Creon Character Analysis

As an American society, we often take for granted our acceptance of religious diversity. In many eras and under many empires, such tolerance was not the case. For example, variant religions or beliefs were not readily accepted in Ancient Greece, such as is shown in Sophocles' play Antigone. He explores the social issue of divine law versus human law to develop his play through characterization, conflict, and tragic elements to evoke emotions in the audience.

First and foremost, Sophocles' stressed issue of divine law characterizes the most prevalent character of his play: Creon. Creon is the ruler of Thebes and believes he has ultimate authority over all others. This develops his hamartia, or tragic flaw, in that he is inflexible and too prideful. Additionally, Sophocles highlights Creon's disrespect for the will of the gods at the beginning of the play, until he realizes his mistake and respects the gods once again at the end of the play. Through this character change, Sophocles paints Creon as an archetypal but dynamic character; he meets the typical power-mad villain stereotype but changes his ways and viewpoints after he learns his lesson. Thus Antigone effectively utilizes the social issue of human power versus divine power to draw attention to …show more content…
From the beginning of the play, Creon believes he has the ultimate power, which leads to Antigone being led to her death. Not only this, but Creon's orders to deny Polyneices a burial infuriate the gods to the point where all the altars are tainted. The gods even sent Creon a warning in the form of the prophet Teiresias; he warned Creon that deaths would occur if the wrongs were not fixed. However, due to Creon's pride and inability to recognize the gods' strength, several deaths occurred. If he had only listened to the will of the gods and ceded his power to their higher authority, many deaths would be