Antigone vs Creon

If there is one way to describe Sophocles’ ”Antigone,” it is unique. “Antigone” is unique in terms of the dispute between its two main characters. Generally, when a text pits two main characters against one another, one is the protagonist and one is the antagonist. While Antigone’s sacrifice is surely heroic in nature, this does not necessarily make her the protagonist or Creon the antagonist. This is because neither of the two character’s stances are invalid, because neither Antigone’s actions nor Creon’s actions are inherently immoral; they simply abide by a different set of morals. To understand the actions of Creon and Antigone, we must first understand from where each set of morals is derived so that we can understand the validity of each character’s claim. We also must understand why each set of morals is flawed, because ultimately it is those flaws that create the antagonism between the two characters.

Creon’s perception of right and wrong is entirely based on the laws and traditions of the society which he rules. To him, a person’s morality is rooted in his relationship to the state and the law: “you cannot learn of any man the soul,/ the mind, and the intent until he shows/ his practice of the government and law” (ll. 175-177). As such, any person who attacks the city of Thebes, as Polyneices did, Creon would consider immoral and deserving punishment. Although each of the two brothers were responsible for the quarrel, Eteocles was ruler at the time the war started, and so Creon would have considered Polyneices’ actions as an attack against the state of Thebes. Because Creon’s sense of morality is derived entirely from the laws of the state and loyalty to those laws, he is unable to see both sides of the brother’s war an...

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...yneices was an enemy of Thebes, and indeed he was. Antigone acted because she lost her brother and she could never replace him, and indeed this is also true. However, although each claim is valid, each one is flawed enough so that another character could go against it, which is why there is such antagonism between the claims of Antigone and Creon. The flaw of each one is misunderstanding. Creon is so loyal to the law of Thebes, and Antigone is so distraught over the loss of her brother, that neither can understand another valid claim contrary to their own. Of course, neither flaw is really under the control of the two characters, they are simply abiding by their own moral standards and are incapable of understanding the other’s position. This sort of accidental or uncontrollable flaw acts as the play’s hamartia, or fatal flaw, which is a staple of Greek tragedies.