The Suffering of the Proud Essay -- English Literature Essays

The Suffering of the ProudPride is a key to self-respect however, when it goes to far, people forget that humility is a virtuousness too. In the play Antigone, pride plays a major role throughout, identifym as fatal flaws in both Antigone and Kreon, the main characters of Sophocless tragedy. For Antigone and Kreon, as soon as the stepped past the line of humility, they were doomed to fail. For example, Kreon became so olympian of himself he refused to take heed to others warnings and assumes the gods are on his side. But didnt that misfire do wrong? The whole nation denies it. Will the nation declaim me what orders I can give? (Kreon, Haimon, Kreon 881-3) this is a perfect example, because he refuses to listen to his son, and then, when presented with the fact that the whole nation thinks he is wrong, decides that he doesnt handle what the nation thinks. Throughout the play, his advisor, Koryphaios, repeatedly gives him gentle warnings, and Kreon claims he is getting old, ign ores him, or refutes him with points that only emphasize his out-of-control pride, such as, Men our age, learn from Haimon (Kreon 876). He to a fault assumes that the gods will go along with whatever he says, can you see the gods honoring criminals? Impossible (Kreon 364-5). This kind of attitude is something that appears in almost both Greek myth, the thought that the gods will side with them no matter what, and it incessantly ends up biting them in the rear.Furthermore, Kreon holds his subjects in contempt...