Antigone Book Report

Antigone is a tragic play about two sisters, a tyrant, and the bond between them and their families. Antigone is devoted to the son of Creon, and they are soon to be married. Because Antigone buried her brother against the will of Creon, he wants her dead. Haemon, Son of Creon, is very disappointed with his father, and he politely rejects his ideology of punishing Antigone. In his blind rage, Creon dismisses his own son with insults. The young couple responds by committing suicide, and Creon is devastated by his own doing. Antigone is a play about the humanization of Creon, Tyrant of Thebes, because he is very unreasonable at the beginning; he refuses to listen to the pleas of his loved ones, and he realizes his mistakes in the end. Creon decides to not bury the

This shows his lack of humanity because he is treating them as if they are slaves or not even human beings. A guard comes to report that someone has attempted to honor and bury the body of Antigone’s sister, and in his rage, Creon threatens the guard with horrible things. Creon says, “If you don’t find the man who curried that corpse, the very man, and produce him before my eyes, simple death won’t be enough for you, not till we string you up alive and wring the immortality out of you”(Page74 line 350). This quotation takes place near the beginning of the book after Antigone attempts to bury the body of her brother. Creon is expressing his disappointment to the guard by threating him torture. This shows Creon’s lack of humanity because he is treating the guard very horribly even though he is performing his job well. The guard chooses to report the act even though it puts some automatic blame on him. He is just trying to complete his job and avoid punishment. Creon refuses to treat him with respect, and he demoralizes and scares him. Another scene that represents Creon’s lack of humanity in the beginning is when the chorus compares his fate to