Creon The Authoritarion Essay, Research Paper

Creon the Authoritarian

Banish the man, or pay back blood with blood. Murder sets the plague-storm on the city.

In Sophocles s tragedies Oedipus the King and Antigone, Creon is an authoritarian. It can be seen that Creon is an authoritarian when he is elevated to king and how he is an order politician as king, which leads to his demise.

Creon s authoritarian persona is initially exposed when he is elevated to king, in the closing stages of Oedipus the King. When Creon takes over Oedipus s throne, Creon rubs in Oedipus s face that he is the new king and none of [Oedipus s] power [will] follow [him] through life , which establishes Creon as being considered an authoritarian. Creon not only procures Oedipus s reign as king but he also brings in Oedipus s children. Creon takes the children away from [Oedipus] to illustrate his authority in being the new king. When Oedipus is escorted out of the palace he is holding on to his children. Creon expresses his authority as the new king by ordering Oedipus to come along let go of your children. Creons elevation to king, divulges just the beginning of his authoritarian nature. A more accurate example of Creon s authoritarian nature can be established because of his style of being an order politician as king.

Creon s authoritarian nature makes him an order politician. Creon believes the city is the king s and thinks it s the law This belief is what makes him the order politician in Antigone. He thinks he owns the city and can tell everyone what to do. [As Creon sees it] whoever assumes the task, the awesome task of setting the city’s course, and refuses to adopt the soundest policies, but fearing someone keeps his lips tight, he s utterly worthless. Creon believes that he must be in unmitigated control of himself and his people. Readers recognize that Creon is going to be an order politician in the story of Antigone, because of the ending to Oedipus the King, when he tells Oedipus Think no longer you are in command here, but rather think how, when you were, you served your own destruction. Creon s thoughts of Oedipus come back to haunt him because like Oedipus, Creon’s Authoritarian nature leads to his downfall.

Creon s downfall is caused by his Tyrannical nature akin to Oedipus s. Creon is so convinced that he is right about everything that he stops listening to anybody opposing him. Creon s downfall causes him to perceive himself as a rash, indiscriminate fool. His downfall also leads to his slaying of his son and wife against [his] will , just like Oedipus s collapse began, when Jocasta snuffed herself by her own hand. One would think that Creon would have erudited from Oedipus s downfall that he can not be so shrewd and that he has to take notice to others, but he didn t so Creon also served his own demise because of his Authoritarian disposition just as Oedipus did.

Creon s authoritarian nature is what caused his downfall. Like Adolph Hitler, of the communist party and Willy in, Death of A Salesman, Creon tries to bully everyone around. Whether it is appropriate or erroneous he tries to tell everyone what to do