The Tragic Heroes in Sophocles’ Tragedy, Antigone

Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is someone of great importance or royalty. The hero must go through something terrible such as a relative’s death. We must feel what this character is feeling throughout the story. Aristotle also said that a tragic hero scan be defeated by a tragic flaw, such as hubris or human pride. In Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, both Creon and Antigone are tragic heroes.

In the play, Creon and Antigone can be seen as good or bad characters. Both of them show traits of justice. Antigone wanted to save her brother, Polyneices, by giving him a soldier’s funeral with military honors. Creon realized his mistake of putting Antigone in a cave to die for burying Polyneices, and he tried to fix it. Unfortunately, he was a little too late. Antigone and Creon also showed immoral acts. Antigone went against Creon’s law even if it was unfair. Creon made the morally wrong law of not letting anyone bury Polyneice’s body.

Creon and Antigone both had tragic flaws. Antigone disobeyed the law by trying to bury Polyneices so Creon enforced his punishment on Antigone. Antigone decides she was going to go against Creon’s word when she told Ismene,

Listen, Ismene: Creon buried our brother Eteocles with military honors, gave him a soldiers funeral, and it was right that he should; but Polyneices, who fought just as bravely and died as miserably. They say that Creon has sworn no one shall bury him, no one mourn for him, but his body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure for carrion birds to find as they search for food. That is what they say, and our good Creon is coming here to announce it publicly; and the penalty, stoning to death in the public square! There it is, and now you can prove what you are: a true sister, o...

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...is mistake when he said, “Nothing you say can touch me anymore. My own blind heart has brought me from darkness to final darkness. Here you see the father murdering, the murdered son, and all my civic wisdom! Haimon my son, so young, so young to die, I was a fool, not you; and you died for me” (Sc. Ex, lns. 86-92). Even though they recognized their errors they were irreversible and they couldn’t do anything to change the outcome.

In the end, both tragic heroes Antigone and Creon have tragic endings. Antigone hung herself and Creon had to live with the fact that he is the reason everyone he loved is now dead. They both were tragic heroes, because both of them came from royalty, had tragic flaws, and realized their errors at the end. The reader should’ve felt pity for Creon and Antigone at the conclusion since they both are tragic heroes and lives resulted horribly.