Why Creon Is Considered A Tragic Hero In Antigone

In Sophocles’ play Antigone I believe that Creon is the tragic hero because he is brought down by a tragic flaw and faces consequences greater than deserved. Throughout the play Creon was creating problems which led to what he had to face at the end. Creon shows characteristics as a tragic hero because he is blind to the truth, shows pride and arrogance, and was the cause of the whole plague. Creon, as we all know, is in charge in Thebes and he does all of the decision making, but he makes rules only upon his judgement. Antigone did something that disobeyed the law and she was sentenced to death for it. The thing is, Creon was going against the gods because in their eyes she did nothing wrong. In scene 1, lines 1 and 2, Creon says “An enemy is an enemy, even dead. Go join them then; if you must have your love find it in hell!” The whole town of Thebes knows that what Antigone did was a noble act, but Creon is so stubborn that he doesn’t even care what others have to think. Even when his own son tries to convince him that he’s making the wrong decision. Creon will not even listen to his own son, Haimon. Which is Antigone’s soon to be husband. Haimon does his best to try to explain to his father that he needs to rethink his final conclusion but Creon seems to be completely oblivious the whole time. He cares more about his pride than his own son’s happiness. Haiman says “You have to right to trample on gods right” and Creon responds with “Fool, adolescent fool! Taken by a woman”. As you can see Creon doesn’t even seem to notice that he’s not following the gods beliefs but he’s so arrogant that he just throws it behind him. Haimen tells his father that he’s running away and Creon still never changes his word. He chooses his stubbornness over his son.

At the end of the story is when you realize how blind to the truth that Creon was. He is the cause for the death of his son and wife and it’s all because of his selfish ways. He should have been more open to people’s thoughts and concerns because this all would not have happened. Creon says “Oh it is hard to give in! But it is worse to risk everything for stubborn pride” He is realizing that he really messed up but he’s too late to fix it. Creon’s only son and wife killed themselves due to something that was all caused by himself. He’s the one that sent Antigone to the vault to die, causing her to kill herself, then causing Haimon to kill himself because of his sorrow. This then led to Eurydice’s death because her son was now dead. Creon should have never been so close minded because none of this would have happened. He’s the cause for this plague.

In conclusion Creon was the cause for all of the ending tragedies in the play Antigone. A character in literature he could be connected to is Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games because they both have to go through things that could determine that their future was going to be like. Peeta was a little smarter in this case but both of them created problems for themselves because of previous actions. Overall Creon is a tragic hero because of his selfishness, stubbornness, and arrogance.