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Antigone By Creon: A Tragic Hero

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According to Princeton University’s WordNet.web, a hero is someone of exceptional courage and strength. In the words of the great playwright Aristotle, “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” In most cases, tragic heroes have a high class in their society, but their character flaw causes their downfall in society. In the play Antigone, Creon exemplifies the traits of a tragic hero because his excessive pride led to his downfall; the chain of events that happened to Creon also caused the audience to feel deep pity for Creon.
In terms of literature, a flaw is the specific character trait ¬that brings the downfall of the character. Creon’s tragic flaws are stubbornness, arrogance, and pride. All his actions …show more content…

The idiom, “grass to grass” basically means to do act wrongly and lose a strong reputation. During his ruler ship as King, Creon forgot to perform his main duty which is to serve the people based on their needs & wants. Instead, Creon did whatever his heart pleased. Creon had to endure a major change in his society because he took the fall from the good grace of a noble, respected king. He punished Antigone to live in a cavern in the rocks to starve to death. “…I have heard them/ Muttering and whispering in the dark about this girl…no woman has ever, unreasonably, / Died for such an unreasonable act…She should have all the honor we can give her”(Scene 3, Lines 61-68). Even the townsmen and villagers were beginning to question Creon’s judgements; they slowly began to side with Antigone. The people under his authority see Creon as an unfit king; it foreshadows conflict and tragedy to take place to Creon. Antigone didn’t fit in well with the other members of her society, but Creon had a very high status as King. Creon’s excessive pride that wants control of everything leads to the fall from grace Creon is about to

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In this scene, Haemon confronts Creon over his merciless treatment of Antigone and Creon’s reaction is to explode into an ageist themed rant against his own son, in which Creon finally blows up and calls Haemon a “degenerate” for “bandying accusations” (lines 830-831) against him. Not only is Creon calling his own son an inexperienced, inadequate fool, he earlier in the scene describes Antigone as a “worthless woman” and tells Haemon to “show me the man who runs his household well” (lines 725-739). Each of these statements not only denounce a woman’s worth and status in comparison to a man, but also succeed in fluffing Creon’s ego when he follows with “I’ll show you someone fit to rule the state”(line 740), again stating how “qualified” and “adept” a ruler he believes himself to be. Shortly after this discussion, Creon changes Antigone's punishment from public stoning to being suffocated in a tomb. This change hints that Haemon’s words may have affected Creon enough to make him doubt the populaces affection for him.

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Creon is a very stubborn person, this leads him to make very harsh and rash decisions that he will eventually regret. “The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first.” This quote is explaining how Creon is very stubborn in his decisions and he will not change his mind. This leads to the fall of creon because him being stubborn causes most of his family to die. Creon eventually ends up sentencing Antigone to death.

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In the short story titled “Antigone,” the author portrays Creon as a tragic hero by displaying flaws in Creon's character shown throughout the story. Creon’s character contains many flaws which lead to many problems. His decisions end up deciding the fates of his son, his wife, and Antigone. Creon finally realizes that what he has done is sinful to the gods. He has put his own pride over the appreciation of the gods.

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All people can have power in our world, but only a few can have power and fewer can wield it with control in “Antigone”. Creon in the play “Antigone”, is the tragic hero because of the choices he makes and the way he acts. Creon is the tragic hero because he was born into nobility, responsible for his own fate, and doomed to make a serious error in judgement. Creon shows that he is the tragic hero in “Antigone” because he is born into nobility.

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In the book, Antigone, written by Sophocles The Oedipus Cycle, Creon is portrayed as a tragic hero. He literally came from the ground up. He was the despised one in the family that wasn’t really ever given much importance to. Creon was always living in the shadow of his big brother, Oedipus, which was the king of Thebes before Creon was. Straight off the bat you could noticed Creon’s hatred he would always feel against anyone and everyone who didn’t agree with him.

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In this quote, she is trying to harn Creon that although he thinks very highly of himself, he will never be able to anything to disrupt the gods and their unwritten laws (being that all men deserve burial). Additionally, the word choice and tone used by the characters also differs. When Creon talks he makes it clear that he thinks of himself quite highly and is convinced that he is above everyone else because of his excessive pride and noble stature. This leads to a tone in his speech that is very obnoxious and off-putting. To the contrary, Antigone regards herself quite low and stands for

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Almost always, in Greek tragedies a “tragic hero” has a hamartia, or tragic flaw, which will cause their concluding demise. In the Greek playwright, Antigone written by Sophocles, the interesting character, Creon, is a prime example of this. According the Aristotle’s theory, to be a tragic hero you have to have three traits: a flaw, a fall, and acceptance of your current situation. Creon’s flaw is his ego, which blinds him and lures him to do rather profane activities. Due to Creon’s ego, him losing everything caused by that very hamartia, and acceptance of the series of unfortunate events that occurred; Creon is the tragic hero in Antigone

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All of these three reasons are connected to each other, when Creon has too much of self-righteousness and too much of a pride because he is a king, he does not listen to others and so the problems occur. So, all the things that he did comes back to him and strike him hard. He lost all his love ones, his son killed himself, his wife cursed him of as being the killer of her son before she died. Also, Antigone has to die because of him, his characteristic of a tragic hero in this tragedy in not to follow. We can learn from Creon that do not make ourselves higher than other and be self-centered.

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Against the warning of others, Creon goes on with his plan to essentially sentence Antigone to her death. Creon continually ignores what others counsel him to do because he believes that just because he is king, everything he does is right. It is this thinking that ultimately leads to the death of not only Antigone, but also Creon’s son and wife as well. All tragic heroes suffer from a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. Creon suffers from two tragic flaws, pride and stubbornness.

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Creon is a powerful king who is suffering from the burdens of rule. He gets lost somewhere in between family values and his authority in the kingdom. His son Haemon falls in love with Antigone. When Antigone does a wrong, he feels as if he has no other choice but to sentence her to her execution.

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Another example of a tragic flaw is “Romeo and Juliet”. Where Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight and are known as star crossed lovers. Romeo started believing on his fate. Juliet acts like she is dead so therefore

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The reader feels pity for Creon for his lack of time to grieve and his tragic mistake that led to the loss of his family, this demonstrates his goodness. Creon, recently succeeded to take the throne of Eteocles, making him king. Therefore, giving him the title of royalty and showing superiority. His power and control over Thebes makes him important, and this power and importance leads to a lack of mercy for criminals.. CREON. I have summoned you here this morning because I know that I can depend on you: your devotion to King Laius was absolute; you never hesitated in your duty to our late ruler Oedipus; and

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Creon’s decisions have lead him to lose his son and his wife, which is where his downfall begins. Creon becomes the tragic hero because he has endured pain from the deaths of his family. By not listening to Teiresias or anyone, but only to himself because he believes what he is doing is right, the death of his loved ones were

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Of course, the king 's pride clouds his judgment and leads to his utter downfall and cataclysmic realization of his faults. Through his story, it is evident that Creon is the tragic hero of the story Antigone because he exhibits the traits of stature, hamartia, and catharsis. Antigone, Ismene, Haimon, Eurydice, and a strong kingdom all stand tall by Creon as his most prized possessions loving family. Resembling all things in life, these valuables were not easily gained- but can be easily lost. Though he may not know it or appreciate it, Creon has many personal assets in his life which exhibits his ability to lose something.

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Antigone’s love is so great for her brother that she went against the king and buried him with religious rights. Then Haemon kills himself because Antigone had died and he wanted to be with her. In the end Creon’s wife killed herself because her son had died. Creon is perceived as the tragic hero of the play when he is talking

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