Antigone Vs Creon Analysis

Throughout human history, plays have served as an important event to bond communities over religious or social events. One of the most famous playwrights in the Golden Age of Greek literature was Sophocles. He is well known for writing over 120 plays during his lifetime, but only seven have survived, most prominently among them, Antigone. Antigone discusses the consequences of pitting man 's laws versus the laws of the gods when King Creon decrees that the body of Polyneices, a traitor to his city, will not receive a proper burial, an important part of Greek culture. Antigone, the sister of Polyneices, openly defies King Creon and gives Polyneices a proper burial, justifying it by claiming she was only following the divine law of the gods. Plays like this and many others were written for the Festival of Dionysus where Greek citizens would watch the plays as a way of attaining catharsis, or the purging of emotions. In Sophocles’ tragic play Antigone, Creon is the more tragic character because he adheres to Aristotle’s poetics the most, when compared with Antigone, and therefore evokes the most …show more content…
Creon loses all of his surviving family, including his wife, Euripides and his only surviving son, Haimon, but he survives at the end, making it all that much more cruel because he will be haunted by the decisions he made that offended the gods and caused the deaths of those who mattered most to him. This will undoubtedly evoke plenty of pity from the audience, as everyone has family that they care about, and everyone fears losing those who matter most to them. That is why this play and others like it have allowed humans to reflect upon their history, as some human traits such as hubris and love for one’s family, cross generational and cultural