Antigone Power Corrupt

Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In Antigone by Sophocles, power plays a huge role. Creon is a ruler who has gone mad with newfound power and authority. How much power is too much, quote about power. The play Antigone focuses on the royal family of Thebes. Antigone, Creon’s niece, disagrees with Creon’s laws since the Gods are against corpses not being buried, and decides to do things her own way. She sets out to bury her brother, but unfortunately gets caught and is in big trouble. Creon orders her to be put in a cave to starve to death, but his son, Haemon, disagrees with his order. Creon puts Antigone in a cave to die. Haemon decides to go to his love, but when he arrives she …show more content…
This is directed towards Haemon since he is begging Creon to let Antigone go without punishment. Creon is explaining that he can’t contradict his own laws. This shows Creon’s pride which makes him unwilling to change the law for Antigone, even if she is his niece. If he were to alter the law so that Antigone may live, he would be showing his subjects that he can’t rule with a firm hand. When Creon says “ To order where one should obey, is sinful”, he is showing readers that he is unwilling to do anything, no matter how morally wrong it is, if that means showing his subjects his inability to create ineffective laws. He is too proud to allow his citizens to see the doubtful side of him. Creon’s pride leads to the death of Antigone because he refuses to let her live. His pride in being a ‘per Although Creon’s pridefulness makes his law-making decisions biased, he has a trait that every righteous ruler should have: steadfastness. (how his pride leads to death). In the same conversation with Haemon, Creon points out that Antigone did commit a crime and that he can’t change the law for her without sinning. Creon