Antigone - 19

Antigone

There comes a time where pride can cause a person to go against what they consider right; In the play Antigone by Sophocles demonstrates how someone having too much or too little pride can be the downfall of themselves or what the effects it can have on a person are. Although pride is something that we all possess, we must pick the right time to display it for everyone to see. Throughout the play, Antigone continues to demonstrate a strong sense of pride to her own family values and those of the Gods, Creon demonstrates his own sense of pride and it becomes his own worst enemy, and Haemon shows his own self pride to overcome his fathers arrogance.

The pride that Antigone shows throughout the whole play is something that is to be admired by many. Placing her own personal and familial values above the laws of the state is an incredible act of selflessness on her part. Antigone admits from the beginning that she wants to carry out the burial because the action is 'glorious ' and 'good ' in her eyes and also the eyes of the city of Thebes. She shows a great amount of pride for the Gods and honoring the laws that they have set in place for everyone to abide by. "We have only a little time to please the living, but all eternity to love the dead (Sophocles, pg128)." And by that, Antigone is forever putting herself above all things she believes to be unjust during her lifetime because she believes that we only have a small time frame to please everyone while we 're living, but forever to love all of our loved ones that have passed away during our own lifetime. Her pride was to her demise as well, as it led to an unjust death for putting her love for her family and her love for the Divine Laws above all else. When people think about pride they think that it can only be strictly positive; but the word pride also has a negative definition; in the negative sense 'pride ' refers to an inflated sense of one 's personal status or accomplishment, which, in Creon 's case is completely accurate. He believes himself to be such a great ruler and builds up peoples confidence in him with clever wording: "My councilors: ... I have called you especially out of all my people (Sophocles, pg. 130)". Although the councilors possess such great knowledge and wisdom Creon does not actually believe them to be of any help and only relies on himself and his arrogance. When Creon argues with Tiresias, who was believed to be one of the smartest men of his time, he insists that he himself is correct in his justification and Tiresias is incorrect; Creon 's arrogant pride dismisses even the wisest of advice, such as that of the elders and Tiresias, as he falsely believes his own reasoning is greater than anyone else. Creon thinks he should have control over everything, including the feelings and relationships of his own son solely because he is king. When Antigone went directly against this law that he had set in order and buried her brother, she was also taking a situation that Creon thought he had the sole power to control, and taking charge herself. This was a huge blow to Creon’s pride. Creon says: “Better be beaten, if need be, by a man, Than let a woman get the better of us.” (Sophocles pg 144). He would rather lose his crown to a man, than to have Antigone appear stronger or more intelligent than him.

Creon always seems to have the last word in any confrontation, but his son Haemon has the one up on him towards the end of the play. He sides with Creon to his face, and tells him what he needs to know but, he truly lies with Antigone and what they both believe is just. Creon expected Haemon to feel or think whatever Creon wanted him to, and not to have his own opinion on the matter and just to conform the Creon 's rules and his shared sense of pride. Haemon standing up to his father before his death was the last straw to overcome his father 's pride; when Haemon 's body was brought in Creon had nothing left to himself, he was alone, brought down and destroyed all because of his large sense of pride. All of us have some sort of overwhelming pride in something; Antigone had it in her own personal and familial values, Creon had it in himself, and Haemon had it in everyone. Although pride is something that anyone can never have too much or too little of, it 's genuinely what makes or shapes a person and what decisions or consequences become of that; Ultimately pride is often the root of our being, what determines who we all are as individuals.

Bibliography

Sophocles, Antigone, London, Penguin Group, 1947

Bibliography: Sophocles, Antigone, London, Penguin Group, 1947