Creon Tragic Hero

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Sophocles’ Antigone features many elements of a Greek Tragedy. One of these many elements featured in the play is its usage of the ‘tragic hero’ trope. A tragic hero is one of the main characters of a Greek tragedy play. This character would start the play on a good, moral path, and had everything. During the course of the play, they would experience challenges, and but by the end of the play, they would experience downfall, and lose everything. The character of Creon is an example of a tragic hero. Originally starting off as the king of Thebes, Creon stated that Polynices should not be buried, and a domino effect occurred. Many of his family members died, all because of that one action, and he was left the king of Thebes, but he was all alone. As shown in the tale, Creon had everything - he was the king. He was in his prime, …show more content…
Today, hubris refers to exaggerated and overplayed self-confidence, which can lead to punishment. Back in the times of Ancient Greece, hubris were the actions one took in order to cause humiliation for the victim, so the perpetrator could be seen as higher in rank, or superior. Creon’s actions towards Antigone in the play shows hubris. Creon decided to punish Antigone for giving Polynices the proper burial process, and not leaving him to die. Creon decided to punish her by enclosing her in a tomb, forcing Antigone to be ‘buried alive’. In this situation, Creon decided to humiliate and embarrass Antigone by sentencing her to die, in the hopes it would spread a distrust and hatred towards Antigone throughout the community. Creon did this to express how much power he really had over the citizens of Thebes. It was a display of what would really happen if one was to disobey Creon, and go against Creon’s laws. For this reason, Antigone demonstrates the element of hubris. In addition to this, the element of fate is shown in the