Similarities Between Antigone And Creon

In Sophocles’ Antigone, the embodiment of a tragic hero or tragic heroine is personified by two contrasting characters, Creon and Antigone. This comparison establishes a controversial theme that prevails on the true quality and conduct of the “tragic protagonist.” Despite similar efforts to exceed human limitations and ascend to the status of divine authority, Creon and Antigone suffer from personal weaknesses and downfalls, which allow them to partake in tragic actions that provoke the debate whether their character’s execution of the role of a tragic hero is far more superior to the other. On behalf of Aristotle’s criteria, Creon is presumed to be a tragic hero because of his hubris, unfortunate demise, and more specifically, recognition

of his tragic flaw. However, Aristotle’s false impression of Creon contradicts the play, which bears Antigone’s name, and denies her existence as an accepted Aristotelian Tragic Heroine. Not only is Antigone an epic heroine by virtue of Aristotle’s standards but, she also is an ideal tragic heroine on modern grounds of feminist ethics.
In his literary theory, Poetics, Aristotle asserts six major elements that compose his Theory of a Tragic Hero/Heroine. The first five reveal essential qualities of the heroic protagonist including, intelligence, nobility, hamartia, peripeteia and anagnorosis. However, the final component exploits the traits of the hero in order to stimulate feedback and arouse feelings among the audience or readers, usually known as catharsis. Surprising to many, the royal princess, Antigone, represents the ultimate tragic heroine as each of her distinct characteristics coincides with the general features of an Aristotelian Tragic Heroine. Since a Tragic Hero/Heroine is an emblem of human frailty, Antigone portrays a victim of hamartia and withholds high expectations as she believes the Gods will always award her in their favor. Regardless of being an adamant follower of the divine rules and advocate of justice for all, Antigone’s elevated expectations for the blessing and protection of the gods foreshadow her destiny waiting to be consummated by a tragic demise.
Exemplary of the first trait of a tragic heroine, Antigone exposes her immense wisdom and rectifies Creon’s edict of forbidding her brother’s burial through divine rule.

Antigone pursues a life guided by divine law, in which she is subservient to each and every proclamation of the Gods and preserves her virtuous destiny. By embracing an honorable reputation in compensation for protection from the gods, Antigone convinces herself that she possesses the intelligence and greatness to disobey Creon’s civil orders and perform a sacred burial for her brother, Polyneices. For example, Antigone denounces Creon’s edict of providing Eteocles with a holy burial, while leaving Polyneices to rot above land and be devoured by birds. She even insists that the risk of death by punishment neither, instills fear nor proceeds as a burden, in which her brother’s burial will satiate her need for greater glory. Determined to bury her beloved brother for the sake of piety and morality, Antigone states, “I shall suffer nothing so great as to stop me dying with honor” (Sophocles 25). Aware of her dedication and devotion to sanctity, Antigone deems it unacceptable for an injustice to strike her family, without the perpetrator of the injustice being punished by the gods. She refuses to surrender to Creon’s power as she knows his mandates deceive and belittle the gods. Therefore, as Antigone entrusts her destiny in the hands of the divine powers, she also confides in their absolute authority, cleverly

anticipating their gratitude in return for when she encounters trouble.
The second trait of nobility holds true to Antigone’s ancestry as she is the daughter of Oedipus, the prior King of Thebes.

Admired and adored within her native land, Antigone is held on the “high pedestal of justice” by the citizens of Thebes, who are represented by the chorus (Sophocles 53). More importantly, Antigone’s act of betrayal shocks Creon as he wills for her to become the new bride of his son, Haemon. However, although Antigone is highly revered, she realizes her family is tainted by miserable fates and that her origin emerges from the incestuous evils of her mother and father. Recalling the unavoidable pain and suffering of her parents, she states “You speak of my darkest thought, my pitiful father’s fame, spread through all the world, and the doom that haunts our house, the glorious house of Labdacus” (Sophocles 53). The unfortunate experiences of constant doom and grief as a child oblige Antigone to carry out a sense of integrity for her family through the acts of Polyneices’ burial, as well as her own death. Seeking justice and honor in a crude and abrupt manner, Antigone uses her noble stature to defend her brother’s burial, causing the chorus to proclaim her fierce disposition as a resemblance of her father. Antigone will not yield to trouble, even if her fate foresees greater suffering. In fact, she summons the gods of her father’s land as witnesses to the cruel suffering she, the last line of royalty, is forced to endure by her own people. Despite her

tragic ruin, the citizens of Thebes still regard Antigone as a goddess and profess their love by stating, “Yet even in death you will have your fame, to have gone like a god to your fate, in living and dying alike” (Sophocles 52).
The third trait of a tragic heroine reveals Antigone’s hamartia, also known as a tragic flaw or error in judgment, which leads to her downfall. Not only does Antigone reject Creon’s edict by burying Polyneices with a sacred ritual, but she also defies his royal power as king. Antigone’s shrewd action of criticizing Creon’s attempt to succeed over divine order uncovers his faults of obstinacy, and more importantly, exposes her tragic flaw of arrogance. Throughout their dispute, Antigone states, “Nor did I think your orders were so strong that you, a mortal man, could overrun the gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws” (Sophocles 37). For that reason, she has no acknowledgement of the hierarchy of kings and citizens, only for the dominant gap between mortals and gods, in which she emphasizes the subordinate position of civil law to divine law. Still, Antigone’s arrogance impels her to believe that her virtuous lifestyle will encourage the Gods to salvage her from any harm and misery. In fact, she hopes the divine powers proclaim her sanctity when she ridicules Creon to be a fool and boasts about her death as a gain to the gods. Likewise, as Antigone’s hubris overpowers her to bring about a catastrophic downfall, she confesses that she is not to blame for Creon’s impiety and therefore, should be saved by the gods for her self-righteousness. She states, “I stand convicted of impiety, the evidence my pious duty done. If the gods think that this is righteous, in suffering I’ll see my error clear” (Sophocles 55).
The fourth trait of peripeteia is the reversal of fortune, in which a tragic heroine is moved by an inner flaw and encounters a downfall, resulting in a loss of dignity. In the case of Antigone, her own arrogance and hubris provokes her ruin as she is stripped of her royal privilege as Haemon’s wife and sentenced to be buried alive in a tomb. Antigone’s disobedience and insolence renders her a victim of hamartia. Prior to her death sentence, Antigone was a princess beloved by the citizens of Thebes, to which she was driven by divine justice and pious morality. In fact, the chorus praises her respect towards both, the living and dead and views her as a lovely bride-to-be. Although Antigone abides divine law to the fullest of her capacities, her decision to deride civil law and hold high expectations of the absolute gods causes the deterioration of her valued life. She states, “Unwept, no wedding-song, unfriended, now I go down the road made ready for me” (Sophocles 53). Therefore, Antigone is deprived of her royal lineage, marriage, and future children, as well as abandoned in her marriage chamber to perish for her insubordination. Once considered a goddess of divine morals, Antigone is now exiled from life on Earth and constrained to her fate in a vault of death.
The fifth trait of the tragic heroine reflects the process of anagnorisis, in which the heroine endures a series of tragic events in order to obtain a clear revelation of their own hamartia, human nature and destiny. Despite the fact some critics believe Antigone undergoes no sense of recognition and therefore, is not an Aristotelian Tragic Heroine, Antigone is aware of the consequences that arise from her rebellious actions. For instance, as Antigone awaits her death, she demonstrates acceptance towards her irreversible fate and lives out the rest of her time with honor. She may be alone but, Antigone confesses she understands no friend will remain by her side to bemoan her grief and misery. Antigone recognizes the impact of her tragic actions as she sings her own funeral song, lamenting her cursed existence of dying unwed and the destruction of her life. She states, “No marriage bed, no marriage song for me, and since no wedding, so no child to rear. I go, without a friend, struck down by fate, living, to the hollow chambers of death” (Sophocles 54). Even though she denies her conviction of impiety, she succumbs to her decision of defying state decree and admits it was for the sake of the last brother she could ever have. Antigone justifies her disobedience on the basis that she can always find a new husband and conceive more children. However, it is impossible for her parents, who have passed away, to give birth to another brother. Antigone indirectly accepts her flaws and states:

.