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philosophy according to sophocles
Analysis essay antigone
Analysis essay antigone
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Creon's Mistakes in Antigone In the awe-inspiring play of Antigone, Sophocles introduces two remarkable characters, Antigone and Creon. A conflict between these two obstinate characters leads to fatal consequences for themselves and their kindred. The firm stances of Creon and Antigone stem from two great imperatives: his loyalty to the state and her dedication to her family, her religion but most of all her conscience. The identity of the tragic hero of this play is still heavily debated. This tragedy could have been prevented if it had not been for Creon's pitiful mistakes. Creon's character possesses an infinite number of glitches in his personality, but his excessive pride was the root of his problems. His pride leads him to make accusations, before he considers the wise advice of others. Creon's pride also fills him not just as a king superior to the Gods, but also a man superior to women. The issue of Antigone being condemned to die becomes more than just a person who disobeys Creon; instead, the punishment is given even more eagerly, because it is a woman who disobeys a man. Creon's intelligent son warns Creon the people of Thebes sympathize with Antigone, but Creon accuses Haemon of being a "woman's slave" (line 756). Even though he is suppose to be loyal to the state and her citizens, he defensively questions if "the town [is] to tell [him] how [he] ought to rule?"(Line 734)The Theban king is too prideful to obey even the wisest of prophets, blind Teresias, insisting that "the whole crew of seers are money-mad" (line 1055). Creon finally puts his pride aside and listens to the Chorus' wise advice. It is difficult even then, and he obeys only because he fears the punishment that he might receive. "To yield [for Creon] is terrible" (line 1095) meaning to swallow his pride and admit that he is wrong is a very difficult thing for him to do. When Creon loses his wife and son, Creon's pride disappears, and he admits that he made a terrible mistake by not listening to anyone's advice. Antigone, a resolute and heroic female protagonist, pits her individual free will against the intractable forces of fate and against the irrational and unjust laws of tyrannical man like Creon.
..., this sense of arrogance angers Creon to a point beyond belief. Antigone’s refusal to cooperate causes Creon to go mad with irritation and frustration. Wanting to show his sense of power, he refuses to back down in fear of losing his position. His stubbornness grows stronger as Antigone continues to disobey his commands. Antigone’s strong and steady foundation helps her show defiance. She is able to overcome the opinions of the people and commit to helping her brother regardless of the after effects. She ignores what everyone says and does only as she wants. She is powerful, both physically and mentally, and is successful in her tasks. Antigone matures into a commendable and respectable character in which she depicts her rebelliousness and bravery, pride and tolerance, and sense of moral righteousness to demonstrate fundamental character development in the play.
Since the play’s inception, there has always existed a contention concerning the true hero of Sophocles’ Antigone. It is a widely held belief that Antigone must be the main character simply because she and the drama share name. This is, of course, a very logical assumption. Certainly Sophocles must have at least meant her to be viewed as the protagonist, else he would not have given her the play’s title. Analytically speaking, however, Creon does seem to more categorically fit the appellation of “Tragic Hero.” There is no doubt as to the nature of the work, that being tragedy. Along with this genre comes certain established prerequisites, and Creon is the only character that satisfactorily fits them all.
The hubris resonating throughout the play, ‘Antigone’ is seen in the characters of Creon and Antigone. Their pride causes them to act impulsively, resulting in their individual downfalls. In his opening speech, Creon makes his motives clear, that “no man who is his country’s enemy shall call himself my friend.” This part of his declaration was kept to the letter, as he refused burial for his nephew, Polynices. However, when the situation arises where it is crucial that Creon takes advice, he neglects the part of the speech where he says “a king... unwilling to seek advice is damned.” This results in Creon’s tragic undoing.
Creon believes that his laws are absolute and must be followed above all else, even Divine Law. Therefore when Antigone, in accordance with divine law, goes against Creons edict by burying her brother she is forcefully imprisoned and sentenced to death by Creon. In Creons opening speech he says, “Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgment … Experience, there’s the test” (Sophocles, p. 67). How Creon handles Antigones unlawful actions serves as his first test as the new king of Thebes and ends up showing the Thebans a glimpse of his true nature, that of a tyrannical ruler. This can be seen again when Haemon comes to Creon with the hope of dissuading him from his current course of action. He does this by trying to make Creon understand that the citizens of Thebes don’t agree with his use of power and planned execution of Antigone. Again Creons authoritarian nature comes to light in his response to Haemon, “And is Thebes about to tell me how to rule… Am I to rule this land for others – or myself?” (Sophocles, p. 97). To which Haemon counters by saying that “its no city at all, owned by one man alone” (Sophocles, p. 97). Creon, being the tyrant he is, fails to heed the wisdom of his sons’ words, which ultimately leads to his downfall. Creon, like Machiavelli, believed that it was
It only takes one word or one thoughtless action to change a person’s life forever. The things that people do and say are based on their principles for how they think life should be lived. This idea of principles shaping lives and actions can be seen in the greek tragedy by Sophocles called “Antigone”. Characters such as Creon and Antigone act on act on their principles which turns a simple decree from the king into a climactic story that ends in the death of several main characters including Antigone(who hanged herself), and Creon’s wife and son (who also committed suicide.) All of this could have been avoided had Creon not been so adamant about leaving his traitor of a nephew to rot without a proper burial,
Antigone - Creon's Fatal Flaw A master artisan and innovator of the Greek tragedy, Sophocles' insightful plays have held their value throughout countless time periods and societies. Through the use of common literary techniques, Sophocles was able to express themes and ideas that reflect all of humankind. On particular idea was that Sophocles believed that hubris is destructive and will eventually lead to one's demise. Creon, the proud king of Thebes has such a fatal flaw. His hubris alienates Teiresias, Haimon, and his people.
“Antigone,” is a wonderfully crafted play by Sophocles, which manifests various psychological aspects of humankind like anger, bravery, jealousy, ignorance, arrogance, deceit, and sacrifice to a greater degree. Out of the many characters that represent these human frailties, Antigone is portrayed as the strongest of all. Antigone, despite being a woman in the era, when the gender of women was considered below the status of men, shows great defiance against the cruelty of the reigning monarchy. People secretly approve the generous act of Antigone burying her brother, Polyneices. But, Haimon is the only other character that shows some courage and fight against Creon. His eloquently put together words are, as compelling as, it could get in his failed attempt to defend Antigone. Antigone’s action becomes more heroic, when she buries her brother, knowing the inevitable death that follows and nobody, not even her fiancé, Hamon, could defend her.
Sophocles’s play Antigone displays the development of the tragic hero, Creon, the king of thebes. Creon decides that Polyneices should not be buried because he betrayed his city, but an unknown felon has buried the body. The guard is assigned to watch the body, but he fails. Throughout the rising action, the guard reveals Creon's insecurities, motivations, and the interactions develop the plot of the play.
You are not in a position to know everything” (218) Hamion who aggravatingly stresses antigone is innocent and Creons in acknowledgement listens with deaf ears and insults Hamion as well as Antigone; “Fool, adolescent fool! Taken in by a woman!” Haemon revolts with, understanding that his decree has made him a tyrant rather than a king who rules for his subjects “you want to talk but never to hear or listen”(221). Sophocles details Creons thoughts on the consequence of the “ruling the of law over other loyalties” . Creon adhering to the power of authority dismisses his son, by disregarding Antigone as Hamion’s wife and saying he will put her to death in front he will kill her in front of him ,showing his authority rather than solence . “ Bring the woman out! Let her die before his eyes! “ (222 )
His pride developed a rage in him as he finished his talk with Haemon. Teiresias, a seer whose prophecies were never wrong, warns Creon that if he acts upon his pride it will bring a curse from the gods upon Thebes. Because Teiresias wants Creon to release Antigone which would neutralize the prophecy, Creon begins to insult Teiresias and the seers. “The race of seers is ever fond of gold.” (Sophocles, 1208). Creon drifts away from his original goal changing from one who puts state first faithfully to one whose full of pride. He realizes his error, saying, “Ah, me! ’tis hard; and yet I bend my will / To do thy bidding.” (Sophocles, 1272-1273). However, it is too late when he diminishes his pride to free Antigone for she has already
In the play Antigone, I choose Creon to be the tragic hero because he is the King of Thebes and he looses everything he has. Creon being King makes the audience believe that something like that can happen to the King then what can happen to us. Antigone the niece of Creon, The sister of Polyneices was punished by Creon for burying Polyneces after his death, Creon has forbidden anybody to do so. Once Creon punished Antigone the blind prophet Teiresias told him that the Gods will take revenge for his actions, then Creon tried to change everything but he is too late. Creon's tragic flaws were his stubbornness, the abuse of power and the actions he took to cause the downfall of the Thebes.
Creon's insecurity blinds his ability to direct order in his country properly. After Antigone buried Polyneices Creon felt he needed to take a strong stand or people would think he would always be lenient toward criminals. However, to achieve this Creon felt he needed to take drastic action against Antigone. He once even said to his son, Haimon, who was about to marry Antigone, "The woman dies. I suppose she'll plead family ties. Well, let her. If I permit my own family to rebel, how shall I earn the world's obedience?" (19) This quote shows that Creon feels that to prove himself to the country he needs to earn the "world's obedience".
In the following paper, I plan to discuss the source of conflict between the title characters of Antigone and Creon in Sophocles’ “Antigone”. I also plan to discuss how each character justifies his or her actions and what arguments they give for their justifications. I will also write about the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments. The final points I try to make are about who Sophocles thinks is right and who I think is right.
... portraitures the gender confusion that was going on during the time period. Men used to dress as women as to play their parts in plays because women couldn’t be in the plays. In this play the women actually dressed up as a men to obtain a job. The confusion starts when Viola dresses up as her brother and tries to be him, but her voice is off and her way of acting shows that she is not a true man. Viola works very hard to try and hide her imagine, she has everyone convinced. All the people she comes in contact with believes she truly is a guy. The end of the play she shows her true self and everyone is shocked when her and her brother come together at the same time. After the truth has come out Orsino shows his love Viola and Sebastian and Olivia all already married. In the end the gender confusion was challenging, but it turned out well and everyone ended happy.
...ino. Viola is Orsino’s messenger, and has to spend time telling Olivia how much Orsino love her; but in reality she is heartbroken because the man she loves, loves someone else. On many occasions Viola cleverly hints to Orsino she loves him, but he never really understands.