Does Either Antigone or Creon Get Reality Right - Essay Example

? Does either Antigone or Creon Get Reality Right, and is either a Success? Sophocles’ plays Oedipus the King, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus portray the life experiences of Oedipus, his family and close relatives as they go through different tribulations and tragedies. Antigone and Creon are among the main characters that play very important roles in the three plays. Considering their attitude and actions and measuring their understanding about the world and other people, neither Antigone nor Creon gets reality right. Despite Antigone’s devotion to his father and brother and Creon’s concern to save the state, their open conflict and failure to resolve it prevent their fulfillment and success. Their inability to handle their argument successfully does not fit the given definition of reality. Creon’s commitment to the state does not grant him a fulfillment as a human being. If his mistakes are not evident in Oedipus the King, their obvious presence in the two other plays make him experience much pain instead of success. As Oedipus’ brother in law, he shares his concern about the plague in Thebes and helps him in his attempt to find answers to the problem facing the city. However, his efforts cost him a serious accusation from Oedipus who threatens to banish him from the state, especially after Tiresias reveals the terrible secret about the incest. Fearing that Tiresias’ revelation results from a plot organized by Creon Oedipus threatens him. Creon’s attempt to convince Oedipus of his innocence proves vain. He tries to foreground the challenges rulers face compared to simple citizens: “Not if you see things calmly, rationally, / as I do. Look at it this way first: / who in his right mind would rather rule / and live in anxiety than sleep in peace” (The King 927). Creon advocates rationality and seems to argue that normal people will not deliberately choose to be rulers but prefer to live in peace. This reflection seriously conflicts with his attitude in the following plays. Creon’s first obvious mistake appears when he sets his nephews against each other in order to take advantage of the situation. After Jocasta’s death and Oedipus’ exile, as the next of kin to watch over their children, he supports the youngest son Eteocles to take the throne over his older brother Polynices (Colonus). Realizing that he has a better chance to manipulate Eteocles in order to achieve his goal, he forces him to the throne. This attitude engages the two brothers in a fierce battle that breaks the family down and jeopardizes the security of the state. In so doing, he only puts forward his own interest instead of preserving the unity of his family or the security of the state. This concern for himself, and not his nephews or the city, leads him away from reality. He does not have any understanding about anything other than himself. He fails to anticipate that Polynices’ forced exile will threaten the city’s safety. Creon’s attempt to force Oedipus to return to Thebes so that the city will benefit from his divine protection reveals another flaw of his personality. The method he adopts is even more questionable since he kidnaps Antigone and Ismene so that their father will follow his daughters (Colonus). He does not seek this protection for the sake of the city but to prepare his plan to take over. This request does not take into account Oedipus’ well-being either because Creon shares the responsibility of his misfortune since he fails to prevent the boys from exiling their own father. This sudden change in his attitude hides a selfish motivation to serve his needs by taking advantage of Oedipus’ gift from the gods. Even though Antigone’s devotion to her father and determination to offer her brother a burial reflect good qualities of her personality, the confusion in her ideas and her inability to understand others hinder her notion of reality. Her efforts to guide her father as he wanders in exile through Greece demonstrate the compassion she has for Oedipus. Her guidance eases up her father’s pain and allows her to become his eyes and help him identify his guests (Colonus). This filial gratitude expresses a true love for her father compared to her brothers who forced him in exile. She experiences displacement in order to serve her father and keep him company. She only returns home after Oedipus’ death in order to tend to another family issue. Caring for the well-being of her family, she runs to rescue her brothers and stop them from battling each other. Having lost both their father and mother, she realizes that the dispute between Eteocles and Polynices jeopardizes the unity of her family. Her attitude differs from that of Creon who nourishes this feud for his own sake. However, as the embodiment of her name that means the opposite opinion (Colonus) Antigone’s open conflict with Creon does not give her a chance to be fulfilled. Antigone’s decision to bury her brother Polynices engages her in a confrontation with Creon that will be costly for both. Suffering from the loss of both her brothers who killed each other, Antigone undergoes the pain of Creon’s refusal to get Polynices buried because he considers him a traitor. However, she defies the order and courageously acknowledges her act when Creon confronts her: “And if my present actions strike you as foolish, / let’s just say I’ve been accused of folly by a fool (Antigone 966). She claims her sanity and challenges Creon who accuses her of madness. She totally disagrees with Creon about the need to let her brother rot in the open air and risks her life to accomplish the mission she assigns herself. She believes in and defends Polynices’ right to be buried and opposes Creon’s argument: “A husband dead, there might have been another. / A child by another too, if I had lost the first. / But mother and father both lost in the halls of Death, / no brother could ever spring to light again” (Antigone 977). The truth behind the argument is striking and reminds of the tragedy in her family. As she realizes the impossibility for her to have another brother, it becomes a challenge for her to provide her deceased brother with final honors. The different appreciation that Antigone and Creon have about the need or not to bury Polynices reveals their personalities and flaws. As Antigone is certain about her rights to bury her brother, Creon is also convinced that in order to protect and honor the city he has to deny Polynices a burial. Each of them believes in the veracity of his or her argument and refuses to concede or even listen to the other’s point of view: “What makes the Sophocles play so disturbing, and so powerful, is precisely that from their own lights Creon and Antigone are both right; and yet they cancel each other out” (Meltzer). Their inability to consider opposing views to their arguments or even seek conventional wisdom from third parties make both of them lose grasp of reality. Each side’s certainty to hold the truth and rights to defend what he or she believes in leads to an inevitable clash with no winner: “At least on the face of it, Creon speaks for the state; Antigone speaks for kinship. Such is the first layer of disharmony between them. Neither can bend, nor indeed even read (as in decipher), the other's moral compass. This is the first antinomy that Sophocles foregrounds” (Meltzer). This failure to perceive the other’s view represents a serious limitation to each of their characters. This confrontation results in Creon’s radical decision that causes more tragedy in the family. When Creon condemns Antigone to death, he is supposedly protecting the state, but he fears more her radicalism which represents a threat to his kingdom. The death of Eteocles and Polynices gives him access to the throne and by eliminating Antigone, he can rule peacefully. His decision to get Antigone killed despite her being engaged to his own son, Haemon, shows how much he enjoys power and how far he is willing to go to preserve it. In an attempt to prove his son the soundness of his position he states: “Show me the man who rules his household well: / I‘ll show you someone fit to rule the state” (Antigone 971). Eager to prove his ruling capabilities, he is ready to sacrifice his own family. However, he fails to convince his son who understands his true motivation and warns him: “assume the world is wrong and you are right. / Whoever thinks that he alone possesses intelligence, / the gift of eloquence, he and no one else, / …spread them open—you will find them empty” (Antigone 972). Haemon gives him a lesson full of wisdom that should urge him to revise his theory; however, his lack of discernment prevents him from grasping the reality. Unaware of the seriousness of his decision and more importantly of the disagreement of his countrymen, Creon keeps his decision until Tiresias warns him. His conversation with the blind prophet reveals his cunning and intention to preserve his power. Although convinced of the power of Tiresias who previously saved the city from the plague, he accuses him of being corrupt and seeking rewards. However, the old man notifies him of his wrong doing and warns him about the fury of the gods. This statement indicates: “The Sophocles play has its Antigone understood—or at least recognized—by another marginal figure, another subject who falls outside the norm in his excess: Tiresias. And insofar as the prophet turns out to be right, the play implicitly supports Antigone, even if it does not understand her” (Meltzer). Tiresias’ intervention confirms Antigone’s position about the necessity to bury the dead; however, it will not be enough to save her. Even though Creon takes the warning seriously and engages in getting the body buried and Antigone released, his efforts will be vain. Antigone’s acceptance of her fate and her confusion between life and death may have made it impossible to save her. The despair in her life marked by so many tragic deaths may have prepared her to die. Aware of the fate the gods reserve her family she does not expect much from life and is ready to join them in the other world. Here is an argument about the two worlds: “If Antigone by her own admission belongs neither to the dead nor to the living, or to both, Creon's own problem is that he distinguishes but badly between the two realms” (Meltzer). This confusion between life and death prepares her to take her own life as Creon expects her to do. By hanging herself she courageously expresses her disappointment in life that even denies her marriage even though Haemon takes his life to join her in the other world. Even though Antigone seems to be right about the need to bury the dead, her failure to get her point understood and her untimely death left her life unfulfilled and unsuccessful. Creon’s persistence leads to the death of his son and wife and causes much sorrow in his life. His failure to integrate and accept others’ views and his obsession to rule makes him sacrifice his whole family. Reluctant to seek the truth or even accept the reality, he gambles power against his family and loses. He recognizes his mistakes too late to save his family. As the Chorus observes: “Wisdom is by far the greatest part of jot, / and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded. / The mighty words of the proud are paid in full / with mighty blows of fate, and at long last / those blows will teach us wisdom” (Antigone 988). His search for power which leads to the conflict with Antigone costs him too much. The loss of his family causes him much grief which signifies his downfall. His survival is full of pain and represents a real punishment, and his life is neither a fulfillment nor a success. As this writer points out: In the disagreement between Creon and Antigone over which obligation should take Precedence, political existence in Thebes is put into question. Even though the play eventually resolves the conflict by showing that the burial rights are the more important obligation, what gives it force as a tragedy and as philosophical inquiry into the conditions of persuasion is the failure of Creon and Antigone to sustain an argument , for it is their inability to argue that destroys them and denies the city a chance to reconstitute itself in response to an inherent tension. (Kastely) Their radical positions cause their misfortune and more pain to the family. Their failure to understand the world around them denies them any notion of reality, fulfillment or success. Although Antigone and Creon follow different paths in their lives, neither of them gets reality right. Despite Antigone’s early efforts to serve her family expectations, her inability to resolve the burial issue peacefully results in her downfall. On the other hand, Creon’s blind search for power and pretention to detain the truth bring him misfortune instead of power: “Both Creon and Antigone begin from positions that have eliminated otherness in the world. For both, the world is imagined as singular; the only real obligations are to the city or to the family” (Kastely). This narrow perception of life causes their downfall. They both fail to achieve fulfillment or success since Antigone dies untimely and Creon lives a miserable life. Works Cited Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto and William E. Cain, ed. In Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. Kastely, James L. “From Formalism to Inquiry: A Model of Argument in Antigone.” College English 62. 2. (1999): 222-41. ProQuest. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Meltzer, Francoise. “Theories of Desire: Antigone Again.” Critical Inquiry 37. (2011): 169-86. ProQuest. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Sophocles. “Antigone.” Barnet 953-88. ---. Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Eamon Grennan and Rachel Kitzinger. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print. ---. “Oedipus the King.” Barnet 910-52. Read More