Character Foils In Antigone

Embedded Assessment: The Foil of Tragic Hero Creon

Foils are characters that contrast with one another to highlight particular qualities of those specific characters. Tiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes, functions as a foil throughout Sophocles’s Antigone, by telling Creon he is doomed and will not be able to escape fate. In the Oedipus the King along with Antigone , Tiresias reveals unwanted truths about Creon and Oedipus. Although he is the blind prophet, his ability to “see” beyond the present, Tiresias first accuses Oedipus of killing his father in Oedipus Rex and proceeds to tell Creon in Antigone that his laws will cause more harm to his land and death to his family. However, instead of learning from Oedipus’s mistakes, Creon rejects

Creon cares extremely about his country of Thebes and creates his own laws. He mentions that, “There's been a group of grumblers in this town: men who can hardly abide by my rule, who nod and whisper, chafing beneath my law, who are not in love with it at all,” (Sophocles, 203). He speaks these words with anger towards whoever disobeys him. His extreme love for his country shows his noble stature which causes him to punish those who do not love Thebes as passionately as he does. Creon has the appearance of good, but when he chooses to not bury Polyneices, which goes against the beliefs of the Gods by not honoring him, he shows his tragic flaw. He says, “But Polyneices, killed as piteously, an interdict forbids that anyone should bury him or even mourn.” (192). Through disobeying the Gods, Creon implies that his laws are more important than the Gods. Creon’s disregard towards the Gods, explains why he dismisses Tiresias’s power. Creon’s overall power grants him his free will. He says, “I know. You point the horns of my dilemma. It's hard to eat my words, but harder still to court catastrophe through overriding pride.” (240). Creon tells the Leader that even though Tiresias has shown the truth of his actions, he cannot admit them or change them because he has no power left, no free will. The amount of chaos that Creon has caused forces such a harsh punishment upon him. Tiresias warns him to