Who Is Responsible For Creon's Downfall

People think irrationally all the time. Sometimes it’s over something very minor like arguments over what they want to eat, but sometimes it can be as large as murder and crime. In Sophocles's play Antigone, Creon is the king of Thebes, and he has a tendency to act very irrationally. Acting on his immediate emotions, Creon displeased the gods when he refused to bury Polynices and when he sentenced Antigone to death. Teiresias warned Creon about the consequences of his actions, but he let his emotions get the better of him and he lost his family for it. He acted on his emotions, mainly anger and stubbornness, which eventually leads to his downfall. He didn’t use his logic before he made his actions, which supports the theme of the story, that

He doesn’t just want to ignore burial rites, but he goes further to disgrace Polynice by saying he’ll let dogs and vultures eat the body. Furthermore, Polynices is family to Creon, yet he still dishonors him terribly when families should be caring for each other. Even hated rivals in war gave each other proper burial rites, but Creon is so angry at Polynices he won’t let his own relative have one. To make matters worse, the gods expect burial rites to take place for everyone, and not doing so would be defying them. Defying the gods will make them upset at the disobedient person. Most of the time they punish disobedient people, and this is well known by every Greek and also the audience. By not burying Polynices due to his anger, Creon is facing the wrath of the gods, and their wrath always leads to a person’s downfall. Creon already knew that defying the gods would lead to severe punishment, as he witnessed the wrath of the gods on Oedipus for his adultery. Even with that knowledge, Creon refused to act rationally and let his anger over Polynices be his decision maker. The gods did punish Creon when they made his family all die, letting the audience know that using sudden, emotional actions instead of thinking rationally will lead to negative consequences. Creon refusing to let Polynices receive a

Creon captures and questions Antigone why she disobeyed his orders to not bury Polynices. In response to Creon’s questions, she said, “That order did not come from God. Justice, / That dwells with the gods below, knows no such law” (138). Antigone is saying that Creon is disobeying the gods with his refusal to bury Polynices, yet he still proceeds with his plan in defiance of the gods. In Ancient Greece, if someone disobeys the gods they could expect the gods to condemn and punish them severely for their actions. Creon is stubborn enough to disobey the gods when he and the audience knows that there would be negative consequences for such a transgression like that. Antigone then proceeds to say that justice dwells with the gods, meaning that their law is above all else. She also says that the gods will not listen to the laws of Creon. Creon thinks that his law and order is higher than those of the gods, never wavering in his position. In other myths, when someone thinks they’re higher than the gods, they usually end up suffering for their belief. Being informed about the wrath of the gods, Creon's stubbornness still gets the better of him and he risks everything for his own beliefs. Later on, Creon is punished for his refusal to listen when his family dies because the gods weren’t happy with him disobeying them. The audience take from this that acting on