I don’t believe that Antigone is a tragedy. I think that Creon is. A tragedy is what leads to a tragic hero which Creon is wanting to become a hero. He takes on the role of being king and wants to fix the city-state. But he fails to do so because everyone is against him. What led to his downfall was his way to ruling. He drove everyone away from himself and he was left all alone. Everyone despised him because of the law he made that no one can bury Polyneices. The people of the city-state no longer saw him as someone with morals, but a cruel man going against God’s wills. Since Antigone broke the law, Creon sentenced her to death. Haemon, his son and Antigone’s fiancé, stuck by Antigone’s side and when she died, he died as well. He lost his son because he was being hard-headed and can not back out of his words or else, the people would not see him as their leader. Creon killed his own son. When Haemon died, Creon’s wife committed suicide. Creon has driven his family to death and was left with no one. Because he wanted to prove worthy of being king, he sacrificed his family. He lost everything due to his pride. A real hero has people looking up to them and has a good sense of morality. Creon lacked both because he was blinded by his wants and pride. He wanted to be the city’s hero so bad, that he ended up becoming a nobody.
i agree that Creon is the tragic hero because Creonhas a tragic flaw which is that he lacks judgment and justice and does not take people’ advises just because he is the king which is why he commits the error of sentencing his daughter-in-law to death. Creon has a catastrophic downfall; his wife and son both kill themselves because of Creon’s tragic flaw.
However, i have to disagree with pspyropoulos because i do not consider Antinoge should be consider the antagonist because she burries Polynices properly. Even though Polynices is teh one who brought the war in the play Sophocles does not give us Polynices’s reasons for doing so, we have no idea of what happened to caused him to do so. For all we know the bad could have been Eteocles and the good one Polynices. We cannot jugde unless we know the circustances in which things happen.
I agree with you, Creon wanted to become the hero of Thebes, the one people looked up to after the destruction brought on by Oedipus and Polynices. Trying to take the role of the hero/king also led to his and his family’s demise. I dont really think he drove people away purposely. He needed to act tough and lay some rules down in order to bring Thebes back together as a state.
You also cant really blame him for making it illegal to bury Polynices. Polynices was in fact a traitor and wanted to bring destruction to his own city. Would you give the same rights and honor to a person who tried to kill your own people and possibly you? I dont think so. I think Creon was right in passing that law. He also wanted to set the example that Thebes was no longer a city to be messed with.
As for Antigone, i think Antigone should be considered the antagonist here. She broke the law the bury Polynices, someone who obviously didnt care for her if he wanted to bring war to her own city. I also think that Antigone was the cause for Creon’s and his family’s demise. If she didnt break the law, nothing would have happened.