Pride and its effects are a central part of Antigone. It is a trait despised by the gods, who bring suffering to the proud, but to the Greek mind pride is also a part of greatness. Both Antigone and Creon are incredibly proud, making it impossible for either one of them to back down once they have taken a stand. Pride is part of what makes Antigone heroic. Creon realizes that in the end when he is completely alone in his life because everyone is dead. His pride had caused him to lose everything in his life that was important to him; his family, his friends, and respect from certain people.
Antigone rises up against the state power alone. She rises up against the state power because of the divine law in which she has heavy beliefs in and because she strongly believes that the state is doing wrong in not allowing her brother Polynices to be buried and can not believe that Polynices could be a traitor. Antigone is a threat to the status quo. She invokes divine law as defense of her actions, but hidden in her position is faith in the discerning powers of her individual conscience. She sacrifices her life out of devotion to principles higher than human law. Antigone can either be seen as an ignorant fool because she does not want to believe he is a traitor and that the state is wrong. Or she can be seen as the heroine who goes against the state to do what she believes is the truly right thing to do. The freedom of Greek woman during the 5th and 6th century was very limited. Antigone's gender has profound affects on the meaning of her actions. Creon himself says that the need to defeat her is all the more pressing because she is a woman. The rules and strictures placed on women were great even for the ancient world. Antigone's rebellion is especially threatening because it upsets gender roles and hierarchy. By refusing to be passive, she overturns one the fundamental rules of her culture.
Conscience versus law caused a major change in Creon, but for him all changes are too late because he loses his family, his friends, and respect from certain people. Creon makes a mistake in sentencing Antigone to death but his position is an understandable one. Creon as a new ruler is still trying to establish himself as a supreme ruler of all. On the other hand, Creon's need to defeat Antigone seems at times to be extremely personal. At stake is not only the order of the state, but his pride and sense of himself as a king and, more fundamentally, a man. Athenians were sensitive to the idea of tyranny and the fine line between a strong leader and a brutal tyrant. Creon is in many ways a sympathetic character, but he often abuses his power. His faults do not necessarily lie in a lust for power, for example often, he has noble intentions. He is completely loyal to the state, but he is subject to human weakness and poor judgment. Creon has committed himself to acts he finds despicable if the order of the state demands it. Antigone's insistence on her desire in face of state power brings ruin into Thebes and to Creon specifically. With the death of his family, Creon is left utterly alone in the palace. His throne even robs him of his mourning, the king and his pace sadly shuttling off to a cabinet meeting after the announcement of the family's deaths.
Antigone and Creon both undergo many changes to their personality, their beliefs, and their ways of living. But in the end it is only Creon who has the ability to change his life and keep on living it in a more respectable and more understanding way. But Creon has to live with the deaths and his fatal mistakes that he has made. Antigone has a very short time to adapt to the changes in her life but she does not see much point because she has been sentenced to a very slow death.
