Tragic Hero in Sophocles

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Tragic Hero in Sophocles
Tragic heroes fall due to their inert nature, and before they do, they often realize how fatal their judgments and decisions have always been. In addition to coming to a realization of the fatal nature of their decisions, tragic heroes must be of noble birth and always strive to achieve the best for the community and themselves (Oudemans and André 208).
Antigone and Creon may appear to be of noble birth, but that is not the case, as the Antigone is a result of a bother and sister’s illicit affair. Antigone does qualify as of noble blood as she is born out of forbidden relations. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must be of noble blood. Creon, on the other hand, is pure as his blood as no impurities as a consequence of disturbing intimate relations in the past (Grene and Richard 64).
Creon and Antigone exhibit self-righteousness, which leads to their fall. They both believe in justice, but they disagree on the source of justice and what justice should be. As all tragic heroes, Creon is a man full of hubris; he believes justice is what the leader decides (Oudemans and André 161). Creon trashes the possibility that there is an external force, the gods, to which power belongs. Antigone is cautious, and she believes the contrary to Creon. Creon becomes a product of his character flaws and finally suffers from transgressing the laws of the gods.
Tragic heroes must reach an elevated level of comprehension, in which they realize how wrong they have always been.

It is only Creon who comes to the realization of how he has always made fatal decisions (Grene and Richard 81). Antigone never comes to a state of self-realization before facing her tragic end. Having looked at the nature of birth, tragic flaws, and coming to the realization of one’s wrongs, Creon stands tall as the tragic hero in Sophocles.

Works Cited
Grene, David, and Richard Lattimore. Antigone. Pocket Books, 1977.
Oudemans, T C, and André P Lardinois. Tragic ambiguity: anthropology, philosophy and Sophocles’ Antigone. Vol. 4. Brill, 1987.