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Pride And Arrogance In Antigone

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“The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance” (Samuel Butler).
In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, Creon is the tragic hero due to his dramatic actions. By the end of the play, Creon’s error in judgement causes his downfall. His ignorance begins to fade away as he recognizes his mistakes, but is too late. His decisions led him down a path in which there was no return, sealing his fate. All poor decisions lead to poor consequences, and in the case of Creon, his untimely downfall is a result of his own behavior. Creon’s stubbornness and pride are so overpowering that he cannot convince himself of his wrong doings. When confronted by Choragus, Creon truly believes that “This is [his] command, and [Choragus] …show more content…

Towards the beginning of the story when Creon wants to punish her for burying her brother, Antigone begs him to kill her, as “[His] talking is a great weariness.” (2.95) Not only is she trying to show disrespect by rushing the king, but is doing so arrogantly, putting herself above him for that brief moment. Although she starts off in the play as this naive and arrogant character, towards the end she develops a sort of humility and knowledge that she is doomed in a fate out of her control. She realizes fate is “Operative for ever, beyond man utterly. [Antigone] knew [she] must die...” (2.64). She accepts knowledge of her end, and lives on with it. As these are some valid points, Creon is the true tragic hero due to his fiery arrogance and even more drastic change in character. When in a heated argument with Ismene and Antigone, he makes a furious remark to the two girls claiming that ”One has just now lost her mind; the other, It seem, has never had a mind at all,” (2.149-150). No noble or fair king would reply in that sense, as it is both disrespectful and mean-spirited. On the other hand, he does go through a humiliating change at the end, now believing in fate and having to face the fact that "[It] has brought all [his] pride to a thought of dust.”(Exodos.138). He is now no longer the snarky, selfish king, but now a melancholy one, rendered helpless by the wrath of the

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The reason that it caused his downfall was because he never listened to the advice other people gave him. He has a very big ego which caused him to do things his own way, without consulting any advisors for help. One instance is when Creon says, “I am the kind of man when Creon says “I am the kind of man who can’t find and never could abide the tongue-tied ruler through fear backs away from sound advice” because he is basically trying to say that

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In the past prideful rulers have caused more destruction and downfall than anything. Having pride may be good, but having to much can be the downfall of man. In the play Antigone, King Creon being overyly prideful ultimately leads to the death of himself emotionally. Creon shows a couple of occasions when he has way to much pride; when Antigone and he sister are condemned to death for trying to give burial rights to their brother, but Creon has them arrested and does not care even though he is related to them.

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In the short story titled “Antigone,” the author portrays Creon as a tragic hero by displaying flaws in Creon's character shown throughout the story. Creon’s character contains many flaws which lead to many problems. His decisions end up deciding the fates of his son, his wife, and Antigone. Creon finally realizes that what he has done is sinful to the gods. He has put his own pride over the appreciation of the gods.

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Antigone’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character by showing

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Creon sometimes makes bad decisions but since he can do whatever he pleases everyone has to endure the consequences of that decision. When things do not play out perfectly to the way Creon ordered he gets extremely frustrated because he can’t control everything. That is the root of most of his

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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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Against the warning of others, Creon goes on with his plan to essentially sentence Antigone to her death. Creon continually ignores what others counsel him to do because he believes that just because he is king, everything he does is right. It is this thinking that ultimately leads to the death of not only Antigone, but also Creon’s son and wife as well. All tragic heroes suffer from a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. Creon suffers from two tragic flaws, pride and stubbornness.

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In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Creon, the king of Thebes, best represents a tragic hero. Creon demonstrates goodness in his intentions for Thebes as well as his fragile state due to the fact that he recently lost several family members. Creon, newly named king, finds himself as highest ranking official around, showing superiority. Creon often acts stubborn and prideful, his tragic flaw. And lastly, he must come to terms with the fact that he caused the death of his wife, son, and niece.

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“Humble yourself or life will do it for you,” is a common quote used by many. This idea of being humble to avoid consequences applies well to the book Antigone by Sophocles. It shows how if one has too much pride, they will be humbled in one way or another. In Antigone, Creon had tunnel vision, not listening to anyone. His fatal flaw was hubris, ultimately leading to the downfall of him.

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Creon exhibits great pride in his decisions since he believes that everything he says or does is in the well interest of everyone when in reality that is not the case. Creon wants to be a great king , one who has control over his people, but while trying to be a great king he ends up misusing his power. His power becomes his pride ,and his unwillingness to listen to others. As a result his wife commits suicide in the grief of her son whom Creon had not listened to. The messenger claims , “And for Haimon dead, her sons; and her last breath Was a curse for their father, the murder of her sons.

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Jaanvi Shah Mr. Eyre English 9 March, 2015 Literary Analysis of Antigone John Foster says, “pride comes before fall.” As the action of the Sophocles 's Antigone unfolds, it is clear that the protagonist Creon has all the six characteristics of a tragic hero. Teiresias interactions with Creon help to demonstrate three of those typical traits: Creon’s noble stature, his tragic flaw of having pride and arrogance, and his free choice that makes his downfall his own fault. Creon, the King of Thebes, accords with Aristotle’s theory of a tragic hero beginning as powerful distinguished and important person.

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(Scene 1, Line 114-117) in a very vilely way. By this quote, we can know that Creon’s attitude to Choragos shows his fatal flaw. Another example of Creon’s overconfidence is when Haemon and Creon were having a conversation. When Haemon was talking about what Creon did was wrong, Creon says, “And the

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Countless times, Creon was implored to change his mind to preserve the safety of others. However, due to his uncompromising and egocentric nature, he repeatedly denied this aid, and therefore caused the tragedies of the deaths of his niece and his son. The events that occurred in the play Antigone accurately represent the characteristics of a tragic flaw and subsequent suffering that define a

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Creon endures one of the worst feelings possible; losing his family from his own actions. All of Creon’s foolish and prideful actions literally caused the death of his family. Creon himself even acknowledges what he has done. Creon states, “It is right that it should be.

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Creon realizes it’s too late his mistakes, and now that he lost his family, he realizes he should of listened. All his family dead, he is now alone because he was blinded by his pride that he didn't listen. He realized too late of all the consequences that his ignorance brought upon him. Throughout the play Antigone by Sophocles Creon is seen as a tragic hero, due to the fact that he is rude to others when they try to talk to him and acts childish when insulting others.

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