In the play Antigone the playwright Sophocles presents Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero in the character King Creon. According to Aristotle's writing, "Poetics," a tragic hero is a character of noble stature that falls from his grace due to a tragic flaw, which moves the audience to feel pity for him. Creon displays the elements of a tragic hero throughout his development as a tyrant.
The first distinction between a tragic hero and a non-hero, according to Aristotle's definition, is a fatal flaw that leads to the character's demise. Creon possesses hubris, or excessive pride. Creon's hubris is first evident when he fails to acknowledge the will of the Gods after finding out Antigone has buried Polyneices. Creon argues with his son Haimon who feels that it is wrong to punish Antigone for she went against the law because of her strong ethics and feels that it is her moral obligation. Creon then responds saying, "My voice is the one voice giving orders in this city! The State is the King!." The reader is now introduced to Creon's development as a tyrant who feels that the law is more potent than ethics. Creon's hubris does not only turn Creon into a dictator but it dictates his decisions, causing him to make rash decisions . Hubris prevents Creon from recognizing his self-destructive behavior before it is too late. When Teiresias tells Creon that the gods are displeased with his decision to not bury Polyneices and condemn Antigone to death, Creon accuses Teiresias of disloyalty and succumbing to bribery. Ironically enough, in Sophocle's play "Oedipus Rex" Creon is accused by Oedipus of succumbing to bribery with Teiresias, showing that Creon's hubris is blinding him from the advice of others. Such accusations made by Creon prove to be counter-productive, for Teiresias did speak the truth and Creon is only further drawn into his false reality dictated by hubris. One critic states "[a tragic hero is] not eminently good and just, not completely under the guidance of true reason, but as falling through some great error or flaw of character, rather than through vice or depravity".
