Creon In Sophocles Antigone

In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, the characters face tragedy, and in every tragic play there is a tragic hero. A tragic hero must accommodate the following five elements; noble stature, tragic flaw, free choice, excessive punishment, and finally, increased awareness. There are two strong characters in the play, Creon the King and Antigone the princesses, that consist of those elements, all but one, the final element, increased awareness. The character that embraces all five elements of a tragic hero is Creon. Creon has the increased awareness of discovering the outcome of his choices, unlike Antigone who dies without ever knowing what her choices got herself into. Creon realizes that his tragic fall, was due to his pride. Creones noble

His choice to kill Antigone creates a problem with his son, Haemon, who disagrees with the course that his father is leading into being the murder of his fianće. Haemon expresses his anger when the character reveals "She'll not die with me just standing there. And as for you- your eyes will never see my face again" (Sophocles scene 3: 871-873). When the character Creon is being unreasonable, he losses the relationship he shares with his son. For instance when Creon witnesses his son "While still conscious he embraced the girl in his weak arms, and, as he breathed his last, he coughed up streams of blood on her fair cheek. Now he lies there, corpse on corpse, his marriage has been fulfilled in chambers of the dead" (Sophocles exodos: 1378-1382). With Creon's determination to hold control over other people, the more suffering and damage he will cause not only for his people, as well as

As Creon realizes what he was carrying out, and trying to undo the actions he formed, it was to late for him to make a difference as demonstrated "Now all is gone. For when a man has lost what gives him pleasure, i don't include him among the living- he's a breathing corpse" (Sophocles exodos:1253-1255). Sophocles demonstrates to the audience the action the Creon's wife took once she learned about the tragic events, "Stabbed with a sharp sword at the altar, she let her darkening eyesight fail, once she cried out in sorrow for glorious fate of Megareus, who died some time ago, and then again for haemon, and then, with her last breath, she called out evil things against you, the killer of your sons" (Sophocles exodos: 1445-1452). Creon has earned the fate of losing his family to his