Who Is Creon A Tragic Hero

The King of Pride Throughout history, kings have been seen as noble, wealthy, or even stuck up. Usually people don’t think someone with so much, could end up with so little. Antigone by Sophocles, and Poetics by Aristotle can help with understanding what a tragic hero is. Antigone is about a girl with the title name, who defies the law and buries her brother after the King, Creon declares it illegal. Creon sends Antigone off to her death, losing his own son and wife soon after. It may seem like Antigone is the tragic hero, but she isn’t. A tragic hero has excessive pride, loses many people close to them, and is physically or spiritually wounded by what happens. Creon displays these traits and more. As stated in Poetics by Aristotle, “The hero must have a weakness, usually it is pride.” Poetics also says, “Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so the audience can see themselves in him.” Creon has

Tiresias, the blind prophet, tried to warn Creon that putting Antigone to death would ruin his life. Creon didn’t listen, but then thought he’d listen and set free Antigone, only to see she’d killed herself and his son dead at his own hand. His wife then killed herself shortly after, and he knew it was all his fault. He said, “Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust.” (Sophocles 724) In that statement, it proves he is aware that what he’s done has led him to now. What is also learned is that he had an older son that was killed before this story took place, in the same battle that caused the deaths of both of Antigone’s brothers. He begs for death, but the Choragos states that he has to live with all the guilt in what he’s done and that his time will come when it comes. Pride had clouded his judgement for some time, and it took the death of his family for him to realize that he was