Creon Tragic Hero In Antigone

A Greek tragedy deals with pain, heartbreak, political corruption, and inevitable greeting of death. These qualities are seen in Sophocles's play Antigone. Antigone is considered a continuation of a curse cast upon a family due to Oedipus’ incestuous sins. Upon the deaths of Oedipus and his sons, their uncle, Creon, rises to power and as his first decree, he orders one of the sons to be buried with full military honors and the other to be left unburied. Their sister, Antigone breaks Creon’s law and is penalized to death. A tragic hero is someone who incorporates a flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. Although Antigone fits the mold, Creon is the tragic hero since he is prideful and arrogant, and gets the opportunity to change his actions in spite of realizing his fault too late.

Haemon informs Creon of disagreement in the city because he has “reasoned badly” (Sophocles). Creon is no authority to assume what “people say or do, or what they feel” (Sophocles), much less to take control over a life. Creon believes himself to be of ultimate power and his commands must be obeyed “in all things, great and small, just and unjust” (Sophocles 36-37). This is Creon’s major flaw, he is deaf to other voices besides his own. Creon’s stubbornness to continue disobeying the laws of the gods in fear of “[laying his] pride bare to the blows of ruin” (Sophocles 1191-1193) exposes how self-important he finds himself. His inability to be content and abide divine law eventually leads to his own