Kelly Chian 6 December 10, 2014 Reflection/ Ms. Volksen Born Stubborn In J.E. Thomas’s translation of Sophocles’s Antigone written in 441 BCE, Creon is a tragic hero that reaches his demise. Creon is the antagonist in this play as he is stubborn to not follow the views of a higher law instead of the rational laws created for the city when he does not allow the burial of Polynices. This causes a set of chain reactions that lead to Creon’s son and wife dying. At the end, Creon realizes his mistakes and asks to be exiled. Creon’s strong sense of stubbornness decreases throughout the play is evident in Sophocles’s use of rhetorical questions, opposition, and superlatives. Sophocles crafts Creon to speak with varying amounts and types questions to show his change in stubbornness. At the start of the play, Creon speaks with mostly statements with few questions. However, as more people question his judgement, Creon starts to ask questions. Creon asks questions directed at others with an implied answer with a sarcastic tone such as “What do you say? What man has dared to do this” “why do you care where my pain is located?” “Why then this honor insulting to him?” (252, 328, 529). Additional to the questions, he asks rhetorical questions like “what would could be worse than a bad friend?“Why should I still …show more content…
Creon creates an either or fallacy of either following his ideals or failing to do so which results in dire consequences. Creon gives two options with no compromising or flexibility such as “top to bottom”, “buried” and “unburied”, “life and death”, “vengeance” and “honor” (204, 208, 209, 214, 653,654). After realization of his mistakes, Creon no longer speaks in oppositions. Creon only speaks of himself and what he is going through and not the extremes in his commands and statements. The change from using oppositions and not using any shows Creon becoming more