Similarities Between Oedipus Rex And Antigone

Pride, mankind’s greatest flaw. In the play Macbeth it was stated “And you all know, security is mortals’ chiefest enemy,”(III.vi.32-33). In this context, security is defined as having too much self-confidence. It is well known that having too much pride is a flaw. Many downfalls are due to having too much pride. In the plays, Oedipus Rex and Antigone, multiple of the characters’ downfalls are due to their exaggerated pride.

In the play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’s downfall was due to his pride. His prideful thinking caused him to make decisions without thinking that contributed to his downfall. Oedipus calls upon the prophet Tiresias to help stop the plague in Thebes and reveal who the murderer of King Laius is. When Tiresias tells Oedipus that

Antigone’s pride caused her to go against Creon’s will and break the law to bury her brother, Polyneicês’s body. Antigone tells her sister Ismene of Creon’s decisions about the burial of their brothers. She asks Ismene to help her bury Polyneicês’s body. When Ismene refuses Antigone tells her sister “But I will bury him; and if I must die, 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,” (193). Antigone believes what she is doing is the right thing, that her actions of deciding to bury her brother’s body are worth even though it means she is going against Creon’s law. Antigone’s pride also lead to her death because it caused her to be stubborn. When Antigone is speaking with Creon and the chorus she says “What things I suffer, and at what men’s hands, because I would not transgress the laws of heaven,” (228). She is saying that her punishment is due to her actions of not breaking heaven’s laws. She believes that her actions are the right thing to do, that the gods agree with her actions. Her stubbornness due to her pride leads her to be unwilling to see that what she has done was wrong in any way. She was stubborn and her prideful thinking that her decision to go against the law and bury Polyneicês’s boy was right brought about her death. Antigone’s pride lead her to cause her own