Antigone

Antigone is a tragic play.  There are some key elements that make this a tragedy.  Also there are two possible candidates for being a tragic hero in the story, but one to me stood out more as the true tragic hero. 

There are many different tragic elements in this story.  First of death is a common theme in the story.  Antigone’s brothers die, and so does she.   Creon also losses his son and then his wife.  “I killed you, I, god help me, I admit it all!”  Another big thing is that most of the death could have been avoided but the characters where to flawed to do so.  The main characters had flaws and that is big in Greek tragedy's.  also the tone of the story was grim witch is a common theme also.

I personally feel that Creon is the true tragic hero of this story.  Antigone did voluntarily do something knowing it could end up killing her.  She had to bury her brother even though her sister warned her about the outcome. She never really had a revelation or a turning point she just maintained her same level or spirit through out the story.  “You chose to live, I chose to die.”  She comes to a tragic ending and had her fatal flaws, but she is not the tragic hero. 

Creon not only dooms himself but he dooms his family with his arrogance and pride.  It is because of this he is the tragic hero of the story.  “You’ll never bury that body in the grave, not even if Zeus’s eagles rip the corpse and wing their rotten picking off to the throne of God!”  It is this pride that his down fall.  His own son came to him to ask him just to spare her.  He could not do so and because of that everything in his life went to hell.  His character finally wants to set things right, but by the time he dose it is all too late and he cannot bring back his loved ones for his own pride killed them.