Compare And Contrast Creon In Oedipus The King And Antigone

Creon’s Change of Character Creon’s character in “Oedipus the King” and “Antigone” have many similarities and some notable differences. Creon’s character in Oedipus the King, shows that he has a great sense of duty and family. In “Oedipus the King”, Creon is also shown to be very merciful, level-headed and responsible to some extent. In “Antigone”, Creon still upholds his great sense of duty and family, but is shadowed by his niece and the protagonist of “Antigone”, Antigone. Creon is shadowed by his Antigone because she is perceived to be the protagonist of “Antigone”,while Creon, being against Antigone, makes him the antagonist, although he just wants to uphold the laws that were set in place. Creon’s sense of duty seems to have grown

Creon is still a man with a great sense of duty. In “Antigone”, Antigone wants to bury her dead brother , Polyneices ,who died as a traitor to Thebes when he attacked the city-state after a quarrel with Antigone’s other brother ,Eteocles ,over who would rule over Thebes. Antigone’s brothers both died in battle, but Polyneices body was left to rot without being buried while Eteocles’ body was buried and honored. Antigone felt as though Creon was wrong and unjust for dishonoring her brother in such a way, knowing that they were family. This caused Creon to be pitted against Antigone and ,in time, he sentenced her to death because he did not won’t his rules or laws to be questioned. Antigone sentence to death later on caused Creon’s son, Haemon, death as well. Haemon’s death caused the death of his mother and Creon’s wife, Eurydice. Creon believed that if he were to allow Antigone to bury her brother without any penalty, he would’ve been seen as a weak king, which means the people of Thebes would no longer want to subject to his rule or laws he set in

For one, in “Antigone”,Creon seems to have lost his sensibility and mercy in place of his growing hubris. Creon is also more stubborn in “Antigone”, not allowing her to honor the dead , although as the Gods would have it, you are supposed to honor the dead by burying them instead of dishonoring them by letting them rot out in the open. In “Oedipus the King”, based on Creon’s character, he might have considered allowing Antigone to bury her dead brother without any trouble. In “Antigone”, Creon was also perceived to be much more harsh than he was in “Oedipus the King” because he sentenced Antigone to death for trying to honor her brother appropriately.

By the end of “Antigone”, Creon’s character had changed tremendously from his character in “Oedipus the King”. In “Oedipus the King”, Creon could be called the voice of reason of the play and he was seen as an honorable and just man. By the end of “Antigone”, he could be seen as a sad and broken man, due to the death of his wife,Eurydice, and his son, Haemon. His hubris led him to believe that there were no alternatives to his law and that his law were the God’s laws. Creon turned from a prideful king, into a luckless one. Creon’s story is a tragic one if not as tragic as Oedipus’s