Antigone

In Antigone the greatest fool is Creon and we can all learn a lesson from his arrogance. This story is in many ways a way of telling us what not to do if, god forbid, we ever end up with power over anyone else's life but our own. Creon, the brute, believes that man is defined by his subjugation of others. "For he is man and he is cunning," says the chorus, "and he has invented ways to take controll" (15). The reason I say that Creon believes this is that he is all for putting others under the yoke. Later he claims that "reject one man ruling another and that's the worst. Anarchy tears up a city" (29). Creon, like a stubborn parent, punishes Antigone, not because she is hurting others but because she challenges the established heirarchy with her deffieance. Creno, it seems, believes that the law must be unchanging if it is to be respected. There are others, howerver, that believe differently. On page 31 we hear talk of trees in a flood and how, if they bend, they will be saved. In antigone it is failure to change your mind that is the deepest folly and symptomatic of tyrany. To the universe, we are very small. Infentisamal, in fact, and her will is greater than ours. To refuse to let her lead the dance from time to time is foolishness because her will is greater than ours. She does not need us, we need her, and it is best to submit to circumstances rather than be broken by the stream, for "Zeus hates an arrogant boast with towering hatred."