Based on Aristotle’s principles, Kreon is the tragic hero in the story. Aristotle distinguishes between historical and poetical actions and the characters that accompany them. To Aristotle, a tragic hero is a person with easily identifiable characteristics depending on their age. Young tragic heroes “are ready to desire and carry out what they desire. Of the bodily desires, they chiefly obey those of sensual pleasure…They are passionate, hot-tempered, and carried away by impulses, and unable to control their passion” (Aristotle 77). Judging from this rhetoric, Aristotle means that possible tragic characters or heroes include the “type of old men, the type of wealthy men, the type of powerful men, and no doubt variations and combinations of the above.” Although these universal characters would get certain names in tragic plays, they would remain universals or types. At the opening of Poetics, Aristotle contends that the main aim of a tragic poet is creating good, harmonious, similar, and consistent characters.
Kreon is the tragic hero based on Aristotle’s principles because he meets all the four characteristics that go with that title. First, he has a tragic flaw; he is prideful, like his niece Antigone. This pride makes him disrespect the prophet and God’s message regarding his handling of Antigone’s misbehavior. Kreon’s pride is also evident in his tendency to be a poor and highly resistant listener that often shows contempt for the opinions of the general citizens (Sophocles 34). Second, Kreon has a rank; he is the ruler of his people and understands power usage. He is sententious in his speech and uses ponderous clichés. Since he is a constitutional monarch with authoritarian leanings, Kreon is a complex figure. He uses the council of elders to ratify his decisions and accepts their advice on two occasions.
Kreon also announces that he has nothing against the principle of rotating leadership. Unfortunately, Kreon is tyrannically fearful about conspiracies against him, partly because he is a poor and resistant listener. Kreon experiences a dramatic fall owing to his pride – his son commits suicide. “the unfortunate boy has shown all men how of all evils which afflict mankind, the most disastrous one is thoughtlessness” (Sophocles 1383-1385). Because he was a prideful ruler, Kreon could not listen to anyone else but himself. Thus, he ended up killing an innocent child and occasioning the death of his son. This misfortune helps him recognize his faults. He acknowledges his blunders by stating, “Mistakes made by a foolish mind, cruel mistakes that bring on death” (Sophocles 1406-1407). In this regard, Kreon fulfills all the characteristics of a tragic hero.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics. ReadHowYouWant. com, 2006.