Review of Sophocle's Play Antigone

In Sophocles’ play, Antigone, Kreon was seen to portray the villain of the plot. His position of king was gained unlawfully due to the deaths of Eteocles and Polyneices. Kreon, had allowed only Eteocles to be buried and said that Polyneices must stay on the battlefield due to the fact that he was leading an opposing army. Polynices’ sister, Antigone, went against Kreon’s decision and decided to bury her brother anyways. When Kreon found out, he was outraged and later decides to have Antigone convicted to death. Antigone believes that even if Polyneices was leading an opposing army, her brother was still a citizen of Thebes and had every right to a proper burial. The moment that Kreon decided to condemn Antigone to death, was the moment the dark side arose from him.

Kreon is a complete fascist, which gave him all the power he wanted. Kreon keeps the throne and rules Thebes by his own will and benefit, instead of for the good of the people. Kreon's powerful desire for power makes him grim and vengeful; even to his own son. Full of his ego and ambition at the start; by the end, Kreon suffers the wrath of the gods, and ends up becoming cipher.

Creon's motivations are more complex than the typical antagonist. Throughout the play, he speaks with wise words. He is practical and very pragmatic when it came to most scenarios. Like Antigone, he also holds a great amount of pride. Unlike Antigone, on the other hand, Kreon is willing to set his beliefs and values aside and forgive Antigone's crime when hearing from the gods that Antigone's death will bring death in his own life, Kreon decides to free Antigone, but it’s too late because she hangs herself.

Motivated by his pride and his unlawful accusations, Kreon's antagonist role is argued among readers. His flaws and Antigone’s are in fact, very identical. Antagonists in Greek tragedies are generally appalling characters, but Kreon is different due to the fact that he shows emotions from Teiresias, which revealed how vulnerable he was when it came to his thought process. Later on, Antigone's death causes Haemon's suicide, which then leads to his wife, Eurydice's suicide, Kreon feels hopeless, saying “I alone am guilty.” (1021)

Kreon makes the mistake of putting his personal views over sacred laws and fails in the eyes of the gods. He makes the mistake of testing the gods' power. After the crime of Antigone, Kreon is shown to be a sole warrior in his own cause and family and his supporters start becoming opposed to him. As the plot progresses, Kreon becomes more hostile and by the destruction of his family, he is punished by the gods. Antigone is shown to set the foundation of Kreon's downfall throughout the story line.

Kreon showed his stubbornness by not wanting to be proved wrong. When Choragos tried to tell Kreon that he made a mistake by saying nobody can bury the body of Polyneices. Kreon didn't listen to the citizens of Thebes who tried to tell him that Antigone did what was right.

“Creon buried our brother Eteoclês

With military honors, gave him a soldier’s funeral,

And it was right that he should; but Polyneicês,

They fought as bravely and died as miserably, --

They say that Creon has sworn

No one shall burry him, no one mourn for him,

But this body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure” (15)

Kreon thought by making an example of Antigone's execution, everybody would get scared and won't try to turn against him or challenge him under the eyes of his ruling.

Kreon abused his power by thinking he can change or disobey the laws of the gods. He didn’t want to bury Polyneices' body, but one of god's law states every human deserves to be properly buried after death, regardless of crime. Kreon caused fear by making a public announcement stating that no one is allowed to bury Polyneices. He said that the state of Thebes consists of only him and that there are no laws other than his.

According to Antigone, the major actions that caused Kreon’s downfall of Thebes is his choice to refuse to bury Polyneices and he didn't allow anybody to do it. Kreon broke the burial law of the gods and then punished Antigone for following the gods ‘laws. The people of Thebes knew that Kreon made a mistake but were too afraid to speak up. Antigone thought that she should get respect and feel praised for what she did, but Kreon disagreed.

The downfall of Thebes was caused by Kreon's abuse of power. Kreon thought just because he was king, he can do whatever he pleased and have everything his way. Kreon's role as the king made him believe that he had all the authority to break laws of the gods and make up his own set of laws for his people without asking for the citizens’ approval. He caused the corruption of Thebes by trying to challenge his power as king with the powers of the gods. The main cause of the downfall of Thebes is the poor ability of Kreon to tell apart his rights from wrongs.