Antigone
In the Greek tragedy “ Antigone” written by Sophocles. We meet the tragic hero King Creon of Thebes and we learned how his decisions based on his traits spitefulness, stubbornness and sexist contributed to his downfall. Which costs the lives of his loved one including his son Haemon. Haemons serves as a foil for Creon by bringing out Creon’s traits of pridefulness , stubbornness and sexism. These traits cause Creon to make fateful decisions that contribute to his own downfall and shows the theme that it is the trait of wisdom that creates happiness.
Creon is the king of Thebes , he has a son named Haemon. Haemon is engaged to Antigone , the woman Creon plans on killing because she disobeyed Creon’s rule and buried her brother
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Haemon tried to convince his father that Antigone did what she felt was right and Antigone shouldn't be punished for it. Of course Creon did not want to go back on his word and not give in . Later in the conversation Creon said “ are we then going to school to learn what's wise from men as young as him ?” Creon is saying that Haemon is to young for Creon to listen to him , since Creon is Haemon’s father and the king of Thebes. Creon feels that Haemon has no choice but to listen to him which contributes to his …show more content…
In this last interaction Haemon insults his father after Creon called Haemon a woman slave. Creon then decided that he'll punish his son by saying he'll kill Haemon’s bride to be right in front of Haemon. In response Haemon said “ as for you-your eyes will never see my face again”. This interaction leads to Haemon attempting to kill his dad but doesn't succeed. What Haemon said to his father actually becomes true with Haemon decides to take his own life when he finds out that Antigone is dead. Which advances the plot of the play because of Creon’s decisions and
Creon’s son Haemon does not want his wife to be to be put to death and pleads with his father. “ I see my father offending justice wrong. That she’ll die but her death will kill another.”(1287) Haemon reveals to the his father that if he continues with killing his wife to be he will flee his presence and kill himself for his love Antigone. In the end Creon realizes that his pride has lead to the destruction of his life and his kingdom. “ I know it myself- I’m shaken, torn. It’s a dreadful thing to yield…but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That’s dreadful too.” (1296) King Creon realizes to little to late and because of his pride he loses his son, wife, and daughter in law. “And the guilt is all mine- can never be fixed on another man, no escape for me.
Full of drama and tragedy, Antigone can be used to relate to current conflicts. One such conflict is that between Haemon and his father Creon. Haemon looks up to Creon with honor and pride, but as conflict arises, that relation is disassociated and new feelings grow. The first conversation between them is what initiates the downfall of their bond. While it seems that Creon is the most important person in Haemon’s life, Antigone is in fact the one that has won Haemon over.
Haemon shows his love to Antigone by revolting his father 's authority and committing suicide. Haemon is the son of Creon and Eurydice and is engaged to Antigone. He always respects and obeys Creon, taking Creon for a model. However, the decree of killing Antigone causes his violent controversy with his father because he is afraid of losing his fiancé—Antigone. Haemon defends the moral behavior of Antigone and reasons with Creon to change
In the play Antigone, Creon starts off as the loyal king of Thebes. He is loyal to the gods and loyal to the welfare of Thebes. However, over the course of the play, Creon degenerates into a tyrant. His degeneration is showing his character development. Creon’s pride about the human law also develops throughout the play, creating conflict with the divine law. When Antigone rebels against his law, he becomes stubborn, and makes myopic decisions and grows into his hamartia. Besides his hamartia, Creon’s position as the king makes him a power hungry man. His power madness degenerates him into becoming a ruthless and vindictive man, even to his family. However, over the course of the play, Creon begins to see that because of the laws of men, he was being blinded of what’s
Haemon asks Creon to let Antigone go, because he said he heard that “the city
By doing so Haemon hopes to help his father realize his mistake.- Throughout his argument Haemon uses strong sources and his father's insecurities to build his argument. These sources include the people of Thebes “But I, at any rate, can listen; and I have heard them Muttering and whispering in the dark about this girl” (Sophocles line 11-12). By using these sources Haemon emotionally manipulates his father by using his insincerities against him. He uses logical reason to support his claim and also uses personal examples “What could be closer? Must not any son value his father’s fortune as his father does his?” (Sophocles line 21-22). Haemon is showing that he has a personal stake in the matter and that he is in a way trying to protect his father and his bride. Adding on to his emotional appeals haemon uses parallelism to repeatedly grab creon’s attention and get his point across. The entire point of his argument is for creon to admit the he was in the wrong for going against divine law and punishing antigone. Haemon's statement supports his main cause for setting his bride to be, antigone, free. The details and emotional appeals are meant to impress upon creon that this is a problem worth
Haemon serves as a foil for Creon’s character by highlighting Creon’s unreasonableness, anger, and disrespect. (Line 832-33) Haemon says, “ The people of Thebes all say the same- they deny she is.” Then Creon says, “ So the city now will instruct how I am to govern?” Haemon says that he should listen to the people. The people won’t say anything because they’re scared to say anything. Creon is asking if he should let the people tell him how to rule.
After Antigone is brought forth and accepts the punishment of her burying her brother, Creon sends her away. At this time, Ismene steps up to defend Antigone and tries to get creon to realize that Antigone is his son’s future bride. Creon answers by saying, “There are other field just as fertile” (26). In this quote, he displays that he cares for neither Antigone, nor his son, Haemon. . He explains that there are other women around that could be just as a promising wife as Antigone. He exemplifies the theme of pride here, by putting that everyone gets replaced and that he does not put his son’s life first. Power, a theme that is primarily exemplified by Creon, appears multiple times throughout his dialogue. While discussing Antigone’s punishment with Haemon, Creon says, “This city will tell me how I ought to rule it?” (40). In this quote, Creon represents the theme of power. He is trying to show Haemon that HE is the king of Thebes and that no one will tell him how to rule, especially the citizens. In relation to present time, there are countless politicians that share the same characteristics as Creon, someone who takes their power for granted and will use it to take advantage of everyone.
Even if he believes he is right and his son should obey him, he doesn’t show an ounce of sympathy for Haemon, who loves Antigone. Creon details his thoughts on the importance of the rule of law over other loyalties, and his belief that to allow any anarchy or, seemingly, freedom would threaten the state. Creon’s method of executing Antigone is interesting. By entombing a living person, Antigone, and denying burial to a dead person, Polynices, Creon’s laws seem to go against common sense, tradition, and nature itself. Creon does not keep a cool head, as a wise leader should, or look for a way to compromise. He is as stubborn as Antigone, as if this were a street fight, he feels he could never back down.
Haemon delivers a stronger argument regarding Antigone's existence due to his understanding of the country’s opinions, and his consideration of the god’s perspectives. After Antigone buried her own brother despite the Kings ruling, Haemon and Creon dispute her fate where Haemon reveals compelling reasoning to save her life. As a citizen, he has heard the populations opinions on the issue, who agreed she should not be executed, and see that as an “unreasonable” death, His report included how citizens even question if “her name be writ in gold?”(Roche 222) Haemon explaining the citizens’ views influences the story. Seeing as Creon is King his decisions are under harsh analysis, so having his first day include an unfavored decision would harm
In Sophocles’ play, Haemon the son of Creon greatly impacted his father’s ability to think before making an action. Creon was an all powerful king who made decisions based on his own beliefs and would not consider the opinion of others. Haemon had a different perspective on how a king should rule his people. This caused tension between the two, which was not a surprise seeing as Creon’s decisions have only caused pain and suffering. For instance, Antigone who is the wife of Haemon, had two brothers who died fighting to the death.
Haemon is one of the characters that help develop Creon as a tragic hero. By Haemon trying to get his father not to kill Antigone by tell Creon that the city think what Antigone was doing was a good thing and the city believes that Antigone brother shoulder of been buried from the start. On lines 785 Haemon tells Creon that “But in the darkness I can hear them talk the city is upset about the girl”. So Haemon just comes out and tell Creon that I've heard people talking and they don't like what you're doing they think that you should not kill her and bury her brother. At the end is when Haemon makes Creon a tragic hero by killing himself. On lines 1176 the messenger is expands to Creon wife what happened to Heamon “Angry at himself, the ill-fated
Embedded Assessment #2 As Haemon, Creon's son walks in for the first time in the play he declares to his father “Father, I’m yours. For me your judgments and the way you act on them are good I shall follow them”.(720)He’s showing his love and respect/loyalty to his father still after all that’s been going on. Although Haemon did love his father, feelings quickly changed as he found out what his father's done to Antigone. While it could be argued that Haemans choice of words while talking to his father lead to Creon being the tragic hero, inevitably by the end of the story he would of been it anyways. Since Antigone is his Fiance of course Haeman would be offended when Creon talked about Antigone’s punishment.
He then states he (Creon) alone can’t be right and “other men who can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful. You are not in a position to know everything” (Sophocles 218). By jogging Creon’s memory that he can’t have an overview of everything, Haemon is endeavoring to help Creon reason and to be open mind. In haemon’s next assertion he describes how, “she kept him from dogs and vultures. Is this a crime? Death- she should have all the honor that we can give her!” this tells the readers that if she would have died it would be unjust to die in shame for what was an act of glory, justice and that she should deserve a crown of gold and glory(218). At the end Haemon uses a plan to make threats against his father, after his father says Antigone must die, Haemon responded with an ultimatum answer “then she must die, but her death will cause another” (222). As Haemon dashing off in anger, Creon knows that if Antigone were to be executed, so will his son. Having no choose but Creon didn’t want Haemon to save Antigone so he carried Antigone into a living tomb (the cave) all locked up and supplied her with food just enough food to clear of its guilt of
Then, Antigone’s “supposed-to-be” husband, Haemon, also displayed catharsis in Antigone. Haemon, son of King Creon, was introduced into the play like no other character. He was neither proud or fearful. Instead, he expressed true care and concern toward his father. However, when Creon threatened to kill Antigone, Haemon said, “Then she must die. But her death will cause another,” (Sophocles 719). Haemon retaliated to a stressful situation by putting his own life at risk as well. He hoped that his father would then be pressured to not kill Antigone so his own son wouldn’t die as well. He also tried to relieve his father from the situation by making the decision of what to do with his prisoner for him. However, Creon disregarded this and planned to kill Antigone anyways. Although, as stated previously, Antigone hastened her fate and Haemon blamed Creon for her doing. Haemon then fulfills his word when with his own knife, “Against himself, he drove it half its length into his own side, and fell. And as he did he gathered Antigone close in his arms,”(Sophocles 735). Haemon tried to reach peace between his two loves. Although he realized his father was not full of love, his dead fiance was. Haemon then must have decided to “live” with his true love and not with his spiteful father. Overall, Haemon was trapped in a very conflicting situation and its outcomes, and his only way out of its hecticness in order to achieve catharsis was through his own tragic death.