Creon's Power in Antigone Essay Example

Sophocles’ story of Antigone focuses on the importance of family while honoring the gods. From a modern point of view, it brings in the ideas of sexism, male dominance, and social order. It may seem that Sophocles heavily focuses on Antingones need to honor her brother, Polynices, with a proper burial. However, Sophocles also takes a significant amount of time focusing on Creon’s need for power while honing in on his insecurities. Several lines from this work show evidence that sometimes men have the trait of needing absolute power or the feeling of being a ‘god.’ No matter how much of a sexist dictator Creon is, he still has his insecurities. We see the worst qualities of this king, Creon, and how sexism has always been around, even in minor instances.

Throughout the beginning of this story, Creon is portrayed as a tyrant. “But when people stay in line and obey, their lives and everything else are safe. For this reason, order must be maintained” (Sophocles 675-677). Without the power a king like Creon can give, no one will be safe, and hell will break loose. At first glance, it seems that the word ‘everything’ is meant in terms of the people and the village. However, instead, it talks about his worry about how enemies view him. Niccolo Machiavelli has said, “It is better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both .” Machiavelli’s quote perfectly conveys what Creon wants. He wants to be feared and knows it will be easy to take his place if people do not cower before him. Going further into Creon’s insecurities, the word “safe” brings to light the worry of being controlled. He wants to make sure everyone is safe, not for their well-being but instead his reputation. Since he is king, there will be many people who want to overthrow or take his spot. If he does not keep up the reputation of being feared and make sure all is going in order, someone will take his place. Someone taking his position would allow whoever takes his place to control him. He would be more upset over his reputation not being safe rather than his people.

Being the tyrant he is, he thinks women have little to no place in the world. To him, women are inferior beings. “And there must be no surrender to a woman. No! If we fall, better a man should take us down. Never say that a woman bested us!” (678-680) Antigone’s constant rebellious and independent behavior makes Creon furious. In a way, Creon has never been directly challenged by a woman. Antigones unbothered demeanor for her death sentence sends Creon in a spiral. He doesn’t like that this woman is directly challenging his word. By using the words such as ‘Never,’ ‘must,’ and ‘no,’ Creon repeatedly reinforces the idea of not letting a woman overtake him. It is interesting when Creon says, “If we fall, better a man should take us down” (679). From this line, it is almost clear that even though possibly shameful, Creon is more okay with the idea of falling to a man. It shows that the man overtaking him had enough courage to do so. However, if a woman were to do the exact same thing, he would be distraught over the idea that a woman could best him out of all people.

I find this story and Creon’s behavior somewhat ironic. Deborah Spar’s  “Life Before Machines” states that women used to be superior to men. At first, women were anciently honored. Statues named ‘Venuses’ were portrayed as women men prayed to for guidance. Men like Creon have once worshiped women to preying on them and wishing for their downfall. Creon constantly reinforces in this passage that he needs people to fall in line and never let a woman best a man. Although he strengthens those ideas, he lets his insecurities slip in the process of his speech. Evidence of this is shown through his usage of words such as ‘safe,’ ‘must,’ ‘never,’ and ‘no.’ Creon feels the need to upkeep his reputation. That could almost reason for his tyrannical behavior. It is evident that Creon is a tyrant, but he is not heartless. Though he is not heartless, he is selfish at the beginning of this retelling. It is not until later that Creon overcomes those insecurities and realizes his wrongdoings.