Creon's Flaws In Antigone

Improved Essays
Next, not only does Creon possess too much pride, but he is also stubborn, like Antigone. However, Creon undergoes a full realization in the play, which is something that Antigone does not appear to do. At the beginning, Creon thinks he is doing the right thing by forbidding anyone to bury the body of Polyneices, even though this is a direct contradiction with the law of the gods which states that all bodies must be properly buried to allow the soul entrance to the underworld. After his understanding by Tiresias, he realizes that this was a mistake and his sentence of Antigone for her loyalty to her gods and family is also wrong. This realization on the part of Creon is in conflict with his flaws of pride, but he overcomes his flaws by admitting

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The tragic hero of Sophocles’ Antigone is Creon the uncle of Antigone. Creon represents masculine rules, state over family, and the gods who choose his side over anyone else. In doing so he has caused a lot of harm towards the ones he love. Creon actions led many to their deaths because what he was representing.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Antigone In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the main character, Antigone, disobeys the orders of the king, Creon. Out of loyalty, she attempts to bury her brother, Polyneices, because Creon has declared that he will be left in the fields with no honorable services. Throughout the play, Antigone follows her moral beliefs in order to show her loyalty to her family and the gods, while appealing to other characters’ emotions.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Creon’s Prophecy Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone is a play that shows how a king’s power is blinded by his own fate. Creon is the King of Thebes, and he governs with political and social order. He is arrogant and shows no sympathy for others’ opinion because it is basically his way or the highway. Creon proclaimed an order throughout the city regarding one of the two-sister’s brother, Polyneices.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning.” In Sophocles’ Antigone, the protagonist, Antigone, is both the instrument and the victim of the divine lightning. The suffering imposed upon Antigone by Creon allows her to discover the importance of democracy. She becomes both the spark that ignites the electricity of social change and the martyr who dies for the flame she kindled. Through dialogue that displays expressions of civil disobedience, idealism, and martyrhood caused by Creon’s tyranny, Antigone reveals her role as a catalyst of the tragic vision in Sophocles’ play.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Creon is focused only on being king and the power he gets from it and looses sight of what truly matters, until Antigone helps him discover what truly matters. Creon creates a creed against burying Polyneices to show the people of Thebes that he is strong and capable of being a good king. Antigone continually expresses how she feels Creon’s creed against Polyneices being buried is unfair; due to Antigone defending her opinion about it in a strong nature Creon gains sight of how it is unfair. Antigone persuasion in the end helps Creon see he was wrong. Creon states, “Oh it is hard to give in!…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a greek tragedy “Antigone, Sophocles argues that insight is more valuable than eyesight by showing the consequences of blindness to the truth. He uses Tiresias the blind prophet as the basis of insight, he who does not have literal sight sees the inner nature of things. Creon the King of Thebes is used as an example of someone who has who has sight but is blind figuratively to the reality surrounding him. Creon is not the only character who is blind to something. Antigone the protagonist of the play is blind to the importance of Creon 's decisions.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two major themes that run throughout Sophocles’ play Antigone are loyalty and power. Loyalty and power are what drive the play forward; this theme affects not only Antigone, but Creon as well. Both Antigone and Creon are affected by this conflict, but in different ways. Antigone is first introduced to us as a young and loyal girl to bother her brother and the gods, that only wants to make sure both her brothers have a proper burial; according to the laws placed by the gods if someone does not receive a burial there will be no way for family members to reconnect with them in their life after death. Creon, who is the king and Antigone’s uncle, sets a law in place that no one is to bury or even mourn the death of Polynices.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Often in literature, a character's tragic flaw leads to his or her downfall. Creon from Antigone has a tragic flaw of stubbornness that ultimately leads to his downfall. In Antigone, by Sophocles, Creon shows examples of his stubbornness throughout the story. One example, of Creon's stubbornness, is when he wouldn't allow anyone to bury Polyneices.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Was Creon “equally” justified in his “rightness”? I don’t think so at all. From the early sentences you get the impression that he is trying to set laws to reestablish his power. I don’t know that he felt much family devotion. He turned over the hand of his sister to anyone that could get rid of the Sphinx in the city.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tiresias further instructs Creon to yield to others for his own good. Although Creon has the opportunity to free Antigone and bury her brother Polyneices, and thus make up for the errors of his ways, yet, because of his hubris, he refuses to do so out of his pride, stubbornness, and reluctance. He…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “There’s no room for pride, not in a slave, not with the lord and master standing by.” (Sophocles, ll. 534-535) says Creon as Antigone explains why she’s defied his decree and buried her brother. Creon is one of a few who admit that they think of Antigone as someone who is a foreigner or an outsider, which is a part of the build up for Antigone to believe that of herself. Creon compares her to a “slave” (Sophocles, l. 532), which are typically non-greeks who have been conquered by the Greeks and brought back to work for a master. This comparison implies that though Antigone is not a slave, she is not considered a citizen not only because she is a woman, but also due to her behavior, which Creon has implied is not native to Thebes, which further alienates Antigone from her…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Creon's Trial Of Antigone

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages

    One week ago, Creon set forth the law that no person could bury Polyneices, in an attempt to preserve the honor of the Thebans who fell in combat. However, Creon ordered the entombment of Antigone when she broke this law, resulting in her decision to hang herself. Thus, we are here today to determine whether Creon is innocent of the crimes with which he has been charged. The…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play “Antigone,” Sophocles manifests Creon and Antigone's distinct conflicting values to address the issue of government authority over the people. Creon’s regard for the laws of the city causes him to abandon all other believes and therefore, he feels that all of the citizens should obey the laws set forth by him, even if other beliefs, moral or religious, state otherwise. On the other hand, Antigone holds the belief of the gods in high reverence which is proven when she states, “A sinless sinner, banned a while on earth, But by the dead commended; and with them I shall abide for ever. As for thee, Scorn, if thou wilt, the eternal laws of Heaven” (Antigone 9; Act 1). Antigone elevates religious law over the law of the state which causes her to neglect the king’s will and bury her brother’s body.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You might want to post this question in the discussion postings for this group to gain a wide range of responses. For me, this play is all about the conflict between our duties to the state of which we are a part and then our own personal duties and what happens when the two collide. Antigone is left between a rock and a hard place - if she is a loyal citizen, she betrays her family and sense of religion by not giving her brother the proper burial that he deserves, and yet if she follows her own conscience she is left as a traitor against the state, burying someone who rebelled against the rule of Creon. Creon and Antigone act as foils for each other throughout the play, as Creon seems to represent a system of rule that takes precedence over…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The play Antigone is intended to portray that morality is more important than the law. In order to demonstrate this, Sophocles presents a situation in which a woman is willing to go to the extremes, even facing death, in order to fight for what she believes is right. The play struggles with the idea of right versus wrong, the characters are forced to make decisions based on their conscience even if it does not coincide with the law. The purpose of laws is to set a standard of conduct for the population to follow; usually these laws are for the good of the citizens who are living in the country.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays