Creon And Haemon Character Analysis

Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides are among the greatest of ancient Greek playwrights. Sophocles, master of Greek tragedy and innovator to plays of his time, wrote the Greek tragedy Antigone, the last play in the Theban trilogy. Antigone is a play that ends in tragedy due to the decree of Creon, the king and tragic hero of the play. In the play, Sophocles shows how Haemon’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s own, and shows the conflicting motivations of each character which contribute to Creon’s development as a tragic hero and develop the themes of the play.

Haemon’s own actions and motivations are different from Creon’s because Haemon is reasonable, caring, and just, while Creon is the opposite being unreasonable, careless,

and unjust as well as arrogant. Haemon addresses his father by saying, “For me, father, nothing is more valuable than your well being” (794-795). Here it is clear that Haemon truly does care for his father as he says multiple times in the scene that he cares for him, but still, Creon is rude, arrogant, and does not care about what Haemon says. Later in the scene, after Haemon explains to him that the people are against him and his decree, Creon says, “And men my age- are we then going to school to learn what’s wise from men as young as him” (824-825). Creon dismisses what Haemon has to say immediately, even though Haemon cares for his father and is just trying to help him. Because Creon’s motivations conflict with Haemon’s, he has no interest in listening to him.
The interactions between Haemon and Creon help to develop the theme of the play; sometimes you need to tell a person what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.
When Haemon is arguing with his father he insults him be saying, “If you were not my father, I might say you were not thinking straight” (864-865). This is how Haemon responds to Creon’s after he realizes he cannot be reasoned with anymore. Haemon is concerned for his father and is trying to help him out but Creon feels that his son is against him. Creon feels deeply insulted by Haemon and in his rage, he responds by saying, “Go bring her out- that hateful creature, so she can die right here, with him present, before her bridegroom’s eyes” (868-869). This is what leads Haemon storming out vowing that Creon will never see him again.
Creon’s tragic end was a result of multiple things, one of those being ignoring Haemon. Haemon had tried to warn his father about the decree that he made, he told him that the people were upset and that he was concerned for his father. Creon was given a choice to make and had multiple times to change his mind but instead of listening, he decided to ignore everyone that was trying to help him out. Haemon and Creon’s words, actions, and motivations contrasted with one another, and this led to Creon becoming the tragic hero of the play.