Downfall of Creon

Antigone by Sophocles consists of many literary devices used to foreshadow future events in the play. I am going to focus on how these devices were used by Sophocles to foreshadow the fall of Creon.

Creon was characterized as a very ignorant king as he always believes that he is right and no one dares to go against this. However, Haemon tries to convince his father into changing his perspective “You’ve seen trees by a raging winter torrent, how many sway with the flood and salvage every twig, but not the stubborn- they’re ripped out, roots and all.” (796) The imagery of trees symbolizes a family as a whole and in this case, the royal family. The use of “raging winter torrent” somehow works like a list of three of negative, violent images to emphasize on how harsh life is. Also, Haemon refer to Creon as “the stubborn” and states that “they’re ripped out, roots and all.” This is when the foreshadowing technique comes in as later on in the play, the only “root” of Creon, Haemon ends up stabbing himself to death.

After that, Haemon continues on by giving another example, in other words, another warning to Creon “Bend or break. The same when a man is sailing: haul your sheets too taut, never give an inch, you’ll capsize, and go the rest of the voyage keel up and the rowing-benches under.” Haemon compares Creon’s unchangeable ego to a sailing man holding the sheets too tightly which is very effective in conveying the character of Creon because if we really think about it, holding the sheets of a boat in the middle of the windy weather is already very hard while Creon “never give an inch”. This shows that Creon is a very ignorant character. The future of Creon was predicted clearly in “you’ll capsize and go the rest of the voyage keel up and the rowing-benches under”. This quote is saying that if Creon holds on too tightly to his ego and never listens to anyone’s advice, he will have to face his downfall.

Sophocles’ use of literary devices to foreshadow the fall of King Creon was very symbolic and effective in bringing the message across to the audience. This is “dramatic irony” because it is all so clear to the audience that the downfall of Creon was already predicted throughout the scene while none of the characters in the play knows it.