There are many different underlying themes in the plot of the play Antigone. I believe Sophocles is trying to show us not only an intense example of a Greek tragedy but also a story of a cynical power absorbed man who goes on a journey to self discovery.
Kreon is a central character in the play and when read literally can seem like quite a mean man with no sympathy for anyone. I actually have the most sympathy for Kreon of all the characters presented. Kreon has just started to hold the role as the King for his society and is faced with many both emotional and mind puzzling issues.
In the play Antigone fights for an honorable burial for her brother Polyneices, a man who Kreon greatly disliked. Kreon is hesitant to perform the rituals and give Polyneices his formal burial, and I do not blame him for this. If we were asked to bless and bury our worst enemy it would be a very hard thing to do. When the Greeks buried the dead they were honoring the person and it was a remembrance of them. If you did not like the person or support any of their beliefs while they were living, then why honor them? Kreon makes the unwise decision to banish the body and refuses the burial, which makes Antigone take matters into her own hands to honor the brother whom she loved.
One fact about Kreon that strikes me as very important is how he deals with issues in the society. He holds inside himself a lot of emotion, which makes him seem to the audience to be a very angry man, while I just think he is rather confused and does not know where to turn. He is the king and believes that he cannot turn to anyone for advice, yet he does not hold all the answers to his problems in his own mind. This leads him to make very poor decisions costing other people their fate. .
It was discussed in class whether or not the character of Haimon was valuable to the plot of the play. My stance on this is that he is one of the most important characters and that some of the dialogue in the play shared between Kreon and Haimon is critical to Kreon's turning point.