I enjoyed reading this play, it was well written, suspenseful, and had a very good climax and ending. Although, I still prefer Oedipus : The King over this story, simply because the story was so bizarre and uncanny, and very unpredictable, unlike it’s predecessor (when I first read it) I could not guess the events that were going to take place at all. But I will say, this story seemed much more realistic and had a classic moral of the story (Don’t be full of yourself) which I appreciate. I liked the characters in this story much better too, they all varied heavily and had their own different motivations and struggles.
The characters in the story were well bred and I found myself rooting for too many people. My favorite characters were Haemon and Creon. Haemon was introduced after the conflict had been introduced, he attempted to sway his father to not kill Antigone and Ismene. His reasons were logical and true, he claimed to not be in the favor of Antigone (his soon wife to be) but Creon didn’t believe him but I did. He completely fooled me, the way he presented his points were in an organized manner, he listened to what his father had to say and then countered everything he said with ease , that impressed me. I love characters that are able to put up a fake front and beneath all that, have them working out a good plan. Although, I hated that he killed himself after Antigone died, it reminded me of the play Romeo and Juliet, I disliked Romeo and Haemon because I found it childish and annoyingly stubborn for them to do that. Anyway, the reason I liked Creon was because of his character development. He begins the story as probably the most hated character. Selfish, self-centered and obsessed with his power. He made decisions that he wanted to, ones that would not benefit the country but ones that would show the people he was powerful.
“Am I rule this land for others-or myself? (pg,97).
This was brought to our attention and to Creon’s but he denies it and claims that ruling is only for the king and not for the people. He decided he was going to rule with an iron fist and anyone who defies him will be punished, until the arrival of Tiresias.
“They know this too, learn this by heart! The chariot of the sun will not race through so many circuits more, before you have surrendered one born of your own loins, your own flesh and blood, a corpse for corpses given in return, since you have thrust to the world below a child sprung for the world above…” (pg,115).
Tiresias tells him what was going to happen because of his actions and what he has to do to avoid it. At first, he’s stubborn and doesn’t want to cooperate with his advice, fully embodying Oedipus in this scene. Perhaps he got reminded of Oedipus’s case with his own actions, but he changed after Tiresias spoke with him, and he tried to fix his mistakes. Sure it probably wasn’t because he regretted his actions but at the very least he still acted, he went against his own desires and headstrong will to attempt to fix things, and for that I grant him the title of “My favorite character”, in this play.