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Consequences In Sophocles 'Theban Play Antigone'

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Emotional Consequences
The primary leader of India’s Independence, Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.” Supporting Gandhi, if someone lets their anger and intolerance control how they perceive things, they won’t understand the correct point of view. In the Theban play Antigone, written by the Greek philosopher, Sophocles, the King of Thebes, Creon, refuses to properly bury the dead body of his nephew, thus he cannot pass on to his after life. Creon’s niece, Antigone, challenges Creon to bury her brother, but when he doesn’t, she buries him herself and gets punished. Creon continues to make irrational decisions, leading to his son and wife’s death. As a result of Creon’s intense emotions …show more content…

As the King of Thebes, Creon must act tough when talking upon his people to get the full effect of power. When Haemon tried to persuade his father to allow the burial of Polyneices, he spoke in a tone that the people of Thebes would use with their King. He respectfully asks his father to consider the ideas of a proper burial and Creon responds, “ How, if I tolerate/ A traitor at home, shall I rule those abroad?” (144). He is contemplating that if he “tolerates” Antigone’s rebellious behavior by allowing her to bury her brother, the people of Thebes will lose respect and consider him as a weak leader. Understandably, Creon uses the tone of anger throughout the conversation because it provides him with a look of authority. If he acts angry, the people he is talking to will become scared and listen to his demands without question. Therefore, because of Creon’s anger, he does things that hurt the people around him, as well as hurting himself. Creon decides that he wants Antigone to die, and wants Haemon to be there when she does, “Bring out that she-devil, and let her die/ Now, with her bridegroom by to see it done!” (147). He calls Antigone a “she-devil”, that strong word choice displays how much anger Creon has towards Antigone, he is so angry that he goes as far as calling her the devil. Creon wants the “bridegroom”, or his son to watch Antigone die. He wants Haemon to witness

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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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His son haemon is supposed to marry Antigone so this draws the father and son apart. “Do you really intend to steal this girl from your son?” Choragos says. ”No death will do that for me.” Creon answers.

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He says in the story that he will not allow Antigone to change his mind and defy his judgment. Creon has too much pride and probably takes Antigone questioning his judgment as an insult to his authority being the king of Thebes. He doesn't want to make changes to his rule of letting Polyneices’ body rot and anyone who tries to bury him be stoned and look weak. Creon is foolish in his action and by choosing to not

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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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Pride can be one of man's strongest qualities. In Sophocles' play, Antigone, the Theme of pride becomes the cause for destruction for both Creon and Antigone in the play.. Creon's Pride blinds him to the injustice he commits against Antigone and the gods. Antigone's pride leaves her no choice but to be killed because of her beliefs. They Both automatically surrender to their own hubris and demonstrate how uncontrolled pride leads to personal downfalls and destruction in Antigone.

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Creon’s tragic flaw is his overwhelming ego. The series of events began to occur when Creon denied

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Haemon and his father have several disputes that show, Creon pushing his son away in order to show his dominance. Creon calls his son a “soul of corruption, rotten through” which just reflects how cruel Creon had become, even when talking to his own son (836). This will be the last argument the two have before Haemon kills himself due to neglect and longing for Antigone. The power of the crown causes Creon to act instinctively rather than reasonably when deciding Antigone's fate. His loyalty to his power becomes priority over his family, when he decrees his nephews burial illegal.

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Creon, with his hubris, does not listen to the words of his son, Haemon. When he reluctantly calls for the release of Antigone from her imprisonment, he is too late. She has died and Haemon kills himself after failing to kill his father. “Nothing you say can touch me any more. My own blind heart has brought me.

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When professor Linton brought forth the attention of anthropologists to the Nacirema culture there was a lot of things about their traditions that were different than that of our own, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also some similarities as well. As crude and vastly spiritual these people are it is rather impressive that they managed to survive for as long as they did living their rather extreme lifestyle. The people back then also had different social classes like we do now, they also had what we call surgeons to fix their imperfections, and they also have the same kind of cleanliness as we do when it comes down to our bodies. Some differences would be in their rituals we don’t go to those extremes to make sure we are okay spiritually. We also don’t believe that if we don’t take care of our teeth no one will love us.

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In contrast to this, in Antigone, Creon is a tyrant-like leader who lacked empathy and care for others. This can be seen as he forbid the burial of Polynices, which defied Greek custom. This act results in the death of Antigone, his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice (“Play Summary Antigone”). Contrary to Oedipus, Creon’s Hubris lead to a series of conscious actions that negatively affect the characters in the story. In the end, Creon can be seen to have learnt his lesson as the chorus states: “Of happiness the crown

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1136 Words | 5 Pages

Creon almost seemed like he wanted Haimon to be angry so he put Antigone in the vault. He couldn’t see that Haemon was in love and Antigone was just trying to honor the dead because of his hubris. Creon also says, “My own blind heart has brought me from darkness to final darkness.” This shows he knows he didn’t use his intelligence to solve his problems. He was already heading the wrong direction with his pride and it finally was too much.

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882 Words | 4 Pages

In lines 599 to 601, Creon’s states that, due to his selfishness and stubbornness, he will not allow a woman, that woman being Antigone, to change his mind and defy his judgement. He declares that, if Antigone chooses to not change her ways, she will be killed, as to not waver from his own decree. Antigone therefore dies as a result of Creon’s insufferable and ignorant ruling, causing her to suffer at Creon’s hand. Creon’s ruling for the murder of Antigone also causes Haemon to suffer. Creon finds Haemon, in his last moments, mourning the loss of Antigone, “now among the dead, his father’s work,” as described by the messenger in line 1364.

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Women are viewed as lower class, or “slaves”. So when Creon heard of Antigone’s actions, he is in disbelief and thinks her actions should be punished by death. In response to Creon ordering her to her death, she sneered, “Then I beg you: Kill me… I should have praise and honor for what I have done.” She has accepted consequences and is welcoming her fate of death. She is proud in the fact she buried her brother

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Creon was completely blinded by his pride and power that he lost those closest to him. Starting with his son... “Then she’ll die-- and in her death kill someone else. ”(Haemon; line 859). Creon thinks that his son is threatening him, and doesn’t pay attention to what his son is feeling towards Antigone.

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