Pride in Sophocles' Antigone Essay

His whole life he is obsessed with getting the crown and having complete control over the state, he ignores the opinions and belief of his family members. When in the end, he ends up losing Antigone. A messenger says “Creon was happy once, as I count happiness: Victorious in battle, sole governor of the land, Fortunate father of children nobly born. And now it is all gone from him. Who can say a man is alive when his life’s joy fails?” (pg 239) In Creon's search for justice, he gets everything he wants. He gets to rule his sacred government, and has lovely children, but since he doesn't care about playing fair and he lets his ego completely take over. Therefore he loses everything he “played dirty” for, making his search for the justice

Creon orders the guards to take Antigone away not caring for his son's feelings, since she is his fiancée. Creon feels the law should stand despite the fact that Antigone was his niece or how moral her act was. "Bring her [Antigone] out! Let her die before his eyes..." (Scene 3, 130). This quotes shows that Creon took his position as king seriously to the point where in he was willing to sacrifice the feelings of his own son. He was willing to be the cause of son's destruction just to prove that he is the king and always right. "I will go... I buried her, I will set her free" (scene 5, 102,104). Not only does this quote show leadership but also stubbornness he was risking his relationship with his son to prove that he was the leader of Thebes. Creon says another quote which shows his loyalty to his kingdom, "I call to God to witness that if I saw my country headed for ruin, I should not be afraid to speak out plainly," (Sophocles, scene 1,24-26). It shows his strong sense of leadership which catches up with him in the end causing destruction.

(C.S. Lewis). Pride can take over the lives of people who have it within them. It is ok to feel proud but if the sense of pride is exaggerated it will lead to arrogance and therefore to problems. In the book Antigone, by Sophocles, pride is displayed as good and bad. Pride can have a big impact on people when it is taken for granted. Sophocles uses such powerful language and gives such great imagery with his words that it is apparent pride is greatly implied in his book. The conflicts and morals being taught to us in his book states that pride is something that

Creon starts off in the play as the king of Thebes, which I found ironic because in Oedipus King he pretty much said he would never want to be king because there is too much

In Antigone, King Creon’s pride prevents him from considering his citizens’ opinions, causing him to lose respect. Creon announces that Polyneices is a traitor, therefore he shall not be buried. Burial allows access to the after life. It is not in Creon’s power to make this decision, but he does anyway, forbidding Polyneices’s arrival to Hades. When the guards of Thebes, called Sentries, find Polyneices buried, Creon declares that whoever went against his law shall face a harsh execution. To Creon’s surprise, the culprit was Polyneices’s sister, Antigone, who happens to be Creon’s son, Haimon’s fiancé Even though Haimon loves Antigone and she was only trying to do the right thing by staying loyal to her family and the gods, Creon is too

In a world where we have the incapability to determine what is morally right or wrong we need to ignore pride as it places us on a course that only leads to devastation. Sophocles uses Creon as an example of what the outcome would be for following his own pride as his actions backfire on him. When Creon is finalizing his decision to sentence Antigone to death, he focuses on his pride in position as King rather than his loyalty to the Gods. Such pride is compared to the Gods as it says in Ode 2, “No pride on earth

Creon’s was used to being the hero of Thebes after repairing the damage Oedipus’ horrifying end had caused, now he was faced with an uncomfortable choice. Being the new reigning monarch of Thebes, his morals were centered around keeping himself monarch. As a result, Creon’s selfishness tipped his internal scales3 of what was just and what was not. His pride was so great that he not only refused to bury the revolutionary, Polyneices, but declared, “he’ll have no burial mound, no

When Creon finds them both dead he realizes that it was his power as king that has caused this to happen. He begins to realize mistakes he has made. He has followed quite closely in the footsteps of Oedipus. Through his suffering we begin to see him as a human rather than a powerful tyrant.

Like his other work Oedipus and the King,it was devisied to bring back belief to the traditional gods and the like.Similar to Oedious and the King, excessive pride is a major part in Antigone.In the plays pride [excessive pride] is abhorred.A person with hubris is severly punished by the gods.

King Creon’s tragic flaw is hubris. He does not listen to advice given to him by the blind prophet Teiresias. When Teiresias tells Creon, “Give in to the dead man, then: do not fight with a corpse- what glory is it to kill a man who is dead? Think, I beg you: It is for your own good that I speak as I do. You should be able to yield for your own good” (Antigone 36-40). King Creon does not like the fact that the prophet believes he is wrong and should do what everyone else has so far advised him to do. He accuses Teiresias as giving him such a prophecy because of bribery from others and a hunger for gold. Hubris is also revealed from King Creon in Scene III. Creon’s son, Haemon, tells Creon that the people of Thebes believe they have never seen a girl die such a shameful death and that the people live in fear of Creon. Haemon tells Creon he also believes Antigone should have been allowed to bury Polyneices and should be set free. King Creon responds with, “You consider it right for a man of my years and experience to go to school to a boy?” (Antigone 95-96). This shows that Creon does not believe a man of such age, “wisdom”, and “experience” should listen to anyone or change because of anyone else’s

Even if he believes he is right and his son should obey him, he doesn’t show an ounce of sympathy for Haemon, who loves Antigone. Creon details his thoughts on the importance of the rule of law over other loyalties, and his belief that to allow any anarchy or, seemingly, freedom would threaten the state. Creon’s method of executing Antigone is interesting. By entombing a living person, Antigone, and denying burial to a dead person, Polynices, Creon’s laws seem to go against common sense, tradition, and nature itself. Creon does not keep a cool head, as a wise leader should, or look for a way to compromise. He is as stubborn as Antigone, as if this were a street fight, he feels he could never back down.

Due to his unwavering pride and refusal to see through the eyes of others, Creon falls from his position of immense power and wealth which in the end doesn’t matter because all his loved ones and family are now dead.

Creon has three main behaviors that cause him to be the tragic hero. First he favors civic laws over the love of his family. Second, his pride overcomes his rational decision making process because he does not want to be defeated by a women, even his niece. According to Teaching politics using Antigone "creaon has the inability to learn how to gain power. Creon comes to office throuigh the rather dubious claim of being the only male in the family who has not either killed his father and slept with his mother(or been killed by) his brother recently." Creon must earn the respect of the people. He must, in weberian terms, earn the monopoly of legitimate authority over the instruments of the state" (Teaching Politics using Antigone.vol.39, No. 2; pp.347-349).

Creon shows his self pride obviously when he said, “But whoever shows by word and deed that he is on the side of the State, he shall have my respect while he is living, and my reverence when he is dead” (Sc. 1, lns. 52-55). Antigones’s tragic flaw can be seen as an act of justice to some and just breaking the law to others.

Antigone is a woman in the context of fifth-century Athens, Greece who challenges the socio-political orders of the city in name of a blood relationship, which through her eyes is sacred in the name of the gods. The divine law says that all man should be buried following the proper rites. In the ancient Greek household, women are the ones who must do the proper funeral rites and bury the