How much must a person endure in the face of pain? Loss? Suffering? Loss of a father? Death of both of the brothers at each other's hands? This enormity of death deeply influences the characters' rationales and actions in the play Antigone by Sophocles. Each character behaves in extremes due to his or her unfathomable anguish. Neither Antigone, Haimon, nor Creon act with reason because of their intense personal losses and grief. Unfortunately, both extreme passion and radical reasoning manifest serious tragedy. Antigone, the protagonist of the play, lives with her father’s banishment and the death of her two brothers in a civil war. To add to the torment of the death of her brother, Polynieces, a decree passed by Antigone's uncle, Creon, …show more content…
These 4,290,180 souls are classified as “persons of concern”. according to the UNHCR. These “persons of concern” are refugees, and each of these people are the sons, daughters, nephews, or nieces of those in power – the same as the family connection between Antigone and her uncle, Creon. But Creon behaves with the same blindness of his brother-in-law, Oedipus, repeating the same pattern of tragedy; he places the city law above moral love. In response to Antigone’s recalcitrance, Creon, the ruler, orders her death. It is not that he is blind to her role in his life, for he agonizes, “… I suppose she’ll plead “family ties. Well, let her. /If I permit my own family to rebel, /How shall I earn the world’s obedience?” (Scene 3 31-33). Creon places the importance of restoring peace and order in Thebes over the death of his nephew; steadfast in the laws of the land, his narrow vision leads to greater personal tragedy. In his final verdict, “’ […] [T]ake her to the vault /And leave her alone there. And if she lives or dies, /That’s her affair, not ours: our hands are clean’” (Scene 4 236-238), Creon buries his niece alive in a stone vault. The consequences that follow leave him a doomed man. Yes, he maintains rule over, Thebes but he loses everything he loves. His stubborn passion for the law and restoration of Thebes shatter him as a man; his denial human emotions results in serious