War, death, humiliation, pride. All prove to be events in a tragic hero’s time of fame. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should basically be a good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait, in his character. In Antigone, Antigone meets many of the requirements to be a tragic hero because of her suffering, but Creon comes out to be a stronger candidate in the tragedy. In Sophocles Antigone, Creon proves to be the tragic hero because of his hubris, pathos, and peripeteia.
In every Greek tragedy, the tragic hero has a tragic flaw, hamartia. In Antigone, Creon’s tragic flaw proves to be his hubris. Aristotle finds that hubris is more for shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to a person or might happen to a person, but for that person's own satisfaction. Creon is stubborn and his pride is …show more content…
His hubris and stubbornness has caused him to have to live a life alone without his son, wife or niece. Aristotle says that men change their opinion in regard to their judgment. Some emotions have specific causes and effects. This applies to Creon. Creon had to think everyday, that if he had changed his mind, what could have been different in his depressed life. The pathos in Antigone shows that in the end, the reader feels catharsis for Creon. Creon comes to an understanding of Antigone's viewpoint and Haemon's, when it is too late. "Can’t fight against what’s destined. It is hard, but I’ll change my mind...I must personally undo what I have done”(26). The audience now sees the side of Creon that he was afraid to show. Pathos portrays Creon as the tragic hero because the audience does not see him as a bad man anymore, the audience feels pity for him, which is a trait of a tragic hero. The audience knows that the decisions he made were irrational, and in the end his karma caught up with him. “Now I’m afraid. Why wasn’t I killed? Why didn’t somebody kill me, stab me to
In every Greek tragedy, the tragic hero has a tragic flaw, hamartia. In Antigone, Creon’s tragic flaw proves to be his hubris. Aristotle finds that hubris is more for shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to a person or might happen to a person, but for that person's own satisfaction. Creon is stubborn and his pride is …show more content…
His hubris and stubbornness has caused him to have to live a life alone without his son, wife or niece. Aristotle says that men change their opinion in regard to their judgment. Some emotions have specific causes and effects. This applies to Creon. Creon had to think everyday, that if he had changed his mind, what could have been different in his depressed life. The pathos in Antigone shows that in the end, the reader feels catharsis for Creon. Creon comes to an understanding of Antigone's viewpoint and Haemon's, when it is too late. "Can’t fight against what’s destined. It is hard, but I’ll change my mind...I must personally undo what I have done”(26). The audience now sees the side of Creon that he was afraid to show. Pathos portrays Creon as the tragic hero because the audience does not see him as a bad man anymore, the audience feels pity for him, which is a trait of a tragic hero. The audience knows that the decisions he made were irrational, and in the end his karma caught up with him. “Now I’m afraid. Why wasn’t I killed? Why didn’t somebody kill me, stab me to