Heroic Characteristics Creon is the leader or person of status in the play, “Antigone” by Sophocles. His status was the new king of Thebes right after the previous kings Laius and Oedipus had fled. As the king, he seems to care more about the loyalty and the obedience of the laws in his city than […]
Laws within a religion and government are created to regulate a group of peopler’s actions and judgments. If two laws combat each other, people must choose one to follow. Even if they choose the dignified decision, each choice has consequences. In Sophocles Antigone, characters are tested with choosing between religious and civil obedience when a […]
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Get startedUpon currently taking a college course based upon what the good life consists of, Sophocles Antigone offers a new perspective that helps students gain a much better understanding of how others share a different view of what the good life may be. The play offers a multitude of situations, which allows for perfect opportunities to […]
Antigone says to her sister Ismene, “I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, it will not be the worst of deaths- death without honor” (Sophocles 80) when Ismene refuses to help her bury their dead brother after the king made burying their brother illegal. Antigone’s “I am not afraid of danger,” […]
Corey Marvin defines binary oppositions as “simply a pair of theoretical opposites or thematic contrasts” (1). In Oedipus the King and Antigone by Sophocles, there are many binary oppositions, but the most important oppositions are the following: calm versus irascible, male versus female, blind versus sight, and polis (city) versus oikos (family). While calm versus […]
Greek tragedy often teaches moral lessons at the expense of human life and political will. Antigone is the tragic story of the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta of Thebes after the army of Argos vanishes and her brothers have killed each other on opposite sides of the battle. While the Greeks were well-aware of the […]
Antigone by Sophocles is one of the most well-written Greek tragedies. At first, it may seem that Antigone is the tragic hero, but details support the fact that Kreon is the tragic hero. Kreon may be seen as neither good nor bad, which is why readers might feel an understanding or connection between themselves and […]
Antigone is a tragic story that shows when a human makes laws that do not emulate Divine ones, there will be suffering. Antigone is the protagonist who believes that it is better to disobey a law from the king than to disobey a principle. Antigoner’s sister, Ismene, feels that even though the kingr’s regulation is […]
“The penalty- stoning to death in the public square (Sophocles 24-25).” This is the edict (almost like a law) declared by Kreon. This edict basically states that anyone who dares to bury Polyneices would be declared a traitor to the city of Thebes. Antigone, the main character, ends up breaking this rule to give her […]
Throughout time the roles of women have been defined by society. As women we are told how we should behave and what is expected of women. In the past women were expected to play specific roles such as homemakers and caregivers. Women enjoyed very few privileges because of their gender roles in society. Over time […]
The home fire is the updated version of Antigone, which has transported from ancient Greece to todayr’s London and the main characters were British-Pakistanis. This premise forms the basis for Kamila Shamsier’s Home Fire, which updates Sophocles tragedy and sets it in the contemporary context of the War on Terror and the struggle of European […]
Reading the two versions of the tragedy of Antigone, it was a really interesting experience. Just to see how different the characters are, to see a similar storyline but it is played out differently. This is a book you should really attempt to compare with the original Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles and the Jean […]
Whether one is planning out their life or not, everyoner’s life is predetermined. In the Hindu religion, it is believed that oner’s life is based on how they have lived in their previous lives before. This has to do with how people lived their lives before and how they treated others. In Antigone by Socrates […]
Antigone and Desdemona of India My great-grandmother is 84 years old now. Old, right? But old enough to be a great grandmother? Nope. She was forced into an arranged marriage with an older man at the age of 13. I remember asking her one evening to tell me more about my great-grandfather. She was not […]
Heroes are virtually always portrayed as courageous, autonomous, and without error whereas villains are depicted as evil, tyrannical, and controlling. This is not the case in Sophocles Antigone. In this play, Sophocles contrasts his hero, Antigone, with another hero, Creon. Both of them compete for honest and justifiable reasons, but they have different motives. Although […]
Sophocles Antigone was a book that had a unique plot. One of the ideas presented in this specific play was feminism and Antigoner’s determination to go against their ruler. Along with this idea occurred a number of tragedies, which means therer’s also a tragic hero. There are numerous debates in determining the tragic hero in […]
Though the play “Antigone,” is from ancient times, it possess many modern elements. The struggles displayed in the play have survived time and are still relevant today. A popular conflict we see in both “Antigone” and modern day life is the issue of civil disobedience. In the play, we are first introduced to Antigone and […]
Antigone Antigone is a drama based on a fictional work written by Sophocles, that recounts the tragic plight of Antigone, after she defied the order of King Creon. However, the civil disobedience exemplified by the main character seeks to awaken the moral courage of every citizen who lives under a harsh rule. It is submitted […]
Antigoner’s stubbornness causes the death of herself when she goes against the law of Creon, the King to bury her brother, Polynices, and readers learn that what one expects it not always the outcome. It is ordered by the gods for each person to be offered a proper burial, so Antigone asks her sister, Ismene, […]
Oedipus just passed away in Clonus when Antigone together the sister decided of returning to Thebes to help their brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles in avoiding the prophecy predicting their death. Upon the arrival in Thebes, Antigone realizes that the brothers are already dead. The throne has already been inherited by Creon after the death and […]
The play Antigone presents the conflict between Antigone and king Creon. Antigone holds religious beliefs and respect of the dead while king Creon stood for the rule of law. Antigone made the choice to give her brother a proper burial after he was killed, hereby disobeying the orders of king Creon which eventually let to […]
The story of Oedipus is a true Greek tragedy in that the main character, Oedipus, rises to power in the city of Thebes only to be told of a prophecy saying he, although unknowingly, committed fratricide and his wife, Jocasta, is his biological mother. When all of this information gets to Oedipus he is rightfully […]
John Locke values the idea of natural right, which he divulged in his book Two Treatises of Government. A shown in Sophocles’ play Antigone the character Creon idealized the opposite philosophy. The idea of natural right, as developed by John Locke is that all people have the right to life, meaning, having a basis of […]
Creon the Good Guy Antigone is a tragedy that deals with conflict and despair at the end of the story. Creon who is the King, creates a law that states no one is to bury the body of Polyneices because Polyneices was the brother who started the fight between him and Eteocles in Thebes. Eteocles […]
Essentially family, the roles of women and men, and death plays a vital role in society. Family values have certain qualities that are crucial for a family to uphold. Gender roles have differed from ancient times to currently in today’s society. Unlike religious gods today, Greek gods took human form and had the same dilemmas […]
All over the world, different cultures integrate the belief that everything on the plant, or if nothing else at least people’s lives, are predestined by natural or paranormal forces. That there are objective and enlightened beings which initiate everything that develops in nature, and that these beings are known as gods. The philosopher Sophocles to […]
The Classical Greek Literature Relationship to Tragedy in Antigone What is the relationship between Antigone and Classical Greek literature related to tragedy? The relationship between Antigone in Classical Greek literature is evident through the story line in which two characters disagreement and personal choices lead to an notable twist of unexpected tragic events. Tragedy is […]
Most teenagers disobey their parents, break rules every once in a while, or rebel out of anger, stupidity, boredom or just impulsiveness. In the Greek play, Antigone, author Sophocles displays a conflict among Antigone, a teenage girl and her tyrannical, ruling uncle, Creon. When Antigoner’s determination and impulsiveness results in her breaking the law to […]
Antigone is a Greek Tragedy written by Sophicles. Etocles and Poyneices, two brothers, are fighting for the throne. Because of fight between the two brother, Creon becomes the new ruler of Thebes. Creon is also the brother of the form queen, Jocasta. Creon makes a decision that Polyneices will suffer the consequences and Eteocles will […]
Antigone is a play that demonstrates a variety of emotions throughout the play. The story starts off with the protagonist, Antigone, battling to give her brother, Polyneices a proper burial. The antagonist, Creon, who can also be referred to as Antigoner’s uncle, and the ruler of Thebes, issued a royal edict banning for the burial […]
Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero states that a tragic hero is a noble person who makes an error, in judgment or actions due to a central flaw, which causes their downfall. They then have a revelation and realize their mistake, but it is too late to amend for their villainy. In the Greek tragedy “Antigone”, by Sophocles, many think Antigone is the tragic hero. However, Creon fits Aristotle’s definition better. He makes an immense mistake by having Antigone executed that triggers his demise and loses everything he loves before fixing his mistake. Antigone would not be the tragic hero even though she stubbornly gets herself killed; she does not regret her actions.
Creon’s decision to have Antigone killed is his fatal mistake. He is angered that Antigone, a woman, has the courage to break his law. Creon wants to “carry her far away,/Out there in the wilderness, and lock her/Living in a vault of stone. She shall have food,/And there let her pray to the gods of hell:/They are her only gods:/Perhaps they show her an escape from death,/Or she may learn,/though late,/That piety is shown the dead is a pity in vain” (3.142-149) to prove he is a strong ruler, whose heart cannot be softened by a female “For they are but women and even brave men run/When they see Death coming”(2.162-165). He has guards take them away and lock up both Antigone and her sister, Ismene, until their death. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiance, comes to reason with his father. Creon becomes even more stubborn and tells his son that he is foolish to let a woman seduce him. Creon’s fatal flaw, hubris, leads him to question “you want me to show myself weak before the people?/Or to break my sworn word? No, and I will not./The women dies”(3.26-28). He follows through with his word making the biggest mistake in his life and Antigone is sent to her death.
After Creon makes his poor choice an old prophet Tiresias comes to Creon and warns him of the great sorrows that are coming. Creon realizes his mistakes and goes to repair them. Yet, it was too late, for Antigone “had made a noose of her fine linen veil/And hanged herself. Haemon lay beside her,/His arms about her waist, lamenting her,/His love lost underground, crying out/That his father had stolen her away from him./When Creon saw him, the tears rushed to his eyes,/And he called to him: ‘What have you done, child? Speak to me./What are you thinking that makes your eyes so strange?/O my son, my son, I come to you on my knees!’/But Haemon spat in his face. He said not a word,/Staring—/and suddenly drew his sword/And lunged. Creon shrank back; the blade missed, and the boy,/Desperate against himself, drove it half its length/Into his own side and fell. And as he died,/He gathered Antigone close in his arms again,/And now he lies dead with the dead, and she is his/At last, his bride in the houses of the dead”(Exodus 64-76). This was not the only thing that Creon lost that day. His wife was later found dead she had “stood before the altar, and her heart/Welcomed the knife her own hand-guided,/And a great cry burst from her lips for Megareus dad,/And for Haemon dead, her sons. And her last breath/Was a curse for their father, the murderer of her sons./And she fell, and the dark flowed in through her closing eyes”(Exodus 111-117). Creon lost everything and fell into despair “he was happy once, as I count happiness:/Victorious in battle, sole governor of the land/Fortunate father of children nobly born./And now it has all gone from him! Who can say/That a man is still alive when his life’s joy fails?/He is a walking dead man. Grant him rich;/Let him live like a king in his great house:/If his pleasure is gone, I would not give/So much as the shadow of smoke for all he owns” (Exodus 7-15). Now Creon had nothing and had to live with the fact that it was all his fault.
Antigone would not be a tragic hero because she never regrets her actions. She thinks what she did was right and she “dared/It was not God’s proclamation. That final Justice/That rules the world below makes no such laws./Your edict, King was strong, /But all your strength is weakness itself against/The immortal unrecorded laws of God./They are not merely now: they were, and shall be,/Operative forever, beyond man utterly./I knew I must die, even without your decree: I am only immortal/Now before it is my time to die,/Surely this is no hardship: can anyone/Living, as I live, with evil all about me,/Think Death less than a friend? This death of mine/Is of no importance; but if I had left my brother/Lying in death unburied, I should have suffered./Now we do not./You smile at me. Ah Creon,/Think me a fool, if you like: but it may well be/That a fool convicts me of folly” (2.57-74). This shows that Antigone was not only doing the right thing but she was punished for it. Antigone expected her punishment even though it meant her death, and still, that didn’t scare her into not burying her brother.
Antigone and Creon are very similar: they both are stubborn, they both make a ‘mistake’, they both meet their downfall because of that mistake. However, Creon is the tragic hero in the Greek tragedy. He realizes his mistake and tries to make it right, but it was too late. This comes to show that overall Creon better fits the definition of a tragic hero in the play Antigone.
