Sophocles Detailed Analysis
When powerful leaders abuse their influence, they often refuse to concede that they are wrong. They believe that they always make the right and justifiable decision, since someone chose them to take responsibility over a group of people, so they must have the best judgment out of everyone. The same idea applies to King Creon in Sophocles's play Antigone, who orders his men to wall up the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone, in a tomb, after he had found out that she was responsible for her brother Polynices's burial. When Tiresias, a blind seer, appears in the palace after Creon's decision, he persuades Creon that he must save Antigone from her punishment. This scene represents the epiphany of Creon, who suddenly realizes his misbehavior. In the passage on page 115, Tiresias reveals the truth to Creon, with the use of the formal elements metaphors, repetend and imagery. These formal elements convey a very critical tone towards Creon, and ultimately suggest Creon's failing as a king. Tiresias primarily uses metaphors in his speech to show his criticism towards Creon. Tiresias explains to Creon what will happen if he does not revoke his sentence, and he clarifies that he will lose "a corpse for corpses given i
Tiresias shows Creon his discontent with his bearing by use of various formal elements. With his speech, he makes clear that he disagrees with Creon's decision, but when reading the passage, one might wonder why Tiresias does not hurry so that Creon is able to still save Antigone, but rather vividly explains his point of view to Creon, which ensures Antigone's death. Of course this could be due to the seer's age, which might mean that he is senile, as well as slow. But then why would the gods choose him as the one to transmit the truth to Creon? Would that mean that the gods share some of the guilt as well? n return" (l. 1185). This relates to Antigone's double personality, since she was a sister to Oedipus, but at the same time she was his daughter. Therefore, according to Tiresias, the gods must take two of Creon's relatives, to be commensurate to Antigone's death. Tiresias advocates the punishment, since he knows that Creon's demeanor was unjustified, which emphasizes his criticism towards Creon. Tiresias continues with a metaphorical comparison of Creon's punishment to Furies lying in wait for him. This shows the striking force that the punishment will have, and again Tiresias does not see Creon as the victim, but recognizes that the king perfected these pains by himself (l. 1197). Tiresias criticism also becomes evident when he compares himself with an archer who looses arrows on Creon's heart (l. 1206-09) The arrows represent the truth that Tiresias had just revealed to the king, and the fact that he embodies the archer exposes that he do
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Approximate Word count = 1049
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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