On last Wednesday, 25th January,2006, during our two hour class with Dr. Edwin, we had discussed about the personal traits of Creon, the King of Thebes who is also the tragic hero of the play . In the story, the writer has brilliantly portrayed Creon as an arrogant king, not only to his people, but also to the Gods.Through out his conversation with the guard who has come reporting to him about Polyneices’ body being buried, he has showed that he is dogmatic and unwilling to listen to other people’s view. He only believes what he wants to and he accuses the guard of being corrupted by money. The writer also has exposed that Creon can be unreasonable and unfair. This is portrayed when he has threatened the old guard with torment before death if the guard could not catch the person who disobeys Creon’s law.
Creon’s arrogance extends toward his Gods when he actually disobeys the divine’s law and proclaims a new edict of not allowing anyone to bury Polyneices’ body. He even offends and insults Tiresias, the seer and also the one who is given the prophecies. Offending the representative of Gods is offending the Gods also. "Never to break the ancient law is best", but unfortunately,Creon is too late to realise that.The blow of fate has already taken its place.
Some words were given emphasis during the class such as “wise”, “foolish”, and “shrewd”. Being wise is a king’s personal trait. To have a king with wisdom is to have a king who always thinks for his own people’s benefits. Creon, being unreasonable in his actions has acted as God himself and inflicts the unhonourable punishment for the death. For this, he has been foolish as his edict which is the symbol of his haughtiness has brought disaster to himself. Shrewd is a personal trait for the guard, who reports to Creon about the bad news. He has uses his intelligence for his own advantage. He has struggled to defend himself, bragging his loyalty and showing his determination in identifying the one who disobeys Creon’s law.