The Peculiar Relation of Creon With the Underworld

The author provides an explanation to Creon’s indecisiveness earlier in the play when the king delivers strange sentence to Antigone. When Creon meets his loyal son Haemon, he calls for his support and initially receives it. Creon is well satisfied and, being in a pleasant mood, propagates his son to “let [Antigone] find a husband among the dead”. Thus, Creon appears to be determined to execute Antigone. Yet Haemon is adamant and pleads mercy for his fiancé. In the following passionate rant, Creon once again displays his emotion and, at one point, is ready to execute Antigone “in front of [Haemon’s] eyes, besides her groom!” The end is nearing, yet the king of Thebes is hesitant again. When Haemon exits the stage, Creon crafts Antigone a bizarre punishment to “wall her up alive/in a rocky vault, and set out short rations…” Such penalty looks incomplete and potentially reversible. It is odd to see a king undo his decision in a matter of minutes. Creon is however not without a reason: simultaneously, he releases Antigone’s sister, Ismene, “the one whose hands are clean”. There must be a reason for Creon’s awkward change of course. He seems to be torn between the demands of his king’s duties and his increasing indecisiveness. There is powerful symbolism present in his act: Creon has prior ordered that the dead body of a traitor Polynices be left unburied and has now arranged the entombment of Antigone alive. Creon appears here as a weak and controversial character and the author provides further evidence of this when Antigone is taken to her custody.

Parting with Antigone, Creon in a few lines reveals the ultimate reason for his perverse verdict. In this act, his orders are finally served. Polynices lies bare in the heat with no one left to bury him; Antigone is walled in her tomb; the Chorus is supportive as ever. What else would Creon want? As he openly says for himself, “[Creon’s] hands are clean”. Creon did not execute Antigone, moreover he left her a precarious choice – “death or buried life with a good roof for shelter”. Creon’s actions reveal that he left the choice for himself instead: to reconsider. Such ambiguity allows him to defer the inevitable, or consider himself clean in case Antigone kills herself. What he needs is to demonstrate that he is a resolute governor, and also to prevent Antigone from openly challenging his authority in public. Creon knows that Antigone is determined to die - not only she has stated that clearly to him: “… if I am to die before my time/I consider that again”. She also confirmed it by all her behavior: she came twice to bury Polynices as if she wanted to be caught in the act. She confessed in the very first interrogation. She also challenged the king openly. For Creon, the odds are that she will die regardless, thus releasing him from a cruel act and keeping his consciousness clean. He made his cowardice calculation but it goes spectacularly wrong.

Instead of killing Antigone and coming clean out of it, Creon faces humiliation and personal defeat. Sophocles does not leave Creon a chance to retain dignity. Upon hearing a fateful prophecy, Creon suddenly loses all characteristics of a confident king. He hesitates and seeks advice of the Chorus if “it’s a dreadful thing to yield … but resist now?” In a desperate attempt to avoid his fate, Creon makes an abrupt reversal of his deeds. He is unable even to make an order and leaves it to the leader of the Chorus to call to “free the girl from the rocky vault/and raise a mound for the body [Creon] exposed”. Creon finally appears here as a weak and controversial character that has fallen as a victim of the circumstances and his own indecisiveness.

Creon’s controversial attitude to death and burial is highlighted by his personal tragedy. By announcing his interdict to bury Polynices, he launches a fateful set of events that destroy his family and ruin his life. Creon is torn between his duties of a king and his calculated desire to keep his hands clean. However, in politics, especially when dealing with human life and death, hands often get dirty. Weak and hesitant Creon is not ready to rise to the occasion and to reverse his decisions. Unable at first to bury Polynices and then to release Antigone, Creon shows early signs of hesitation and controversy. By keeping one dead body exposed and entombing another live person with food rations, Creon challenges ancient laws and plots a dramatic background for his personal ruin. The forces of destiny are set into motion and Creon finally breaks under their pressure – too late for him and for other characters. By attempting to return the dead to earth and the live to the daylight, Creon demonstrates the weakness of his character hidden behind his mask of a firm and stubborn ruler.