Differences Between Haomeon And Kreon In Antigone

In the film Antigone, directors make the deliberate decision to costume Haimon and Kreon similarly, but with key differences, to convey the moral values of each character. Kreon wears a silver suit made of a thick and dense material, like wool. The buttons are shiny silver and the lapel is folded over smoothly. His jacket has no belt at the waist, and Kreon’s shoes are plain and short. Haimon wears a similar style suit, with shiny buttons and dense material, but the shape is different. His jacket has a black belt or sash around the waist and across the body of the suit. His shoes are tall black boots, and the color of his suit is a slightly more natural shade of pale tan, different from Kreon’s metallic silver suit. The difference in shape of suits, suggests Kreon and

Haimon identify with different demographics. The filmmakers intentionally designed Haimon’s suit to mimic that of a soldier’s while Kreon’s is completely unique. Haimon morally understands the common people, and looks out for Antigone. Unlike his father, he has a moral conscience that says kinship is more important than man-made law and hierarchy.

The similarities between his costume and stereotypical soldier give the viewer the impression he is more like the general population. Due to the easily identifiable traits in his costume, viewers are more likely to relate to Haimon. Kreon’s costume is more unique and unrelatable. It is not similar to any easily identifiable character, and therefore the viewer is less understanding or relating to Kreon. The luxury of his suit connotate extreme wealth and power, meaning that Kreon identifies more with the upper-class and authorities. His conscience is only in benefit of the rich, with no regard for kinship or morals. The difference in suit color is mostly in the warmness of hue. While both suits are very light colors, Haimon’s is more of a light warm brown, and Kreon’s is a steely light silver. The warmness in the light brown brings out Haimon’s compassionate nature, and the coldness in the steel silver accentuates Kreon’s rigidness to the law and cool nature. The similarities in the suits, suggest that Haimon maintains some of Kreon’s strict allegiance to the law, as well as the royal

wealth. These costume choices set the viewer up to sympathize and understand Haimon and Antigone’s perspective, in contrast to Kreon. But the similarities show how Haimon is his father’s son in some respects. If the viewer identified more with Kreon, the moral of the play would be less believable, and therefore resulting in a weaker play. Haimon and Kreon do share personality traits, and the directors used the costume choices to show the similarities and differences between Kreon and Haimon’s perspectives.