Similarities Between Antigone And Creon

Anouilh’s original characterization of Creon and Sophocles’ characterization share similar ideas, but Sophocles’ Antigone carries a unique tone and a creative twist to Anouilh’s original work. Antigone, a play about the life of King Creon and his family, demonstrates how Creon’s life progresses through triumphs and downfalls and the growth and development of relationships between Creon and the people who surround him.

In Anouilh’s play, Creon uses his power to try and persuade Antigone not to bury his dead brother, Polynices. When Creon tells him to stop, Antigone stops and says that’s she is just going to do it all over again. Creon says, “I had forbidden it” (Anouilh’s 895). Creon is in a state of power and he is trying to use it on

Antigone, to try and persuade her to not go back and persuade her not to bury her brother for a second time, “and even if you did cover him over with earth again, the earth would be again be removed.” (Anouilh’s 897). This shows that even if the dirt keeps coming off Polynices, that Antigone will go back every time and cover him back up, even if Creon thinks that he was a traitor and a death sentence put to anyone but Antigone. This is only because she is the daughter of Oedipus, ruler of town. “Very well I am afraid, then. Does that satisfy you? I am afraid that if you insist upon it, I shall have you killed, And I don’t want to.” (Anouilh’s 899). The whole reason that Creon wants her to stop what she is doing is because he does not what to have her put to death. He wants her to stop so he can spare her life. Antigone is not afraid of what Creon is doing because she knows well enough that if he does not want to do it, he will not kill her. She continues to say “Stop feeling sorry for me. Do as I do. Do your job. But if you are a human being, do it quickly. That is all I ask of you. I'm not going to be able to hold out for ever.” (Anouilh’s 899). All she wants is for Creon to stop saying what he is going to do and do it like a normal human. She wants him to make it quick, so she can either die or go back and bury her deceased brother again. Creon, the king of Thebes.
In Sophocles play, Creon is still the king and has power over the kingdom of Thebes:
“The old Creon was honest and competent, but displayed no outstanding ability. The basic difference between the great man and the small is always evident in positions of supreme authority. The great man is ever conscious of the grave responsibility that rests on his shoulders, in that the fates of so many hang upon his word. Thus it is the duty and the care that he owes to those who de pend upon him that is ever foremost in his thought. The petty mind is impressed rather with the sense of his own importance and power, with the knowledge that he can say to one man "go" and to another "come." It is a satisfaction to him to feel that he controls the destinies of others; it is the exercise of power that pleases, and so he is intolerant of opposition and obstinate in the face of criticism” (Peterkin 269).
Creon knows who he is and what power he has. No other man has the kind of power that he has until he is dead. The amount of responsibility that is on his shoulders weighs more than anyone else’s. Thebes is a big kingdom that needs a strong, well minded ruler and the people deserve to have this kind of ruler. Power is the kind of thing that makes a man go crazy. From the number of things they must do, to the amount of people that Creon must make happy, and his family. At the end of the day, Creon is a normal human, with limitless power, a day job and normal human qualities, just like everyone else. “If Creon's treatment of Polynices exceeds the bounds of the permissible, that is perfectly compatible with the claim that Creon represents” (Honig 9). Creon’s treatment of Polynices, heir to the Theban throne, was not only crucial, but also fair. Polynices’ burial was not the same as his brother Eteocles, as Eteocles burial was approved. Polynices burial was not approved as he was seen disloyal to the people and the kingdom of Thebes, as he was proclaimed as a traitor.
“Creon illustrates both paths to monarchy. Oligarchy degenerates into murderous stasis, and stasis between two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, has just brought a hostile army to the very gates of Thebes, leaving Creon as master of the city” (Crane 113). No matter what happened to both brothers at each of they funerals, it left Creon as the king of Thebes. Creon decided tat Polynices was being unfair and disloyal to the kingdom and then did not approve of his burial. Creon argues over his burial with Antigone, on why he should not have a proper burial. Antigone then goes behind his back and covers her deceased brother back up.
”The scene well illustrates wherein Creon has altered for the worse.

His feet have trodden so long the crooked ways of statecraft that he has lost the capacity to walk straight. His moral vision is warped, so that he no longer distinguishes between right and wrong. Ever insensitive to the suffering of others, he has reached the point where the feelings and claims of the individual count for nothing as against the demands of political expediency. Yet the garments of falsehood and hypocrisy fit him ill, and one glimpses beneath them the square built outline of the earlier Creon. He is not the natural villain, but the honest man gone wrong.” (Peterkin

269).
The part where Peterkin says, “He is not the natural villain, but the honest man gone wrong” (269), is a splendid example because no one is truly evil inside. People just make bad mistakes in life and Creon’s happened to take a mans life, a traitor’s life. One bad mistake can lead to many people saying that you are evil and dead inside, but sometimes it is just an honest mistake. No one person is evil, they are just a man with out a sense of direction.
Finally, Sophocles’ Antigone comes at you with a different twist to the play.

Antigone comes out as the only one in Thebes that will speak up about Polynices burial. Creon has no room in his kingdom for people that put private matters above the other people of the common good. He wants no part of what Antigone is doing t her brother and thinks that what she is doing, she should be put to death for it. “(Chorus) There is a certain reverence for piety. But for him in authority, he cannot see that authority defied; it is own self-willed temper that has destroyed you.” (Sophocles 1587). Creon is used in this play as the bad guy or antagonist. He does not want Antigone’s brother to have the proper burial because he betrayed all the common people when in battle. The twos play use Creon in the same light but with different words and different

insight.
In conclusion, Creon in both, Anouilh’s and Sophocles’ versions of Antigone are similar in the way they share their ideas but different in the way they portray them. Creon, king of Thebes, has one job to do and that’s to make the common people feel safe and controlled. Antigone has gone under his head and did something she should not have done but did because it was her brother who was dead. Creon used the same reason why in both plays on why he disapproved of the burial of Polynices. He was a traitor and someone who could not be trusted to be the next king of Thebes. Eteocles was trusted so he got the proper burial that a king should have. Creon was not a hero, but he was also, not a villain. He was just a normal guy that made one simple mistake and it took the life of a future king of his kingdom.