Essay On Okonkwo's Tragic Flaw In Antigone

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Antigone and Okonkwo both share a common flaw; fighting too hard for what they believe. In Antigone, Polynices, Antigone’s brother, dies in a fight with his brother Eteocles, but Creon refuses to let him be buried. Creon that decides that Eteocles should be buried because he believes that he was fighting for Thebes. He declares that “a proclamation has forbidden the city to dignify [Polynices] with burial, mourn him at all. No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear, an obscenity for the citizens to behold!” (Sophocles 228-231). He passes a law that forbids anyone from touching Polynices body. He does this because he believes that Polynices is a traitor, but Antigone disagrees. She asks her sister Ismene…show more content…
Antigone symbolically buries her brother but covering him with dust because she is not strong enough to bury him alone. When Creon has the dust on Polynices’ body wiped off, Antigone does the same thing for a second time. This time a sentry catches Antigone and brings her to Creon. Because Antigone defies Creon’s law, Creon declares that she must be stoned to death. Antigone then tells Creon that she would rather obey the god’s laws than his laws and that she is “not ashamed for a moment to honor [her] brother, [her] own flesh and blood” (Sophocles 572-573). Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancé, tried to convince Creon to let his fiancé live, but he is unsuccessful. But Creon does decide to let Antigone die of starvation in a tomb rather than stone her to death. Soon after, Tiresias, a blind prophet warns Creon that the gods will get revenge on him by killing his son if he leaves Polynices unburied. Creon decided that he will no longer kill Antigone and that he will bury Polynices. Unfortunately, Antigone has already hung herself to prove to Creon that she would rather die fighting next to Polynices while obeying the gods than surrender to Creon and let him kill her. Antigone’s tragic flaw becomes the cause of her death. Similarly, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw also becomes his fatal flaw. When Okonkwo returns from exile and sees what has happened to Umuofia, he wonders why the people have not attempted to destroy the new church or government. When he realizes that “Umuofia would not go to war” (Achebe 205), and that they will surrender. For Okonkwo, this symbolizes failure to be able control Umuofia. Okonkwo killed himself for two reasons; to symbolize the death of the old Umuofia and so that he will hot have to surrender to the white man’s laws. Both Antigone and Okonkwo ultimately kill themselves before they have to surrender in their fight for what they believe

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