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Character analysis of Creon in King Oedipus
Character analysis of Creon in King Oedipus
Character analysis of creon in antigone
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Moreover, she threatens to disown her sister Ismene after she opts not to help her bury Polynices. Another defining instance of her stance on family ties is perceptible when she refuses her sister to be part of the punishment for her deeds. The refusal is traceable in the play when she responded to her sister Ismene, “No, justice will suffer that-not you, you were unwilling. I never brought you in” (Line 605). In contrast, Creon is a reflection of a person who does not respect the importance of the family. For this reason, Sophocles uses the perspective of Creon on family to warn the audience against the vice because of dire consequence. His lack of family appreciation is evident from his decision to not only kill his nieces; Antigone and Ismene,
Creon in the play of Antigone by Sophocles plays a major role within the play. Antigone also plays an important role, as these two character’s conflicting views led to utter disaster, which highlights Creon as a tragic figure. Within the play Creon attempted to establish decisions for the common good; however, his decisions resulted in tragedy.
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.
Human emotions and beliefs can be some of the most powerful and forceful factors in the world. They can often time cause humans to overlook their moral and civil duties and instead confront the demands of a private passion. Two people that have contrasting views about passion and responsibility can cause a major conflict which could cause a “classic war” in literature. In the play Antigone, the differences in Antigone and Creon’s passions and responsibilities helps Sophocles illustrate their central flaws. By doing so, the playwright implies that one needs to achieve a balance of passion and responsibility in order to maintain a sense if inner peace and political stability.
Antigone, as a character, is extremely strong-willed and loyal to her faith. Creon is similarly loyal, but rather to his homeland, the city of Thebes, instead of the gods. Both characters are dedicated to a fault, a certain stubbornness that effectively blinds them from the repercussions of their actions. Preceding the story, Antigone has been left to deal with the burden of her parents’ and both her brothers’ deaths. Merely a young child, intense grief is to be expected; however, Antigone’s emotional state is portrayed as frivolous when it leads her to directly disobey Creon’s orders. She buries her brother Polynices because of her obedience to family and to the gods, claiming to follow “the gods’ unfailing, unwritten laws” (Sophocles 456-457). CONTINUE
Her father committed suicide. Her mother committed suicide. Her two brothers killed each other in a battle for the kingdom. Her uncle, Creon, took the throne and decided to give one of his dead nephews, Eteocles, an honorable funeral and give the other, Polynices, nothing at all. He also made it clear that no one was allowed to as much as touch Polynices. Should anyone decide to try to take action against the law and bury him, they were punishable by death. Was Antigone supposed to have simply accepted the fact that she was to abandon her dead brother out in the open? Was she expected to leave his dead corpse outside the gates of Thebes exposed to the world to rot and be picked at by the birds? How could she do such a horrible thing to her own brother? The answer is simple: she couldn't.
Within these lines, Antigone reveals that she holds herself sanctimonious over her king by admitting his punishment is “nothing” compared to the “agony” she will face if she leaves her brother unburied. She also conveys a nonchalant attitude towards the repercussions of her action when she mocks Creon accusing him of being a “fool.” Although Antigone is aware that others such as her sister, Ismene and her fiancée, Haemon—the son of Creon, may suffer because of her act of civil disobedience, she is unwilling to abandon her protest to negotiate in a peaceful manner. This conduct implies that she does not completely comprehend the seriousness of her action or understand the weight of her crime rendering her approach inconsistent with King’s theory.
Antigone, although it concerns the last events in the mythic history of the family, was the first of three plays to be written. In it certain elements of plot seem to indicate that Sophocles, was still imitating the works of the previous Aeschylus. For instance, both Antigone and Creon find themselves caught in a "double bind," a situation in which they are doomed no matter which course of action they choose. Although Antigone suffers because she violates the law of Creon by burying her brother Polyneices, she would have neglected her religious duty had she left him unburied. Creon suffers because he regards his will as more important than the demands of the gods, although political pressures drives him to punish the traitor of his city.
In the play, “Antigone” stubbornness leads to the downfall of two characters. Creon’s excessive pride reveals him as a tragic character. His pride is so high up he could not acknowledge the fact that he did wrong in anyway. He also views himself as a person better than the gods. “The State is King!” (Creon 598) he said, showing how cocky he tends to be. As a result of his cockiness, this creates conflict with the gods and eventually leads to his downfall. Creon wants his people to view him as a formidable and strong-minded leader who can handle things knowing that he’s in a position of authority. This is one of the reasons why he never reconsiders his decisions. He refuses to listen to others nor take their opinion into consideration, especially to Teiresias. Creon says,” Whatever you say, you will not change my will.” (Creon 840) Creon is given an opportunity to right his wrongs, but he decides to put his pride first.
SAY: Within this section on page 67 of Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon states to the leader that the nation that he belongs to has somehow survived the turmoil that it’s so mercilessly witnessed. On top of that, he mentions how the people of Thebes have so faithfully followed their king, Oedipus, and even after his death, they honored him and stood valiantly at the side of his children, proving how their “loyalty was unshakable”(187). To bring it to a close, Creon solidifies the fact that Oedipus’ two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other, and that due to the nonexistent heir to the throne, Creon, their uncle, states that he his next in line for the throne, and he is now the possessor of all of the powers that it beholds.
In the play, Sophocles examines the nature of Antigone and Creon who have two different views about life, and use those views against one another. Antigone who is depicted as the hero represents the value of family. According to Richard Braun, translator of Sophocles Antigone, Antigone’s public heroism is domestically motivated: “never does [Antigone] give a political explanation of her deed; on the contrary, from the start [Antigone] assumes it is her hereditary duty to bury Polynices, and it is from inherited courage that [Antigone] expects to gain the strength required for the task” (8). Essentially, it is Antigone’s strong perception of family values that drive the instinct to disobey Creon’s orders and to willingly challenge the King’s authority to dictate her role in society.
In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths. In the beginning Antigone is a close minded character who later becomes open minded. After the death of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will receive a funeral with military honors because he fought for his country. However, Polyneices, who broke his exile to " spill the blood of his father and sell his own people into slavery", will have no burial. Antigone disagrees with Creon's unjust actions and says, " Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way." She vows to bury her brother so that his soul may gain the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the law placed against burying her brother and her own thoughts of doing what she feels should be done for her family. Her intent is simply to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial so that she will follow "the laws of the gods." Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, "I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me." Her own laws, or morals, drive her to break Creon's law placed against Polyneices burial. Even after she realizes that she will have to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister, Ismene, she says: Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish plan: I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, It will not be the worst of deaths-death without honor. Here Ismene is trying to reason with Antigone by saying that she cannot disobey the law because of the consequences. Antigone is close-minded when she immediately tells her to go away and refuses to listen to her. Later in the play, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the consequences yet she is not regretful for her crime. She says her crime is just, yet she does regret being forced to commit it.
“...never let some woman triumph over us. Better to fall from power, if fall we must, at the hands of a man —never be rated inferior to a woman, never.” This quote spoken by Creon, in Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Antigone, adequately represents the opinion on women during the time in which Antigone would have been alive. Women were viewed as lower than men and were expected to be docile and passive. They were expected to never object to a man’s words, no matter if those words were to be unfair or unjust. Despite this, Antigone refuses to follow one of the most fundamental teachings of her culture by burying her brother even though the king, Creon, explicitly forbids the action, since her brother is a traitor. She rebelliously does what she feels is right, which cannot be said for her sister, Ismene. Ismene represents what a woman of her time was viewed as: weak and submissive to men’s
Although Antigone has a bad reputation with Creon, and possibly Ismene, for being insubordinate, she stays true to her values throughout the entire play by following the law of gods, not so that she could appease them, but because she admired its value of honor and respect to loved ones that have passed away. This devotion and determination to give her brother a proper burial shows the true essence of her being: that loyalty to family is in fact hold above all else.
Attitude is everything. In Antigone by Sophocles, one of the characters makes the remark, “Think all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride” (line 34-36 scene 5). Pride is being shown in many ways throughout the play. Sophocles emphasizes different ironies to bring out Antigone’s arrogance. Creon’s intelligence, but also to show his irresponsibility and foolishness.
You shall leave him without burial...” (222). Opposing the king, she neglects the decree and is now to die at the orders of the law for being disobedient; yet Antigone proudly states her crime. There is no sign of remorse shown by Creon as he states: “No; though she were my sister’s child or closer in blood than all that my hearth god acknowledges as mine, neither she nor her sister should escape the utmost sentence-death” (530-33). Bobrick, explains that Creon values the love for his land more than he values family and this becomes a struggle for Antigone as it becomes a fight between obeying the laws of man and the laws of the god’s. The second struggle Antigone faces comes when she realizes she is alone. Antigone confides in her sister Ismene with her plans to disobey Creon; but Ismene, a clear example of how a lady was obliged to be in this time, urges Antigone not to commit the act. Antigone rejects her advice and declares that Ismene is an enemy to her now (41): “If you talk like this I will loathe you, and you will be adjudged an enemy…” (109-10). Antigone must fight on her own. Thirdly, per Bobrick, Antigone