How Does Antigone Characterize Creon

“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 …show more content…
Furthermore, another entity that reinforces this idea Antigone comes to have of herself being a stranger is the Chorus, who both confusingly support her while also supporting Creon. The Chorus being the representation of the citizens of Thebes makes it so that when they say “alone, no mortal like you, ever,” (Sophocles, l. 913) they act as a representation of the thoughts of these citizens and, therefore, enables Antigone to call herself a stranger in the realm of the living at this point in her plot. Surrounding the exclamation of “I am a stranger!” (Sophocles, l. 956) are a web of issues including family and marriage, where she refers back to her mother and her father’s marriage and says to her father: “O dear brother, doomed in your marriage—your marriage murders mine, your dying drags me down to death alive!” (Sophocles, ll. 956-958). It is her father’s sins in marriage that makes it that she is unable to marry and because of his mistakes, as the house of Laius seems to have been doomed from the beginning. Though Antigone blames her father for her fate even though the reader knows that, at the