Creon: The Tragic Hero in Antigone

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Recommended: Characteristic of tragedy according to Aristotle

What is a tragic hero? In Antigone by Sophocles, written in 441 B.C.E. Antigone tells the story of Oedipus relatives, Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, Creon, and Polyneices. The story is based on the fact that Antigone wants to bury her brothers Polyneices and Eteocles after both died in a battle. But according to the law of the Creon, the king, Antigone cannot bury her brothers. The tragic hero in Antigone is Creon because he fits in all the characteristics of a tragic hero such as peripeteia, anagnorisis and fatal flaw.
A Greek tragedy is a theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It was created by the Greeks in the 5th century BC. It's characterized by tragic plots, they are often based on myths from the oral traditions and they involved greek …show more content…

The fatal flaw also referred as hubris is when a character leads him to his downfall. Creon shows hubris because he has excessive pride, he thinks he is better than everyone and he is an authority man. Hubris can be noticed in line 836-837 when he says,"So the city now will instruct me how I am to govern?” Another tragic hero characteristic is peripeteia, it's when a sudden of fortune or change in circumstances happen. That's a very clear characteristic in Creon because he lost the grip in his kingdom. Another fact that comprises peripeteia is that he also lost his family. Peripeteia can be comproved in line 1420 “Aaiiii . . . I’ve learned it in my pain. Some god clutching a great weight struck my head, then hurled me onto paths in the wilderness, throwing down and casting underfoot what brought me joy. So sad . . . so sad . . . the wretched agony of human life.” Creon also demonstrates other characteristics called anagnorisis. Anagnorisis is when a character recognizes his mistakes. Creon recognized his mistakes in the end of the play because he noticed that the decisions he made were wrong. In the play, we can identify anagnorisis in his own speech, "Aaiii—mistakes made by a foolish mind, cruel mistakes that bring on death. You see us here, all in one family— the killer and the killed. Oh, the profanity of what I planned. Alas, my son, you died so young— a death before your time.

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