Creon as a Tragic Hero

Running head: CREONE AS AN TRAGIC HERO
Creone as a Tragic Hero
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Author Note

1Running head: CREONE AS AN TRAGIC HERO
Antigone is a play that was written by Sophocles in or before the year 441 BC. The
play focuses on Antigone goes against her uncle’s wishes and buries on of her brothers who
proved to be a traitor and killed her other brother. The play is considered to be a tragedy by
Aristotle. This is because Aristotle says that tragedy is a poetic imitation just like comedy and
drama, but it is of more serious in nature. It is because of all these reasons that Aristotle
called Antigone a tragedy drama.
The purpose of this essay is to determine why the character of Creon is
considered to be a tragic hero in the play Antigone.
A Tragic Hero is defined to be a protagonist who starts his journey as an honest and
just person, but ultimately becomes excessively prideful and greedy which ultimately leads to
his downfall (Andujar, 60). All of these characteristics are present in Creon who starts his
rule as an honest person but ultimately falls due to his excessive greed. He is a character who
would not listen to others views which made people resent him.
As stated by Bobrick (26), Creon’s pride was the main reason for him to be
considered as a tragic hero. This us because he felt that he is superior to all others in his
kingdom which made him declare “The State is King”. All these qualities inside him
ultimately leads Creon to his downfall, as it was prophesied Teiresias.
By the time Creon begins to realize his fault, the readers get the idea that the it was
too late for Creon to redeem himself. The main reason for his failure was because he was
boastful as a ruler and would not listen to what other subjects in his kingdom had to say
(Miola, 225).
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that Aristotle was right in stating that
the play Antigone was a tragedy. The character of Creon falls into all the conventions of a
tragic hero according to Aristotle who also pointed out Creon to be the tragic hero in the play