Persuasive Essay on Antigone vs. Crean

Are Antigone and Creon the Converse of Each Other? Antigone is the antithesis of Creon. The play, Antigone, by Sophocles translated by Paul Roche is a tragedy. It starts off with Antigone telling her sister, Ismene, that Creon, the king and their uncle, has made an edict that their brother, Polyneces, will not receive a proper burial and will be left to be eaten by carrion birds and dogs because he is a traitor. Their other brother Eteocles, will be given a proper burial, as he fought for Thebes. Antigone also tells her sister that she is going to bury him anyway, but Ismene decides not to help, for fear of their place as women. Antigone is caught and sent to a stone tomb to starve to death. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s betrothed, goes against his father and tells him that the people of Thebes are against him, as well as himself and others. Creon holds firm and demonstrates his hubris. Tiresias, the blind prophet tells him he has to release Antigone or bad things will happen. After much argument, Creon finally sees that he is wrong and hurries to free Antigone, only to find that she has hung herself. Haemon blames Creon and tries to kill him, misses and kills himself. When Creon’s wife hears of this, she kills herself and curses Creon for these deaths. The story ends with Creon begging for death. In the play, Creon and Antigone are both well rounded characters who have very different views and opinions, such as which is more important family or state. The whole play expresses two people, Creon and Antigone, who are both fighting for what they believe in cause tragic consequences because they are fighting for exact opposite things. At a point in the play Creon belives he is punishing Antigone by sentencing her to death but Antogone sees it as a blessing.

One of the reasons Antigone is the antithesis of Creon is that Creon believes the state comes before family, and Antigone believes that family comes before the state. At the beginning of the book

Cited: 1. Sophocles. The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles. Trans. Paul Roche. New York: Penguin, 1991