King Creon Character Analysis

Antigone, by Sophocles, illustrates a character, King Creon, who is willing to give up his own family in order to show his authority. In this selection, it is witness how Antigone goes against her uncle’s laws and his blindness results in unfortunate events. King Creon tries to show the power he has to the city of Thebes, which leads him to make poor decisions. By the time he realizes the mistake he had done, it was too late. Through his stubbornness and arrogance, King Creon ignored reason that led to the deaths of Antigone, Haemon, and his wife Eurydice.

In fact, the first opportunity King Creon had to change his own terrible fate was when he stated his law to deny burial to Polynices. Sophocles demonstrated this by writing, “—a proclamation has forbidden the city to dignify him with burial ... No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear,” (2.227-230). As stated, King Creon

compromise his fate when he choose to declare Polynices as a traitor. King Creon was supposed to look after his nephews and nieces, yet he only thought about taking over the throne and had no mercy what so ever. For him it was more important to show the people of Thebes that he was qualified to be King. The power he held made him unaware of the decisions he was making. As a consequence the outcomes for King Creon’s fate were fatal.
After King Creon’s decision with Polynices, his pride led to the death of Antigone.

When King Creon became aware that Antigone had buried Polynices body, he was furious. He immediately declared death for Antigone. He wanted to show people that what he would state was to be done and if anyone was willing to go against him they would suffer the consequences. His pride overcame the fact that it was his niece whom he wanted to leave to starve and die. This is shown when, Tiresias, a prophet, proclaims “stubbornness brands you for stupidity – pride is a crime” (Sophocles, 2.1136-1137). This prophet warned King Creon that decisions were going against the Gods and that his fate was eventually going to pay for what he was doing. This prophet tried convincing King Creon to let Antigone free and leave Polynices body to die in peace, but he did not listen to his words. All of his ignorance blind him from reason and left him to believe that only what he thought was right. King Creon wanted to show everyone that he was not weak and that no one was to go against

him.
Eventually, King Creon stopped to reflect on all the events that had occur and he realized how ignorant he had been. Though he wanted to amend the choices he had done, it was too late. Seamus Heaney express this by writing, “the wretched king remains behind, widowed and childless,” (par. 3). Therefore, it is revealed that Creon’s loved ones could not stand with him in his arrogance, which led them all to commit suicide. Haemon, Creon’s son, loved Antigone so much that he took his life when he saw her dead. Eurydice also committed suicide after finding out her son was dead. All these deaths fell upon King Creon whose stubbornness led him to commit choices that could have avoided so much death. He wanted to be King, yet he did not have all the qualities to rule Thebes. King Creon could have listen and change the outcomes, yet he wanted everyone to follow him because he had the power to create these laws. In the end he was alone and devastated by his lack of reason.
Truly it is showed how King Creon’s inability to comprehend left him abandoned and forever miserable of all the death around him. He became aware of all the arrogance he had and he saw how he compromised his own fate. In the words of Bonnie Honig, she describes King Creon by writing, “He is, he insists, solely responsible for what has happened,” (28). Sophocles leaves King Creon to grief all the deaths of his loved ones. This play expresses morality, with tragic events to show that poor decision can leave to terrible consequences. King Creon decides to not take his life, but instead live the rest of it mourning the opportunities he had to change his fate. King Creon then saw how thinking he was superior than the Gods had its consequences and being humble could had made him a better King.