Antigone By Creon Character Analysis

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When one values power over the law of the gods, they will suffer a horrifying fate. Originally published in 441 B.C., the play Antigone by Sophocles is one of the best known tragedies in literature. Antigone is a tale about a girl, named Antigone, that is faced with deciding between societal law or the law of the gods. She breaks societal law in reverence for the law of the gods. This illegal activity of burying her brother,Polyneices, causes the king, Creon, to order for her death. Creon’s son, Haimon, ends up falling in love with Antigone. When Antigone dies Haimon commits suicide, which causes Creon to realize that he has let pride and power rule his fate. Antigone’s catastrophic ending is caused by Creon’s tragic heroism, which is achieved through Aristotle’s hamartia, anagnorisis, and denouement.…show more content…
When Creon confronts Antigone about her illegal burial he is shown to be a crude man. He believes that Polyneices’s burial was “A crime, not an act of grace” (510). Creon’s beliefs demonstrates his flaw of focusing on what is politically correct, rather than what is socially and morally correct. Here the theme of god’s law versus political law is expressed. Creon believes that political law should be the only law. This belief of Creon’s could cause the reader to see him as a corrupt ruler. Creon becomes infuriated when he finds out about Antigone and Haimon’s affair. He feels that “She [Antigone] shall die right before his [Haimon] eyes” (761). Sophocles presents Creon’s flawed opinion that a political society should always come before a social society. Creon demonstrates the themes of love and power through belief that he has the power to overrule Antigone and Haimon’s relationship. Creon does not realize that power can never overrule love. Creon’s beliefs between politics, god, power, and love causes him to appear as an inconsiderate ruler through

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