Creon Tragic Hero Research Paper

What characteristics makes a person Sophocles’s true meaning of a tragic hero? In order to be a tragic hero you must have Hamartia, Hubris, Peripeteia, Anagnorisis, Nemisis, and Catharsis. Two exceptional examples of a tragic hero are the characters Creon from Sophocles’s Antigone and Okonkwo from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. These two characters compared against any other tragic hero is no match, but compared against each other is another story. One shows more characteristics of a tragic hero than the other. The one that excels is Creon with an overpowering Peripeteia, a sudden change in circumstances. Okonkwo and Creon both have a Nemisis, but Creon’s exceeds more than Okonkwo’s. One of the biggest qualities Creon has and Okonkwo doesn’t

Creon tends to have more qualities of a tragic hero. One quality Creon has shown more than Okonkwo is Peripeteia. Peripeteia is a character having a sudden reversal or change in circumstances and point of view. In Antigone, Creon has Peripeteia when he talks to Teiresias who says to him “then understand this who's will not see the sun race through its cycle many times before you lose a child of your own loins, a corpse in payment for these corpses” (Sophocles, 1193-1195). Teiresias has given Creon an insight of the consequences of leaving Antigone in the dark cave to her death. Creon has the choice of believing this prophecy or not caring about it at all. With council of the chorus, he decides it’s better to be safe than sorry changing the circumstances for Creon, “come all you servants, each and everyone of you. Come on. Bring axes with you. Go there quickly- up to higher ground. I’ve changed my mind” (Sophocles, 1241-1243). Unlike Okonkwo, who only has a minor shift in point of view towards the end of the book. His view change after he witnesses what the people think of him after killing the white messenger, “they had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: "Why did he do it?" (Achebe, ?) Okonkwo doesn’t change his mind once it’s settled on a circumstance, giving Creon the better

Catharsis is the process of releasing and thereby providing relief from strong or repressed emotions after the downfall. In Antigone, after Antigone is found dead in the tomb, Haemon is distraught about her death that he kills himself to be with his fiance “Haemon has been killed. No stranger has shed his blood” (Sophocles, 1305-1306). Haemon his only living offspring with wife Eurydice has killed himself, just like said by prophet Teiresias. Soon after Haemon’s suicide, Eurydice kills herself too. Creon has begun to feel this heavy burden on his shoulders. All these deaths started because of his one choice to send Antigone to the cave. His emotions are being poured out “alas for me… the guilt for all of this is mine- it can never be removed from e or passed to any other mortal man” (Sophocles, 1463-1465). Creon is feeling numerous emotions after his downfall. Unlike Creon who has a Catharsis, Okonkwo doesn’t experience this moment of Catharsis as he should for being the tragic hero in Things Fall Apart. Instead Okonkwo experiences his death as his downfall, “then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo's body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” (Achebe, ?). Due to Okonkwo’s downfall being his death, Catharsis was out of the question. Leaving Creon to be the ultimate tragic