Similarities Between Antigone And Creon

In the Tragic play Antigone by Sophocles, there are two characters that could be the tragic hero. The two characters are Antigone, the strong independent woman who wants a burial for her brother Polyneices, and Creon, the King of Thebes who does not want to bury Polyneices because he was a traitor to the city. According to Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero (a classic tragic hero), Creon is the better fit for the role of tragic hero, which is shown in the third requirement for a tragic hero, which is that the character realizes his/her fault when it is too late. One of Aristotle’s tragic hero traits of that they must be renowned. Both Creon and Antigone fit this aspect of a tragic hero. Creon is the uncle of Eteocles, Polyneices, …show more content…
Creon has a very obvious flaw, which is his stubbornness and his pride. These character traits are imperative to his downfall because he lets his pride get in the way of ruling his city, so he won’t take advantage of the advice given to him by Antigone, the Choragos, and Teiresias until he had already sentenced Antigone to death. This is his tragic flaw. Antigone’s tragic flaw is that she is too loyal to her dead brother Polyneices in that she cannot stand the fact that he is not going to be buried and goes and does it herself, knowing full well the consequences that will fall on her should she be caught. At this point, it is still apparent that Antigone could be a tragic hero, but the trait that will get her out of the running is the third and final …show more content…
according to Aristotle, is that the character must realize his/her fault(s) when it is too late for them to correct what they destroyed. This is evident with Creon because at the end of scene five, he says, “... I have been rash and foolish. I have killed my son and my wife. I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead. Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust.” This is said after he buried Polyneices, and tried to free Antigone. Instead of finding her still alive in the tomb, he finds her hanged, and his son killing himself because his live is gone and dead. The line that says, “I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead.” is talking about his wife,who killed herself when she found out the news that her son is dead. This shows that Creon realized that he messed up when it was too late for him to do anything about it, except go on living his life without his loved ones, his family. There is no real evidence that Antigone realized that she did anything wrong because she is always talking about how she did the right thing by following god’s law and not man’s law. This single fact is what prevents Antigone from getting the title of tragic hero. Even though many people think that Antigone is the tragic hero because she is the heroine of the play, which is true, but she is not a tragic heroine, not while staying in accordance with Aristotle’s definition of

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