Creon's Pride and Arrogance in Antigone Essay Sample

Many great Greek tragedy plays depict once noble characters who were brought down by a combination of fate and their own human flaws. In Antigone by Sophocles, Creon becomes king of Thebes and orders that nobody buries the body of Polynices. He arrogantly believes that the gods stand by his side and stubbornly keeps the law in place, unaware of how much suffering he is causing to himself and others until it is too late. The tragic story of Creon shows how excessive arrogance and pride will lead to suffering in the end.

After Creon becomes king, his inflated pride makes him into an autocrat and he starts to hurt the people around him, including himself. He claims, “We must obey whatever man the city puts in charge, no matter what the issue-great or small, just or unjust” (Sophocles 760-763). He presumes that as a king, his laws are absolute and citizens must always heed them. As a result, he refuses to listen to anyone but himself, causing the relationships between him and the people around him to sour. First, Antigone tries to reason with Creon on why she buries Polynices but Creon refuses to listen, labeling Polynices as an enemy of the state (Sophocles 329-334). Then, his son Haemon tries to reason with him but he refuses to hear and ridicules Haemon for being a slave to Antigone (Sophocles 860-861). Next, Teiresias advises him to change his ways but Creon ignores it and accuses him of taking bribes (Sophocles 1152-1156). Only when he turns humble towards the end did he listen to the Chorus Leader’s reason and answer, “Alas-it’s difficult. But I’ll give up” (Sophocles 1236). By then, many of his relationships with other characters goes bitter and it becomes too late to reverse the damages.

Along with having a large hubris, he also exhibits excessive arrogance when he insists the divine have his back while defying them at the same time.  He assumes that no god wants to honor a person that “[burns] their offerings, their pillared temples, [who] [torches] their lands and scatter all its laws” (Sophocles 331-333). He is already conveying his arrogance when he starts to take control of how the gods think according to him. Moreover, Antigone adds, “I did not think anything which you proclaimed strong enough to let a mortal override the gods and their written and unchanging laws” (Sophocles 510-513). Antigone sees how Creon is enabling himself to defy the rules of the gods and yet does not permit people to infringe his own. Teiresias warns that this insults the divine, especially the one below because he violates the religious law that makes burial required for the dead (Sophocles 1202-1205). Consequently, the gods punish him by making him the indirect murderer of his son and wife: “I killed you, my son without intending to, and you, as well, my wife” (Sophocles 1487-1489). Thus, his haughtiness angers the gods who intend to punish him by taking away the people he holds dearest.

In Antigone, Sophocles teaches the audience how Creon’s pride and arrogance leads him down the path where he loses everything and becomes “nothing”. His pride causes him to protect his ego at all costs and prevents him from being rational. His arrogant behavior towards the gods gives them a reason to bloody his hands for the death of his family as punishment. In the end, he gains wisdom at the cost of everything: his family curses at him from their graves, his citizens pity his ultimate fate, and the gods make a fool out of him for his hubris.