels expected to do everything in his power to make the lives of his people extraordinary. He states to his people: "You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers..." (Sophocles 13).

After a long established rule as king, a plague afflicted the land. Over the years, Oedipus had “delegated much of his authority, in complete reliance on his efficiency and dependa-bility” (Peterkin 265) to Creon. In trying to relieve his subjects suffering, Oedipus sends his valued right hand man, Creon, to consult the oracle. Oedipus was hoping to receive some revelation as to why his kingdom was suffering so. Upon his return, Creon prudently wanted to speak privately with Oedipus. During this exchange, Creon is presented as a cautious, yet matter-of-fact kind of person. The King would not hear of a private conversation as he wanted everything to be in the public’s eye, so as not to hide the truth. Creon reveals, as tactfully as possible, that the Gods were angry that King Laios murder went unpunished. This is what was causing the plague to besiege

Around 440 B.C.E., Sophocles wrote The Burial at Thebes and had much to say about power and leadership. In the masterful play, he highlighted the traits necessary to be a wise ruler and warned against the qualities that prompt ruin. He used two characters to accomplish his task of telling about the good and bad of authority. Antigone was an unlikely leader who stood up to the king. She may not have lead the country of Thebes to victory in any way but her actions were imperative in the corrupt leader of the play to reflect on himself and try his best to right his wrongs. The corrupt leader role was played by Creon, who was next-in-line for the crown after the old king, Oedipus, died and Oedipus’s sons killed each other. Antigone and Creon clearly showed the values of wise leader and corrupt leader (respectively) through their different characteristics. Antigone believed in a higher power (in this case, the gods), was loving, accepting of past circumstances, and justice-seeking. Her way of living lead to honor. On the other hand, Creon went against the laws of a higher power (or the higher powers), acted like a know-it-all, was unforgiving, controlling, unwilling to admit mistakes, misogynist, and prideful. Sophocles illustrates his ruinous leadership with multiple deaths. The main differences in the way Antigone ruled her life and the way Creon did was the use of morals. Antigone’s ethics included love and being humble while Creon was haughty and cruel. Antigone’s motivations