The Destruction Of Creon In Sophocles Antigone

Sophocles, in Antigone, says in a world where man cannot determine what is right or wrong we should set aside pride, accept the wisdom of those wiser than us, and submit to the gods.

Pride is a curse that if left dwelling in a person, will skew their view of reality. Sophocles uses Creon as a prime example of the negative effects of pride as he makes poor decisions throughout the play. Creon’s own son Haemon realizes that he’s an extremely proud man. He tells this directly to Creon without sugar coating it that “Your [Creon’s] temper terrifies them- everyone will tell you only what you like to hear” (Scene 3 ll. 54-60). What Haemon is trying to say is that what people tell Creon isn’t necessarily true. The people that advise Creon only tell

Quite simply, Creon’s pride is based on nothing. He has nothing to back up what he says in the long run. The only factor supporting what he says is his authority. Even when the wisest person in the entirety of Thebes, Teiresias, is speaking to Creon, he denies that Teiresias has any credibility. Teiresias says “The only crime is pride” but Creon at this point isn’t even listening to him (Scene 5 l. 35). The wisest man known in Thebes, the man who speaks for the gods, is being discredited by Creon whose pride had devoured his life making him blind to any kind reason. Creon’s pride eventually goes so far that he doesn’t care his one and only son is leaving him when Haemon says “you will never see my face again.”(ll. 133-134). His pride destroys his relationship with his one and only son. This is the son that earlier in the play he’d been praising and loving. Rather than concerning himself with important things like family, Creon allows pride to devour his entire life. Sophocles uses Creon throughout the play as an example of how not to get too caught up in pride so that it skews your view of a clear world. Sophocles tells us through Creon that we must rid ourselves of pride before anything can be

Throughout the play, there was a constant battle between the laws of the gods and the laws of men. Antigone, however, sided with the laws of the gods. She showed no fear when being prosecuted because she believed that the “immortal unrecorded laws of the gods,” reigned higher than the laws of man and were “beyond man utterly”(Scene 2 ll. 57-63). Antigone was faced the charges against her because she knew there would be no immortal punishment waiting for her at the right hand of God. Even after Antigone was sentenced to be tucked away inside a cave for the rest of her life, she held fast to those laws saying “You will remember what things I suffer...because I would not transgress the laws of heaven”(Scene 4 ll. 78-80). Antigone never doubted that she was wrong. She always knew that she was correct in the eyes of the gods, and in the end, it was the god’s opinions that mattered. Unfortunately for Creon, however, he learned this fact too late. Creon believed that his law stood above and beyond the laws of the gods and that it must be obeyed. He only realized that he was wrong shortly after his son’s tragic death. Nonetheless, he learned that “The laws of the gods are mighty, and a man must serve them to the last day of his life” (Scene 5 ll. 107-108). Even Creon, after all the pain and suffering he’s gone through to ensure that Polyneices’ body isn’t