Pride Over Persuasion

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There are literally hundreds of effective techniques for influencing others, although in the outcome, many people are not persuaded at all. In order for many people to rationalize on your thoughts you need to activate the other persons mind to suggestions. In the Greek language “the word translated as I obey actually means I get myself persuaded. For a man, therefore, there is perhaps always something a little shameful about obeying someone - as if allowing yourself to be persuaded is a thing a warrior or hero would be embarrassed to find happening to him” (Wilson, Line 1). In the story “Antigone,” however, that was not the case. For both Antigone and Creon they both have their own ideas for their desired outcomes; which are why each of them is completely resistant to the idea of persuasion. Antigone and Creon’s immunity for persuasion is simply a matter of pride, arrogance, and stubbornness.

Pride can easily be defined in this case as a disagreement with the truth. As Novelist, Joseph Conrad, once said “He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.” (Conrad, 4) In other words, having a high opinion of oneself is not about the other person being right or wrong it is whether you believe in yourself, your thoughts, and not being persuaded by others. Creon’s resistant to persuasion, because of his pride, is shown because he does not want to be seen as “womanish” for changing his mind. He also agrees that because Polynices betrayed them and fought against Thebes, Creon should stand up for his city and people by not allowing Polynices to be buried. This shows that because of Creon’s pride he chooses to stand up fo...

... middle of paper ...

...t out of glory, while Antigone did it out of love.

Sources

• Why I quoted this person…?

- Conrad was a wonderful novelist who used a quote that greatly represented the theme and idea I was portraying and helped me to interpret the meaning into my paper better.

• Why I quoted this person…?

- I quoted Wilson due to the fact of his great reference to the Greek language and what the word really meant, I also quoted him because the information he wrote about gave me insight into a bigger definition of persuasion.

Works Cited

"Creon: The Importance of Being Persuaded." Proverbia.net. 24 Jan. 2012.

Wilson, Andrew. "Creon: The Importance of Being Persuaded." The Classics Page. 2009. 24 Jan. 2012. .

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