Antigone Essay

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Antigone is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles that has two tragic heroes, Antigone herself and Creon. A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy that makes an error in his or her actions that leads to his or her downfall. Creon is the tragic hero in Antigone because he reveals all the characteristics of a tragic hero. Creon’s tragic flaw is his pride. Creon’s stubbornness, his abuse of power, and his actions that resulted in his downfall in the play are three of the ways in which Creon can be the tragic hero. Creon is the tragic hero in Antigone for many reasons. His stubbornness by not wanting to be proven wrong because of his pride is one of the many reasons Creon is the tragic character. Creon believes it is okay to give Eteocles a proper burial because he died, as a man should, fight for his country. On the other hand, Creon treats Polyneices’ death in a distasteful, uncaring manner. Creon believed Polyneices’ should not receive a proper burial because Polyneices’ broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and the shrines of his father’s gods, whose idea was to split his blood and sell his own people into slavery. Creon also said that anyone that touches Polyneices’ or says the least prayer for him would be stoned to death. The Choragus attempted to inform Creon that he made a mistake by saying nobody can bury Polyneices, but it is to no avail. When Creon finds out someone has buried Polyneices, he assumes it is the men, the anarchists, that buried him because they want money, but Antigone is really the one that buries Polyneices. When the people of Thebes tried to tell Creon Antigone did the right thing, he did not want to listen to them. Creon believed that if he made an ex... ... middle of paper ... ...d that even though he is rich, if he has no one to share it with, then he has nothing. This shows how Creon’s actions are the most important quality that makes him a tragic hero. The downfall of Thebes is a result of Creon’s stubbornness, his abuse of power, and his actions that caused his downfall. Creon thought that by being the king of Thebes, he could do whatever he wanted and have everything go his way and make everyone only follow his laws. Creon’s role as king also made him think it is okay for him to break Gods laws and make his own laws for his people to follow without confronting his people first. Creon caused all of the chaos in Thebes by trying to make his laws equal to Gods laws. Teiresias foreshadows that it will have a bad ending and it does. In my opinion, the major downfall of Thebes is Creon’s poor ability to differentiate right from wrong.

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