Antigone

            Sophocles concludes his tragedy, Antigone, with Choragos breaking the fourth wall and offering to the audience both a summation of the theme of the play and the lesson to be learned from the tragedy's of both Antigone and Creon. Choragos states: .
             There is no happiness where there is no wisdom:.
             No wisdom but in submission to the gods.
             Big words are always punished,.
             And proud men in old age learn to be wise.
             Pride was a major cause for the down fall of both Creon and Antigone as well as the protagonist of Sophocles prequal to Antigone, Oedipus. Choragos mentions pride but he is sure to first put the lesson of the play, which is that you can't be happy unless you are in your rightful place among the gods.
             Pride in one form or another causes the downfall of all three characters, and is the common theme among Creon and Antigone in Antigone. Creon's pride in his country and his arrogance in his ruling being the correct way conflicts with the equally strong pride of Antigone, whose pride lies in her family and belief in the gods. When this immense pride of both the characters crashes, the reader finds them at the bottom of their long journey down. "Fate had brought all my pride to a thought of dust" (Sophocles, 1081). Take this pride with the stubbornness of youth and it becomes even more clear how pride brought tragedy to both Antigone and Creon.
             There are several valuable lessons, universals truths, that, through Sophocles characters, to be learned for Antigone. A major part of Sophocles tragedies is the chorus, which has many uses but was mostly a summation of the events thus far. As part of the chorus, Choragos is the concluding speaker of both tragedies, Oedipus Rex and Antigone, and in both he summates the play with universal truths, learned through the characters of the play. From those concluding lines, the reader's full attention is brought to the fact that the character's pride and arrogance blinded them from seeing the truth.