Similarities Between Oedipus The King And Antigone

In many Greek tragedies, the main characters had tragic flaws that led to their downfalls. In two of Sophocles’s plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone, the main characters both had a tragic flaw of arrogance. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus had a tendency to let his arrogance overpower him, and he was the one who caused the plague because he blindly killed his father Laius, the first king of Thebes. In Antigone, Creon is the king after Oedipus left the city. Creon wanted to be different than Oedipus, but really he wasn’t because he also let his arrogance blind some of his decisions. Both Oedipus and Creon are blind to how their actions will turn out, not knowing their blind actions will affect the rest of their lives tremendously. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus blindly states his harsh doings to whoever killed Laius, the previous King of Thebes. When Oedipus is ranting on and on about what he will do to the killer of Laius, he doesn’t know that he is the killer, and he caused the plague. His action taking was stated as, “And if this killer lives within my house, and if I know him, then I myself receive the …show more content…
Creon’s ruling, however, is much similar to Oedipus’ ruling. Creon is making the same accusations to whomever buried the body of Polyneices. Creon stated bitterly, “I’ll make you a promise: the men who have paid for this funeral just purchased their own! Now go find out who did it, and take him, and put him in chains, and bring him right back here to me, because I want to look at him with my own eyes” (113). This is exactly like Oedipus because Oedipus just started punishing who killed Laius and started the plague before he knew anything about it. Creon will soon find out who did it… it was Antigone, his niece. Creon is just like Oedipus. That isn’t the best thing either, because Creon will find out the hard way on how his actions will affected his