In the play "Antigone," Creon has sentenced his son's fiance', Antigone, to death because she has broken the law by burying her brother, Polyneices. Because Creon's son, Haemon, feels that his father is being irrational, Haimon tries to persuade Creon to stop the death of Antigone. Furthermore, Haimon has feelings for Antigone which raises his desperation to convince his father. After Haimon cautions Creon against being single-minded and self-involved, Creon becomes enraged and calls his son disrespectful and the slave of a woman. Creon also states that he will not go to school to a boy, which further shows his arrogance. The purpose of Haimon's speech is to make Creon understand that laws sometimes need to be bent for the greater good, not be held on to for the reputation and pride of the ruler. .
The passage stated by Haemon is meant to save Antigone and to help Creon understand his wrongdoings. In the speech, he speaks a metaphor about how in flood time, the trees that bend are safe and how the inflexible trees get uprooted. This is meant to show Creon that rulers that are flexible with their decisions are like the trees which can withstand the floods, always enduring but never breaking. In the analogy, Creon can be both the tree or the wave. As a wave however, he is the tyrant. Strong-willed people who are not willing to go with the flow get torn down first and people that submit to his laws are safe. But even the ones that yield to his rule always snap back up, just like people overthrowing a king. So as long as Creon is uncompromising, he is bound to unfavorable outcomes.
In "Antigone," foreshadowing is an important literary element. In Haimon's speech, he darkly hints that Creon's murder of Antigone will lead to the death of another person. Haimon says, "Then she must die. But her death will cause another"" (Sophocles 222). Haimon leaves Creon shortly after and goes to find Antigone.