The Good Life Essay
pedrogarcia98
AndresGoodLifeEssay-Andrade.docxAndrade 1
Andres Andrade
IDS1161
Kyra Rietveld
April 7, 2020
TitleIntroduction
The play Antigone by Sophocles depicts Creon as a leader. He is the ruler of Thebes and at the beginning of the play he comes out as a leader with rational reasons behind his punishments and laws. However, at the end of the play Creon’s extreme pride consumes him resulting in his ultimate downfall. Creon barely takes note of the extent of his pride and how it affects its rule up until Teiresia’s prophecy. However, by this time it is too late and hence his character is hence associated with a tragic flaw. Throughout the play, Creon undergoes an ironic twist where he is forced to come to terms with the fact that things cannot go as he expected. In the end, Creon realizes that his rule and his pride only resulted to his own downfall. Because of the turn of events around him, Creon perfectly fits into Aristotle’s idea of a Catharsis where he elicits both pity and fear with the audiences. Creon goes from being a proud and mighty king who orders the killing of a young princess, to a suicidal man as a result of the decisions that he made as the ruler of Thebes. In the end, Creon follows his natural urge to do what is right which eventually results in his downfall. Creon hence allows for the audience to experience a catharsis at the end of the play which helps them to understand that society is in most cases right. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Depicts? He is the the king. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Avoid word repetition like this Comment by Microsoft Office User:
Body
In the play “Antigone” Creon who is the ruler of Thebes, elicits both fear and pity as he goes from being the proud and mighty king to being a man with suicidal thoughts. At the beginning of the play, Creon sets pace as a very prideful king with strong beliefs as is echoed in the line; “These are my principles. Never at my hands will the traitor be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state-I’ll prize that man in death as well” (Lines 232-235). Creon hardly listens to any advice and is often very stubborn and full of pride that he cannot bring himself to acknowledge his shortcomings. While taking to Teiresias, his pride makes him think that he is being paid off yet he is wrong about Antigone. He even goes as far as saying, “Whatever you say, you will not change my will” (Lines 72-75). Even worse, Creon is very self-righteous and feels superior to everything and to everyone as evidenced when he notes “The State is King!” (Lines 527). The statement illustrates that Creon elevates his status and deems himself to be better than even the gods and this ultimately angers the gods. Hence, as the play progresses his downfall is almost inevitable. The prophecy by Teiresias exposes Creon, as a ruler that is already doomed and one that cannot escape his demise. While Teiresias struggles to intervene by offering a sacrifice on Creon’s behalf, the sacrifice fails to burn and at the same time birds are fighting which overall portrays a bad omen. Such shows that the gods are not happy with the actions of Creon as evidenced by what Teiresias says in the line, “Think: all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride” (Lines 33-37). By saying so, Teiresias means that Creon still has the change to apologize for his wrongs and let free of Antigone. However, because of his pride, Creon does not prompting Teiresias to tell him, “You should be able to yield for your own good” (Lines 36-40). Such shows that Creon is very stubborn and is not ready to compromise on the laws that he strongly holds. Creon finds it difficult to recognize his fault which shows that his downfall is inevitable. Comment by Microsoft Office User: What is he prideful and stuborn about? Need to privde a little background here to really ground your ideas. Then based on the background you can analyze his actions Comment by Microsoft Office User: Does he deem himself better? That is a bold statement and you need more evidence to back that up if you are going to claim that. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Is there a process of catharis through his pride? Or only because of the down fall you describe next?
Creon facilitates a catharsis in a modern audience because he follows his natural urge to do that which is right which ultimately results in his downfall. In the end, Creon comes to terms with himself where he realizes that his pride has made it more difficult for him to come to terms with his conflicts. Creon realizes that he has been wrong in his actions where he says, “I have been rash and foolish” (Lines 134-135). This line shows that eventually, Creon recognizes that his pride and bad rule consumed him for the worst. Moreover, he realizes that it is because of his actions that Haimon died yet he would have rectified the situation in time. Creon feels very sorry for his actions that he notes, “My own blind heart has brought me from darkness to final darkness” (Lines 87-90). This line shows that Creon acknowledges that he barely used rationality in solving his problems and this led him to the wrong direction. Hence, Creon goes through all the features of a catharsis where he goes from a position of pride to a position of pity. In the end it is evident that Creon’s pride came in the way of him dealing with his problems more effectively. Just as Teiresias prophesied, Creon succumbs to his own downfall because of his pride. Although the play was written ages ago, any modern audience would relate with Creon’s character where it is clear that by failing to go by the set societal norms of what is right, downfall is almost inevitable as evidenced by Creon. Comment by Microsoft Office User: ?
In conclusion, Sophocles’ Antigone offers a perfect scenario of the process of catharsis as evidenced in Creon’s characterization. At the beginning of the play, Creon elicits fear among the audiences because of his strict laws and his pride which supersedes reason. However, towards the end of the play, Creon takes on an ironic twist where he is sorry for his actions prompting the audiences to feel pity for him as he succumbs to his own faults. Overall, the inclusion of catharsis by Sophocles aims to better understand the good and the bad qualities of Creon, which is an important feature of characterization in any story.
Works Cited
Sophocles. Antigone. ReadHowYouWant. com, 2008.
