Similarities Between Antigone And Niece

Similarities & Differences of the King and his Niece The play Antigone written by Sophocles has three main characters in it, Antigone and Creon being two of them. He was the first playwright to introduce the third character to Greek plays; before that it had only been two. Although they bear enough similarities, the differences between Creon and Antigone are quite pronounced.
Creon and Antigone are, actually, unlike most people would think, similar in some critical ways. Both of them are very powerful, assertive, with obstinate personalities, who are completely indoctrinated of the correctness of their actions. Notwithstanding, neither of them will even ponder the other 's stance nor come close to attempting to understand it. These characters …show more content…
Consequently, both characters show contrasting concern. More worried himself than about the stability and protection of the Thebes, Creon shows this throughout the play by putting the city second most importantly than himself and his opinion. “Is the town to tell me, the king, how I ought to rule?” (735) Conversely, Antigone is most troubled with the wellbeing of her brother 's spirit, “Unwept and unburied, a rich sweet sight for the hungry birds’ beholding and devouring.” (25, 30) Her dependability to her family and the gods outweighs everything else. After Creon asks her why she dared overstep his laws, she replies “For me it was not Zeus who made that order. Nor did that Justice who lives with the gods below mark out such laws to hold among mankind. Nor did I think that your orders were so strong that you, a mortal man, could overrun the gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws…” (450, 460) Creon concludes that if he abandons his rule to execute anyone, especially a woman- who comes into contact with the body of his nephew Polyneices, whom Creon loathes as a conspirator- such action will make him seem like an inadequate king and thus will decrease his political jurisdiction and jeopardize the safety of Thebes. “I shall not now proclaim myself a liar, but kill her. If I allow disorder in my house, I’d surely have to license it abroad. A man who deals fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state... The man the state has put in place must have obedient hearing to his least command when it is right, and even when it is not. There is no greater wrong than disobedience. I won’t be called weaker than a woman.” (655, 680) If she doesn 't bury Polyneices, Antigone feels that his spirit will never find serenity in the underworld and that she will have, as Creon did, opposed the gods’ commands. Antigone and Creon