The Conflict Between Antigone And Creon

Antigone takes place just after a war between Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices. Eteocles fought on the side of Thebes whereas Polynices resembled an invader. Afterwards, Eteocles is buried and seen as honorable. However, Polynices is denied a proper burial because he is considered a traitor to Thebes. In this play, Sophocles uses Antigone and Creon as foils by characterizing Antigone as a martyr and Creon as a tyrant to urge the reader to realize that one’s own morals are more significant than the decrees of any government.

     In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Creon was engaged in a conflict with Oedipus’ daughter Antigone. Creon and Antigone did not see eye-to-eye the entire play due to extreme differences. Creon and Antigone had many similarities despite their enormous discrepancies. Having as many differences as they did, it made them uniquely similar in numerous ways. The similarities that Antigone and Creon shared were independence, loyalty toward their views, cruelty and arrogance (“The Similarities”). The connection shared by Antigone and Creon showed that as hard as Sophocles tried to make them diverse, he made them unintentionally equivalent at the same time.

In the Greek play Antigone writer Sophocles illustrates the clash between the story’s main character Antigone and her powerful uncle, Creon. King Creon of Thebes is an ignorant and oppressive ruler. In the text, there is a prevailing theme of rules and order in which Antigone’s standards of divine justice conflict with Creon’s will as the king. Antigone was not wrong in disobeying Creon, because he was evil and tyrannical. The authors of “Antigone: Kinship, Justice, and the Polis,” and “Assumptions and the Creation of Meaning: Reading Sophocles’ Antigone.” agree with the notion that Antigone performs the role of woman and warrior at once. She does not only what a kinswoman would, but also what a warrior would do.

First off, Ismene, Antigone’s sister, actually was the one that incited Antigone's actions that led to everything else that happened in the story. Without Ismene, there would not be a plot. In lines 52-59, Ismene said to Antigone “What? You'd bury him— when a law forbids the city?” Antigone replied “Yes! He is my brother and—deny it as you will—your brother too. No one will ever convict me for a traitor.” Ismene said “So desperate, and Creon has expressly—” and Antigone interrupted with “He has no right to keep me from my own.” Here Ismene is telling Antigone that her actions are not something that are legal and that comply with Creon’s laws. Antigone, being hard-headed, decides that she is not going to let a law determine what she does for

“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,

The play “Antigone” is a tragedy by Sophocles. One main theme of the play is Religion vs. the state. This theme is seen throughout the play. Antigone is the supporter of religion and following the laws of the gods and the king of Thebes, Creon, is the state. In the play Creon has made it against the law to bury Antigone’s brother, something that goes against the laws of the gods, this is the cause of most conflict in the story. This struggle helps to develop the tragic form by giving the reader parts of the form through different characters.

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.

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.

This play is ultimately concerned with one person defying another person and paying the price. Antigone went against the law of the land, set by the newly crowned King Creon. Antigone was passionate about doing right by her brother and burying him according to her religious beliefs even though Creon deemed him a traitor and ordered him to be left for the animals to devour. Creon was passionate about being king and making his mark from his new throne. Although they differed in their views, the passion Creon and Antigone shared for those opinions was the same, they were equally passionate about their opposing views. Creon would have found it very difficult to see that he had anything in common with Antigone however as he appears to be

While most of society define heroism as a person who saves lives, people with heroism show bravery and opposition to society or its laws. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Antigone, King Creon defies his society’s laws for his own self pride while in Voltaire’s novel Candide, a young boy breaks his uncle’s rule to fulfill his desires. Both characters challenge their society’s laws and take a stand against the flawed principles; however, should people consider Creon and Candide as heroes? Individuals do not have an obligation to challenge laws due to the fact that it leads to multiple deaths and the suffering of themselves or of others.

Though the choices that Antigone and Creon face in Sophocles’ Antigone differ, their decisions often end up pitted against each other’s, inviting comparison. Since I am juxtaposing the characters’ degrees of rightness, I believe that the rightness of the reasoning, not just their ultimate stances, should be examined. The entirety of his or her argument, not just the conclusion, must be taken into account. I’ll also note that my perspective of rightness could and does conflict with that of the gods in Antigone and Sophocles. Furthermore, “rightness” has an element of nuance to it because of the word’s multiple definitions and their connotations.

After reading Antigone by Sophocles, readers may believe that the two main characters, Antigone and Creon, seem like polar opposites. However, after digging a little deeper, readers are able to come to a final conclusion that although both characters may not always see eye to eye, they carry a number of similar traits. The characters seem to be so alike that it results in the two to constantly disagree, leading towards the two to continuously find new differences and flaws within each other. They don’t exactly have the same views, for example, Antigone seems to put family over everything else while Creon’s loyalty is more concerned with the well-being of Thebes. However, the two characters do have many similar internal characteristics. They are independent, confident, and stubborn when they want to be.

Task: Write an essay about the conflict between Antigone and Creon in Antigone, by Sophocles. Show how each is right in his or her own fundamental belief. Then show how the tragedy was inevitable or show how one side was wrong and should have changed.

What is the difference between a tragic hero from an antagonist? In the story “Antigone”, written by famous play writer Sophocles, a young girl named Antigone fights a tragic battle in trying to prepare a proper funeral for her dead brother Polyneices. On the other hand Creon the King of Thebes, believes that Polyneices should be left unburied. The two conflicting characters Creon and Antigone differ based on their words, actions and ideas. Creon’s downfall slowly leads to more suffering even though he is just trying to follow the rules as a king. Creon’s traits of pride and ignorance are different from Antigone’s traits of perseverance lead to Creon’s position as a tragic hero because Creon can not accept the fact that Antigone is willing to do anything to have the burial for her brother and this leads to a series of tragic occurrences.

Antigone is a play that was written in ancient Greece by the playwright Sophocles. It is the third play in a trilogy of tragedies about the city-state of Thebes, revolving around Oedipus Rex. Antigone starts the day after a civil war fought between the two sons of Oedipus Rex after his death. The civil war ended in death for both brothers, so their uncle, Creon, assumed the role of King of Thebes. The main conflict of the play begins when Creon gives one brother, Eteocles, a burial with honors, but passes a law forbidding a burial for the other brother, Polyneices with the penalty of death. One of the sisters of Eteocles and Polyneices, Antigone disagrees with this law, and decides to bury Polyneices, resulting in Creon sentencing Antigone to death. A conflict emerges between Antigone and Creon, who appear to be opposites. However, despite Antigone and Creon’s different stances on law, they are ultimately more similar than different because of their shared value of loyalty and their shared characteristic, hubris.