Antigone Creon As The Tragic Hero Essay

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Creon as the Tragic Hero

In Antigone written by Sophocles, Creon is the tragic hero. Creon is the tragic hero because of his error in judgement, stubborn way of ruling Thebes, his change, and all the tragedy brought on by his actions. Although Creon changed only when a

messenger told him there would be a tragic ending because of all his actions, he did try to correct what he had done.

Creon ordered that Polyneices body be left out to be eaten by vultures andwhile dogs because Polyneices rebelled against his brother Esteocles rule in Thebes. In this incident, both Polyneices and Esteocles (the ruler of Thebes) were killed. Creon s stubborn way of ruling influenced everything that occurred because of him giving Esteocles a formal burial and leaving Polyneices body out to be eaten. Antigone, the sister of Polyneices and Esteocles, thought it was wrong that Esteocles had a formal burial and Polyneices was left out to be eaten by wild dogs and vultures. Antigone then decided it was her duty to bury Polyneices, so she disobeyed Creon s decree and covered Polyneices body with dirt and wine. Unfortunately, Antigone was caught in the act of burying Polyneices so, Creon sentenced her (his own sons finance) to be put into a stone vault, to die of starvation and for Polyneices body to be uncovered. Then a messenger came and told Creon that there would be a tragic ending because of his error in judgement. Creon then quickly ordered Antigone to be freed and Polyneices to be buried, but he was too late. In the meantime, a messenger told Eurydice (Creon s wife) that her son Haimon was dead and that his death was caused by Creon s actions. Eurydice killed herself because the son she loved most

was dead. In the meantime, Creon discovered that Polyneices body had been eaten by vultures and wild dogs so he quickly went to the vault Antigone was put in. WhenCreon arrived at the vault, he found Antigone had hung herself with her wedding dressand his son Haimon had killed himself because of the death of Antigone. Creon returned home to tell his wife Eurydice of all the tragedy caused by his own error in judgement, only to find Eurydice dead too.

In account of Creon s stubborn rule and error in judgement, everyone he loved was dead. Although Creon did change and try to reverse his wrong doings, and was not able to do so, he was still an overall good man and didn t mean to bring this tragedy upon himself. Just because of Creon s mistakes he had to live the rest of his life with guilt for causing many deaths.