Throughout history, the character of Antigone has been an inspiration for many groups rebelling against totalitarian governments, and rightfully so. Antigone is a heroine and a martyr who dies doing what she believes is correct and moral. Despite her death however, Antigone is not the most tragic character in Sophocles's play. That honor falls to Creon, King of Thebes and Antigone's primary foil and adversary. Because the story is told primarily from Antigone's perspective, it is easy to forget that Creon is the one who loses everything he holds dear. Sophocles wrote Antigone as a tragedy, but he made Creon, his villain, the truly tragic character of the play.
While it is a challenge to view Creon as a tragic hero because it is hard to feel empathy for him, when one takes a step from the text it becomes apparent that Creon exhibits all the characteristics of a tragic hero. He has a high societal status , indeed, as a king he occupies the highest status in the land. While he has not been king for long enough to entirely gain the admiration of the people, it is apparent that the chorus seems mostly supportive of his actions at the outset of the play. However, as with all tragic heroes, Creon has a tragic flaw. In his case, this flaw can be found in his stubbornness and rigidity in his views. While not exactly hubris, Creon's stubbornness leads directly to his undoing, whether it occurs when he is arguing with Antigone or yelling at his own son. Creon's fiery stubbornness occurs as early as Scene I, when he shouts at the Choragos for suggesting that the gods could have played a role in burying Polyneices, calling them a bunch of "doddering wrecks." And he holds on to his opinion through his argument with Tiresias in Scene V.
However, the true tragedy of the play occurs during Creon's condemnation of Antigone for burying her brother. As strongly as Antigone believes that burying Polyneices is the proper thing to do, Creon believes just as ardently that Antigone's brother was a traitor who should never receive a burial. This rigid belief is what undoes Creon in the long run. It is not that though Antigone's crime is truly that severe, it is more that Creon becomes set is his views and furious when someone, even his son's betrothed, goes against them. His frustration at Antigone's actions, combined with the excessive power that he possesses as king, causes him to treat Antigone in a way that antagonizes everyone in the play, most notably his own son as well as the citizens he claimed to always put first. In the end, Creon's tragedy is complete when he loses his son, his wife and the trust of the people, all due to a chain of events that he himself instigated. While it is easy to consider Antigone a tragic heroine and a martyr because she dies while Creon lives, Creon actually suffers far more because he is forced to live with the loss of everything that he held dear. Creon may not be the hero of Antigone, but his story is a tragic one and he ends the story praying for death, laid low at the mercy of fate and the gods. (545)
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3 comments:
Yay, Stephen, Bravo! Very eloquently put. I like the application of the tragic hero to Creon and agree that he is quite the tragic dude. This situation is very reminiscent to me of Othello, where Iago is as much the tragic character - and if you think about it, the one who moves the plot and has the majority of the soliloquies (a sure sign of a true main character) even though the title of the play is obviously not his name.
I appreciate your article for its definitive stance on the question of “who is the most tragic character in Antigone?” You do a solid job of identifying the key textual elements to support your thesis: the early exchange with the Choragos, his tense exchange with Antigone, and his argument with Tiresias. I am curious as to whether or not you sympathized with Creon at the end of Antigone for your analysis, at least to me, exudes somewhat of an understanding and recognition of the difficulties of Creon’s position. On the whole, well done.
Stephen--Im trying to think of another play or novel in which the villain (antagonist) becomes in the end a tragic character in his own right. Perhaps Flannery O'Connor does something like that with the character of the Misfit in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Maybe Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is a tragic villain? (Ask Tibi--he has many theories about Heathcliff).
Anyway, I think it's a good question to raise because it certainly got me thinking. Thanks.
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