A tragic hero according to Aristotle is a man or woman of high standing who is capable of great suffering, and who possesses many admirable characteristics, but who is brought to destruction by a single flaw in character. We accept this downfall as we see it as a result of the flaw a certain release of emotion. A catharsis is achieved as we apply the character flaw to our own experiences. Based on this, Antigone is considered a tragic hero. Antigone is high standing. She was the child of Jocasta and Oedipus and Jocasta was the queen of thebes and Oedipus was the king after Laius was killed. Laius was actually Oedipus’ father so technically Antigone had a royal grandmother (Jocasta) and grandfather (Oedipus), a royal mother (Jocasta) and father (Oedipus), and since Oedipus is also actually Antigone’s brother; her blood contains only royal blood. All of this makes Antigone very high standing because she is pure royal blood. Antigone is capable of great suffering because her parents are both …show more content…
She was to loyal and this ultimately got her killed. She was so loyal to her family, specifically her brother, that she had to make sure both her brothers got the proper burial they deserved. She did all she could to make sure of this even though it was illegal and she knew she would be caught and punished, but she didn’t care. Loyalty is generally not a flaw, but in the circumstances that Antigone was in, it is a flaw because it is what led to her demise. Creon ordered that Polyneices was not to be buried, but because of her loyalty to her family, she went against the rules and did not care who knew. She willingly went against the law because she was driven by her loyalty, and because of this she was thrown into the cave where she was to starve to death. Seeing no way out, she committed suicide. So, through a sequence of consequences stemming from her extreme loyalty, she met her