Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Tragic Hero: Creon or Antigone

 

             Creon and Antigone are both "victims" of tragic flaw. Creon is somehow a tragic hero, but Antigone shows more characteristics that is neither completely virtuous or villanous.
             Creon's downfall began at the very beginning of Antigone. "Polyneices, I say, is to have no burial. No man is to touch him or say the least prayer for him. This is my command, and you can see the wisdom behind it. As long as I am king, no traitor is going to be honored with the loyal man" (Antigone, Scene 1 lines 42-48). Who gave him the right to contradict with God's laws? .
             Even though "Aristotle's View of Tragedy and the Tragic Hero" explains that the hero is "not a mere plaything of the gods" (paragraph 6), in some ways or another Creon angered the gods. Creon's downfall comes about "by some error or frailty" because of his pride and ambition. He is so happy and proud of himself for being king, he doesn't want to show his own people his weaknesses. Following that, he send Antigone to spend her entire life in a prison-like cave. In the end, Creon loses everything that may have mattered to him - his wife and child, Haemon.
             Antigone is moreso of a victim in this story. Being a true sister and not a traitor to her family, Antigone decides to bury her brother Polyneices. Even though Creon has a new law that is against it, she knows she needs to follow God's law. "Your edict, King, was strong, but all your strength is weakness itself against the immortal unrecorded laws of God" (Scene 2, lines 59-61 p. 741). Denying nothing about the burial, she knows she must die, like a real hero with this tragic flaw. But then later on in the story, she starts to get pity from the city. "You have touched it at last: that bridal bed unspeakable, horror of son and mother mingling. Your marriage strikes from the grave to murder mine. All my life the blasphemy of my birth has followed me" (Scene 4 p. 754, lines 37-44). Antigone, now portrayed as a crybaby, is now yelling out to the crowd that she is cursed because of her whole family.


Essays Related to Tragic Hero: Creon or Antigone