Character Analysis of Creon

Category: Antigone, Character Analysis, Creon, Sophocles

Last Updated: 19 Apr 2023

Pages: 2 Views: 1648

After all of the confusion and corruption occurred, there is a new king for Thebes and that is Creon. In the Greek play, Antigone written by Sophocles shows that Creon was a man of great complexity. He values friendship but Creon feels that friendship would not keep his city standing, therefore “no one values friendship more highly than he but they must remember that friends made at the risk of wrecking theirs. Ships are not real friends at all. ” Creon is a strong person and he believes in the reality of society and how there needs to be laws and regulations in order to conduct correctly.

For example, he set the laws and he has to abide by the law so he has to punish Antigone. Creon does not believe that love is a force strong enough to fix problems but it is one of the causes of the problems, “go join them, then; if you /must have your love,/ Find it in hell! ” He doesn't have passion for the lawbreakers because that only leads to corruption but Creon has respect for the true warriors, “But whoever shows by word and deed that he is on the side of the State-- he shall have my respect while he is living, and my reverence when he is dead,” (instead of those who rebel against their own city. One example would be Eteocles and Polyneices, according to Creon, only Eteocles dies as a true warrior because he sided with his own city while his own brother, Polyneices, chose to rebel. Creon does not want to acknowledge Polyneices and so Polyneices is left to die a shameful death.

Finally, Creon seems to be the type of man who holds grudges or even stubborn. He does not allow people to make amends once the mistake has been made. Creon is persistent that he is doing the right thing and “an enemy is an enemy, even dead. ” Creon is a character with many traits, like his value of friendship, and his respect to the warriors defending his city. Other traits may not be the best but they make Creon who he is, he does not believe in using love as an excuse to rebel, and he is stubborn because he thinks that once an enemy, always an enemy. There are many different traits of Creon that make them easier to distinguish from others.

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