In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, Creon is the king of Thebes. He is highly regarded and looked up to. He is a fair ruler and he does well to capture his peoples trust. However, Creon’s excessive pride leads to his downfall. He does not realize what his fate is because he is too busy trying to get revenge on Polynices. Creon’s hamartia, or fatal flaw, is his inability to listen to anyone. He is too stubborn and self-centered to listen to the people telling him that what he is doing will lead him to destruction. When someone tells him what he is doing may be wrong, he turns his cheek and ignores them. Creon’s son, Haemon, tells his father that he should let Antigone go. Haemon states, “A State for one man is no State at all.” Haemon …show more content…
Tiresias tells Creon that he has no more choice. What’s done is done and it now cannot be fixed. This is what it takes to get Creon to realize what he has done. Creon has realized that the prophet, and his son, were right the whole time and that his hubris blinded him. Creon says “I have been rash and foolish.” Creon’s realization becomes even clearer when both his son and his wife kill themselves. When he finds out about the suicides he says, “I am the guilty cause. I did the deed.” He finally admits that he was in the wrong and that his destruction is ultimately his own fault. This has the audience left with pity for Creon. If he had just realized his mistake earlier on he would not have lost his loved ones. When Sophocles ended the play how he did, he purposefully left the audience with no closure. The audience is left with a Catharsis of pity. Creon experiences each stage that a tragic hero would. His fatal flaw is his inability to listen to anyone due to his hubris. His tragic fate is the destruction of everything he loves. His anagnorisis is when Tiresias tells him he has no other option and the fate he has been given cannot be reversed. Overall, Creon’s excessive pride is his ultimate downfall and also the main reason for being labeled as the tragic hero of