Essay about Tyrant and Martyr in Sophocles Antigone

Tyrant and Martyr in Antigone quot;The tyrant dies and his rule ends,the martyr dies and his rule begins.quot; Soren Kierkegaard This quote applies to Sophocles’ play Antigone in many ways. The two lines can be used to describe the opposition of the two main characters in the play, Creon and Antigone. One is a king new to the throne who will not be ruling for long, and the other, a martyr whose strong convictions will live on even after her death. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; In the first line of his quote, Kierkegaard states that a tyrant’s reign dies with him. Creon, in the play Antigone, is unquestionably the tyrant. Although he is new on the throne, he has already started to show his true colors. He is inflexible and unyielding,†¦show more content†¦To him, the state is everything and the people’s respect for its authority is in fact its power. With the frame of mind, Creon governs Thebes with an iron fist, and like many other rulers of the past, obsessively controls everything that happens within his territory. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The tyrant’s ‘death’ in this play signifies on two levels. On the first level, Creon can no longer take on the role of king when he brings misfortune and disgrace upon himself. He is politically ‘dead’. As his life begins to crumble with the death of his wife and child, he becomes drained of spiritual strength. He becomes an empty, broken man, with ‘neither life nor substance’ as incentive to live or rule. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; In either case, Creon’s regime eventually falls apart because there is no one left to take the helm. Although a new king may be found to take his place, Creon’s reign over Thebes has definitely come to an end. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; In the second line, Kierkegaard states that when the martyr dies, his rule begins. A martyr is someone who dies for his or her beliefs in the hopes that it will change the current state of affairs. In the play, Antigone fits this definition very well. She is young and stubborn in her beliefs and feels that it is her duty to bury her dead brother, Polyneices. Unlike Creon, she believes that the laws of the gods are stronger than the laws of the state. This is apparent in the Prologue when she tells her sister: But I willShow MoreRelatedAntigone And Creon As A Tyrant1452 Words   |  6 Pages Antigone takes place just after a war between Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices. Eteocles fought on the side of Thebes whereas Polynices resembled an invader. Afterwards, Eteocles is buried and seen as honorable. However, Polynices is denied a proper burial because he is considered a traitor to Thebes. 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