Antigone: Creon As A Tragic Hero

Literature is full of tragic heroes. A tragic hero is a character who makes a mistake that leads to his/her destruction. In the play Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, Creon is a tragic hero because of the three main characteristics he has during the play. He was born into nobility, endowed with a tragic flaw, and at the end realizes he has made an irreversible mistake that he will regret for the rest of his life. As the play goes on, Creon gets more and more arrogant until he realizes the danger he has gotten himself and his family into. His situation gets worse when Creon tries to improve it. With these characteristics Creon has made decisions that caused some negative consequences. Creon is a tragic hero because

. In the next quote Haemon is speaking with Creon and it gives details of having a tragic flaw. “ You are not in a position to know everything that people say or do, or what they feel: your temper terrifies them. Everyone will tell you only what you like to hear”. Haemon tells him that he doesn’t know everything there is to know. Also, Creon has a temper and gets angry easily if he doesn’t get the answer he wants. Then Haemon says that people are scared of him so they tell Creon what he wants to hear and that all the decisions he has are correct. For example at the beginning the Choragos follows Creon's decisions and says he is doing the right thing to Antigone. They told him this because the people didn't want Creon to get angry because they might be put to death. Creon did not want to show himself weak and he doesn’t want to admit that the decisions he makes are wrong. “ Do you want me to show myself weak before the people? Or to break my sworn word? No, and I will not. The woman dies.” Before this quote is said Haemon tries to change Creon’s mind about stoning Antigone. Creon then replies and says that he will not change his mind because the people will think he is gullible and will do what anyone tells him to do. This gives us the idea that he is very stubborn. Also, that Creon will rather be right than admitting he is wrong after he has made his decision already. In other

Creon explains to the choragos that it is hard for him to admit the truth and to say that his decisions were inappropriate. “It troubles me, oh it is so hard to give in! But it is worse to risk everything for stubborn pride.” Creon realizes that he has made a mistake because of the stubborn pride he has. Creon says it is hard for him to give in to the fact that he is wrong but at the same time doesn’t want to risk everything. He is going to go release Antigone, even though it troubles him to think he was wrong, from the cave and finally sees that his decisions were too harsh. In this quote creon is is looking at Haemon, who killed himself, and has mixed emotions of what just happened and blames himself. “Here you see the father murdering, the murdered son, and all my civic wisdom: Haemon my son, so young, so young to die, I was the fool, not you; and you died for me. He states that his actions caused his Haemon to kill himself. Creon called himself a fool and because of his stubbornness Haemon and Antigone are now dead. Creon then receives news that the queen has killed herself too with a sword. His whole family is gone because of his irreversible mistake. Creon blames himself for not making the right decisions from the beginning and not listening to the people’s opinions. If he would have did that and not think everything he did was right maybe