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Character comparison essay antigone and creon
Creon character development in Antigone
Creon as a tragic character
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Being an individual of many thoughts, emotions, and entitled opinions, we come across many people in our lives who we come into possible conflict with over disparities. Just as relating to the famous play Antigone by Sophocles, it makes a clear distinction between the characters Antigone and Creon in many forceful ways that it is intended. Audience can grasp the overall comparison between the two characters.
In addition, Antigone’s character proves that she holds a very broad personality that carries along throughout the play. She believes on what should be done that it should be done right relating to the bury of her brothers, Polyniece and Eteocles. Polyniece was left improperly to rest while Eteocles was buried properly. Antigone sparked fury in retaliation thus speaking to break the law to bury her brother when initiated to begin with her uncle. King of Thebes made it clear Polyniece shall not be buried as stated by Antigone, “No, no. Announce the fact if you don’t let everybody know, I’ll despise your silence even more”. This was a conversation between her and Ismene. Antigone was explaining that if Ismene were to keep such a meaningful thing hidden from everyone, Antigone was to bury Polyniece regardless of breaking the law and risking death. Antigone would despise
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Although, the change came a little too late. Antigone had already hung herself. Creon also lost his son, Haemon; he was to be married to Antigone. Creon lost his beloved wife which gave him the opportunity to gain self knowledge, but to also experience redemption. These incidents give puts Creon into agony as how Antigone felt with her improper burial of her brother. It does show that Creon was obsessed with being right and held the factor of dominance above everyone; he was too blind to see the true meaning behind situations regardless if it suited his liking or
In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths. In the beginning Antigone is a close minded character who later becomes open minded. After the death of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will receive a funeral with military honors because he fought for his country. However, Polyneices, who broke his exile to " spill the blood of his father and sell his own people into slavery", will have no burial. Antigone disagrees with Creon's unjust actions and says, " Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way." She vows to bury her brother so that his soul may gain the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the law placed against burying her brother and her own thoughts of doing what she feels should be done for her family. Her intent is simply to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial so that she will follow "the laws of the gods." Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, "I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me." Her own laws, or morals, drive her to break Creon's law placed against Polyneices burial. Even after she realizes that she will have to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister, Ismene, she says: Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish plan: I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, It will not be the worst of deaths-death without honor. Here Ismene is trying to reason with Antigone by saying that she cannot disobey the law because of the consequences. Antigone is close-minded when she immediately tells her to go away and refuses to listen to her. Later in the play, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the consequences yet she is not regretful for her crime. She says her crime is just, yet she does regret being forced to commit it.
Creon does not learn a lesson from Oedipus' accusatory behavior. Instead he adapts this bad personality trait. Throughout Antigone, he accuses everyone who tries to give him advice of betraying him. Whereas, in Oedipus, he is falsely accused by Oedipus of trying to take over the throne. This paper will compare and contrast his behavior and evaluate if he learned anything from one play to the next.
..., is the faulted factor in the situation. As was explained before, Antigone states that her death “is of no importance” and that the important factor is the denial of a proper burial for Polyneices (“Antigone” 1035 Line 70). The rhetorical devices she uses in her argument improves its overall persuasive strength.
When people fail to attempt to tolerate, listen and understand others ideas it often results in adversities and distress amongst themselves and their acquaintances. This is exemplified in the actions of Antigone and Creon in the playwright of Antigone. Both Antigone and Creon are headstrong and tenacious and stick to their ideals and ambitions. However, with their tunnel vision personality traits, it often leads them to fail to recognize the views of others, which ultimately results in tragedy. Both Antigone and Creon’s lack of consideration into the views of others leads to the the outcomes of many unnecessary deaths, and the suicide of both Antigone and Haemon. However, the tragedies exemplified from the failure to recognize the views of
One of Creon’s traits that develops the play is that creon is arrogant. For example in the play Antigone, Creon said in line (324-326) “Stop now before what you're about to say enrages me completely and reveals that you're not old but your stupid too”.This shows that Creon is a tragic hero because
Creon later in the story finds out that his son Harmon like Antigone and wants to be with her but Creon does not allow him because he is determined to have Antigone died. Creon finally get what he wants and says to Antigone, “O cease, you vex me with your babblement; I am like to think you dote in your old age. Is it not arrant folly to pretend,That gods would have a thought for this dead man? Did they forsooth award him special grace, And as some benefactor bury him, Who came to fire their hallowed sanctuaries, To sack their shrines, to desolate their land, And scout their ordinances? Or perchance the gods bestow their favors on the bad. No! no! I have long noted malcontents, Who wagged their heads, and kicked against the yoke, Misliking these my orders, and my rule. 'Tis they, I warrant, who suborned my
(pg 32). Creon does not respond well to this as he only wants to punish Antigone and sees his son following her to death as wrong, “Die then, and love the dead if thou must;/No woman shall be the master while I live.” (pg.23). And he does, Haemon follows Antigone to his
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs evil. The only crime is pride.” I completely agree with the quote from the play. I think that the fact that as soon as Creon realized that he was in the wrong and turned around and tried to fix the mistakes he had made in the past. I think that this can be applied to real life too. If a leader doesn't realize that they are not perfect and that they make mistakes they will get in trouble later on. This tends to happen a lot
Creon reflects upon the deaths. He feels remorse and “ shudders with dread!” as he questions, “ Why not kill me too?” (Line 1433). He has ignored the right advise that people have given him. He believes that he would be better off dead because of all the guilt that he must bear if he remains alive. Even in his family, Haemon, Creon's son, doesn’t approve of letting Antigone be buried alive, and now look where it got him. Creon dishonored his son and he knew he couldn't listen to someone younger, let alone his own son, he was the man in power. Now, Haemon is dead because his father would not consider Haemon’s plea for Antigone’s life. Creon didn’t listen to anyone until his son took his life. It was this tragedy that woke him up to his guilt. Just as he is starting to realize his guilt, the messenger comes in and announces, “[Eurydice] drove home to the heart with her own hand” as she killed herself after knowing her son was
Antigone made it known that she loved her family and her deceased brothers. Antigone felt the decision she made to bury her brother was the honorable thing to do even if her life depended on it. When Antigone was charged for what she had done, she denied nothing. King Creon was so outraged with Antigone that he ordered that she be put to death. Even after getting wise counseling and advice from his son Haimon and his God Teiresias, not to but Antigone to death, King Creon ignored the advice and believed that he had to stand firm on the new laws that he put in place.
“I know it too, and I am shaken in my mind. To yield is awful; but, by standing firm, to strike with my ruin my proud heart-why, that is awful too.” (Sophocles 1095-1097). Creon in the play, Antigone, by Sophocles plays a major role as the tragic king of Thebes and the uncle of Antigone. Creon and Antigone’s conflicting relationship highlights Creon’s tragic figure. In the play Creon tries to establish decisions for the common good of Thebes, but his results end in great tragedy. In this play, I sympathize more with the character Creon because he puts Thebes above everything else which makes him blind to what is happening around him and he ends up losing more than Antigone. While Antigone loses her brothers but remains strong and fights for what she believes is morally right until she chooses her own demise, Creon loses his family and ends up alone and can not fix his actions.
First off, Creon fights for what he believes in. We all want to be right, but at the same time we all want to be fair. Creon thought that what he did was right. A perfect example of this would be when he had to choose Antigone instead of Ismene. He picked
. In the next quote Haemon is speaking with Creon and it gives details of having a tragic flaw. “ You are not in a position to know everything that people say or do, or what they feel: your temper terrifies them. Everyone will tell you only what you like to hear”. Haemon tells him that he doesn’t know everything there is to know. Also, Creon has a temper and gets angry easily if he doesn’t get the answer he wants. Then Haemon says that people are scared of him so they tell Creon what he wants to hear and that all the decisions he has are correct. For example at the beginning the Choragos follows Creon's decisions and says he is doing the right thing to Antigone. They told him this because the people didn't want Creon to get angry because they might be put to death. Creon did not want to show himself weak and he doesn’t want to admit that the decisions he makes are wrong. “ Do you want me to show myself weak before the people? Or to break my sworn word? No, and I will not. The woman dies.” Before this quote is said Haemon tries to change Creon’s mind about stoning Antigone. Creon then replies and says that he will not change his mind because the people will think he is gullible and will do what anyone tells him to do. This gives us the idea that he is very stubborn. Also, that Creon will rather be right than admitting he is wrong after he has made his decision already. In other
Creon is unable to see how his power could lead to his downfall. He is disrespected by many people, including Antigone, and his son, Haemon, who is Antigone's groom to be. He makes an edict that ensures that the dead body of his
Polyneices is Antigone's brother who the king said would not be buried. This is because he fought against his own brother Eteocles and his own nation, Thebes. The king of Thebes, Creon, would not allow them to bury or give respect to a traitor. At the beginning of the play, Antigone made her decision and was going to bury her brother Polyneices. She did not think it was fair that her other brother Eteocles would be buried but not Polyneices. Ismene, Antigone's sister decided she was not going to help her bury him because she knew he had done wrong and they would get in a lot of trouble. Polyneices is Antigones brother and she loved him. She wanted to give respect to