The Age of Wisdom? What really determines whether one is wise or foolish? If asked to find the wisest person in a room, many would turn their heads towards the man with the most Dumbledore- like beard. However, does age actually play a factor in the wisdom of an individual? In Seamus Heaney’s adaptation of the famous Greek tragedy Anitgone, The Burial at Thebes, this popular stereotype is placed to the test.
A newly crowned king of Thebes, Creon, will decide to make a decree concerning the burial of the traitorous Polyneices, brother to Antigone the daughter of Oedipus. The law states that if anyone attempts to honor the body by presenting it with the proper burial rituals, he/she will be sentenced to death. Although age is synonymous with wisdom, Creon’s short rule …show more content…
In the beginning of the play, they proclaim full allegiance towards his rule, and when Creon delivers his statement on Polyneices they say, “Loud and clear, King Creon,/You have laid down the law (17).” Once word about Antigone is made known, the people start to question his rule saying, “But Anitgone.You’ve actually considered/How you’re going to put her to death (48)?” Creon continues to ignore their pleas until Tiresias’s prophecy terrifies him into complying, but now he is too late. Because Creon considered he was acting in the best interest of the people of Thebes, he neglected to listen to the reasonable advice offered to him by Tiresias, Haemon, and the people. Consequently, Creon’s judgement to not listen until it was too late, crumbled his relationship with Haemon and Tiresias’s prophecy came true. Antigone and Haemon took their lives, along with Creon’s wife after she heard the news. Although Creon believed himself to be wise and neglected other advice because of his position as king, his overconfidence led himself only into deep
A newly crowned king of Thebes, Creon, will decide to make a decree concerning the burial of the traitorous Polyneices, brother to Antigone the daughter of Oedipus. The law states that if anyone attempts to honor the body by presenting it with the proper burial rituals, he/she will be sentenced to death. Although age is synonymous with wisdom, Creon’s short rule …show more content…
In the beginning of the play, they proclaim full allegiance towards his rule, and when Creon delivers his statement on Polyneices they say, “Loud and clear, King Creon,/You have laid down the law (17).” Once word about Antigone is made known, the people start to question his rule saying, “But Anitgone.You’ve actually considered/How you’re going to put her to death (48)?” Creon continues to ignore their pleas until Tiresias’s prophecy terrifies him into complying, but now he is too late. Because Creon considered he was acting in the best interest of the people of Thebes, he neglected to listen to the reasonable advice offered to him by Tiresias, Haemon, and the people. Consequently, Creon’s judgement to not listen until it was too late, crumbled his relationship with Haemon and Tiresias’s prophecy came true. Antigone and Haemon took their lives, along with Creon’s wife after she heard the news. Although Creon believed himself to be wise and neglected other advice because of his position as king, his overconfidence led himself only into deep