Archives for March 2004

In the play “Antigone”, Sophocles at first portrays Creon as a just leader. He has good, rational reasons for his laws and punishments. By the end of the play Creon’s hubris, or excessive pride, has taken over him, which leads to his demise. He does not realize how bad his hubris has interfered with his dealing of problems until Teiresias’s prophecy. By then it is too late. This is the path of a tragic character. The character has a hamartia, or tragic flaw. More often then not that tragic flaw is excessive pride, hubris. The character then goes through a peripetia, which is an ironic twist where the character realizes that things will not turn out the way he expected. Finally, the character has an anagnorisis, which is their epiphany that makes them realize their hamartia and see their place in the universe. Creon is the tragic character in the play “Antigone”.

Creon’s tragic flaw, hubris, causes his downfall. Creon will not listen to anyone. He is stubborn and his pride is so great, he can not bring himself to acknowledge that he could ever wrong. When Creon is talking to Teiresias, he thinks that he is being paid off. He does not want to believe he could be wrong about Antigone. Creon even says, “Whatever you say, you will not change my will.” Creon also has a self-righteousness and cockiness, a feeling a he is superior to all. “The State is King!” says Creon, which shows that he even thinks he’s better than the gods are. Creon has too much pride, and the gods do not like that. Creon’s hubris causes his downfall.

Teiresias’s prophecy reveals that Creon is doomed and can not escape fate. When Teiresias tries to make his sacrifice it won’t burn and the birds are fighting, which isn’t a good sign. This means that the gods are angry about something. He also says, “Think: all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” Creon has chances to make up for his wrongs and let Antigone free, but he chooses not to because of his pride. This also shows that Creon is doomed. Teiresias also says, “You should be able to yield for your own good.” This is one thing Creon can’t do. Creon is stubborn and reluctant to back down from his laws. He has to look like a strong, unyielding leader, which is a problem. A strong leader would also be able to recognize his faults, but not Creon. Teiresia’s prophecy shows that Creon is doomed and can not escape fate.

Creon finally realizes that his hubris has not let him effectively deal with his conflicts. Creon has his epiphany and even says, “I have been rash and foolish.” He finally acknowledges that he has let his pride take over for the worse. Creon also realizes that it was his fault Haimon dies. He would not listen to Haimon and take his advice. Creon almost seemed like he wanted Haimon to be angry so he put Antigone in the vault. He couldn’t see that Haimon was in love and Antigone was just trying to honor the dead because of his hubris. Creon also says, “My own blind heart has brought me from darkness to final darkness.” This shows he knows he didn’t use his brain top solve his problems. He was already heading the wrong direction with his pride and it finally was too much. Creon’s hubris has not let him effectively deal with his conflicts.

Creon goes through all the phases of a tragic character. His hubris doesn’t effectively let him deal with his problems. Teiresias’s prophecy is the peripetia and Creon finds out things won’t go the way he planned. Finally, Creon has his anagnorisis and realizes that his hubris has brought his downfall. Creon is truly the tragic character in “Antigone”.

There advantages and disadvantages of the Terror as an instrument of the French Revolution on the common folk had to be cautious, foreigners who were confused, and leaders of the revolution who should have concentrated the many other problems in France.

The Terror kept made common people fear for their lives. General Ronsin, a leader of the Revolutionary Army, said in a letter that during a rebelling in Lyon over 400 rebels were killed. This would serve as an example to anyone thinking of rebelling. A chart shows the percentage of people killed in France, and 68% of the people killed were peasants or part of the working class. Those two classes were the easiest to target because they were a majority and could pose a threat, not that they were likely to. Camille Desmoulins, a journalist, writes, “Could you make a single man perish on the scaffold without making ten enemies for yourself from his family or his friends?” This makes a good point that the government makes more enemies as they kill more people. The enemies the government made weren’t very likely to rebel, but they were accused of conspiring against the government and were killed. Public opinion collected by the government showed “that they acquit the innocent and punish the guilty, although murmurs are heard among the public at their judgments”, which showed that the people didn’t really agree, but couldn‘t do anything about it. One citizen thought that good people were imprisoned. Another citizen said, “The law is just, it strikes rich and poor indiscriminately.” He was really being sarcastic and meant that the rich were overlooked but the poor were watched very carefully. One last citizen said that “there is no section in Paris which is not dissatisfied with its revolutionary committee or does not seriously desire to have them abolished.” The Terror was a disadvantage for the common people.

The Terror made the foreigners confused, but it also made them intimidated. Charles James Fox, a reformist of Parliament, said “What a pity that a people [the French] capable of such incredible energy, should be guilty or rather be governed by those who are guilty of such unheard of crimes and cruelties.” He thought that it was wrong that people were being killed when there were better ways of dealing with their problems. William Pitt, who was British Prime Minister, said in a speech to Parliament, “Their efforts are merely the result of a system of restraint and oppression, the most terrible and gigantic, that has, perhaps, ever existed. …what rational prospect can their be of the permanence of their exertions?” He didn’t understand why France was doing this to itself. Britain and all the countries that were at war with France at the time must have been scared of being killed so they left the country, which was an advantage of the Terror.

The leaders of the revolution should have dealt with their other numerous problems and not worry about themselves. They kept themselves and higher ranked people safe during the Terror. A chart shows that nobles and clergy only made up 10% of the people killed during the Terror which proves that they were a lot safer off than lower ranked people in society. Maximilien de Robespierre said, “To good citizens revolutionary government owes the full protection of the state; to the enemies of the people it owes only death.” This means that the country was just ridding itself of its “bad people” to solve all its problems. Ironically, most of France’s good citizens were high ranked people in society. Louis Antoine de Saint-Just talked about how there were tons of problems in France and the Terror was the biggest problem. How could the government not realize this? The Terror was an advantage for the revolutionist leaders, but not for France.

There advantages and disadvantages of the Terror as an instrument of the French Revolution on the common folk had to be careful, foreigners who were puzzled, and leaders of the revolution who should have dealt with the numerous problems in France.