Mid Assignment
Course Code:Hum101
Semester:Summer 2025
Submitted by Submitted to
Student Name: Rafiya Binte Faisal [Link] Chatterjee
Student ID: 24226063
Section: 40
Date of Submission:30th July,2025
Title: Justice, Power, and Guilt: Creon’s Ethical Fall from Authority
*Introduction
Justice and state law has always been the priority in any political order since time
immemorial. Antigone by Sophocles touches the eternal issue of the opposition between
human-created law and personal ethics, which is also valid in the political world of today.
In this essay, the analyzing of Creon who is the newfound King of Thebes and who
exercises his powers of authority by refusing burial of Polynices who has been declared
traitor is highlighted. I am interested in the complicated connection between governance
and moral authority, and in particular how it is possible to resolve that the choices made in
the name of national good can get authoritarian. Creon is an effective illustration of a
strong case study concerning the manner in which political rulers can utilize the concept of
a greater good to enforce immoral practices.
The essay will start by examining Creon using the thought of Max Weber in terms of legal-
rational power and Bina Agarwal in relation to feminine moral. The intervening parts will
provide the line of Creon between firm command and being guilty including crucial
moments and speech. I shall next relate these thoughts with present day phenomena in
which personal rights are being given way to the state. Lastly, I shall do a contemplation
about the larger implication of this analysis.
With the demise of Eteocles and Polynices, Creon comes into power. He enforces the state
power because he outlaws the burial of Polynices arguing that the burial of a traitor poses a
risk to the city. Legal-rational authority as conceived by Max Weber can be relevant in this
case power in an ideology of legitimization by institution laws. The sources of the power
with Creon are not rooted in heritage or the personal traits of charisma but rather in the
enforcer of state laws. The decree he issues indicates a kind of legal system where obedience
is sternly followed.
Says Creon, No man shall call himself by me a friend, Who with my country make an
enemy. This quote stresses the value of the law, as opposed to personal connections, yet it
also touches the point Judith Butler is critiquing in Precarious Life as well: that laws can
make some lives un-grievable. Polynices turns out to be one of such lives. Through refuting
mourning ritual, Creon takes emotional distance in governing the state as a legal
fundamentalist rather than a moralistic person.
The rule by Creon is also influenced by the masculinity and power. In response to the
action Antigone ignores his command, he says, “I am not a man, wherein she is the man
when she is thus conquered in this.” This demonstrates that her moral strength endangers
his male identity. The Chorus uses the words: the girl is fierce. She is just a daughter of her
father, Yes, there is a hint at the gender expectations and the danger of feminine rebellion.
The behavior of Creon can be explained through the theory of hegemonic masculinity
created by R.W. Connell because power base is dominance and the ability to put down
those who do not agree. As a man and ruler, he is not in a position to take chances being
challenged by a woman without being emasculated. The feeling of insecurity is also brought
out by his hatred of the Guard, who is merely a dispensable cog. The presence of the Guard
is symbolic of the mechanism of the state, and it is also an indication of the loosening of
power held by Creon due to his suspicions.
In scene 4, Haemon confronts the choice of his father, and he persuades his father to think
about the opinion of the people. Haemons reminds him saying, I know, the city is crying
her; the people are crying her said Haemon. Creon dismisses this insisting that, the city is
the king. This quote is an evidence of authoritarianism; when the dictator is saying that he
is the state itself.
Creon mixes up power and unerringness. The generational gap turns symbolic; Haemon
embraces utilitarianism, which is the greatest good of the greatest number, whereas, Creon
adheres to deontology as he wants to honor the duty above anything, including the
outcome. His rigidity exemplifies the hazards of law-black-letterism: legal rigidity devoid of
sympathy is tyranny.
The warning given by Tiresias plays the part of the start of the downfall of Creon who
invoked the wrath of Gods. The series of tragedies that ensue that is killing of Antigone,
suicide of Haemon and Eurydice make Creon realize his mistakes. He cries, I killed them.
It is only me it is I and I alone who am guilty.”
This emotional breakdown is an indication of transition between legal-rational to morality
of relation. Feminist ethics and the kinship and duty theme of Bina Agarwal make sense of
the doom of Creon. He is contravening a cultural and emotional dictate when he deprives
Antigone the right to mourn on behalf of her brother. The disregard of the kinship does not
only result in his personal guilt but also political doom.
It is not only personal guilt of Creon, it is an institutional guilt. The degradation of family,
outcry in the Street, and the loss of trust confirms the risk of the divorce between law and
humanity. By attempting to achieve order, Creon causes chaos.
Modern Comment: Protocols of the Pandemic and the Right to Mourn
The closest drawn comparison can be based on the Indian government and its processing of
funerals in the context of the second wave of COVID-19 in 2021. Due to the overfilled
crematoriums and decaying bodies being dumped to rivers, normal mourning plans were
not possible anymore. According to the logic of Creon, who chose to uphold civil order at
the expense of the individual, such acts were justified by Bureaucratic rules under the
pandemic protocols.
Most of the marginalized groups were refused the practice of sacred last rites, which is
universal in most cultures. The social outrage (which is spearheaded by civil society
organizations, judges and religious leaders) is the response echoed by Haemon to Creon.
The lack of ability to combine spiritual and familial values in the state policy led to moral
and emotional alienation. Sophocles cautioned against this many years ago: the state should
not neglect the soul.
In Antigone, the journey of Creon is an intense criticism of law that has been detached of
ethics. Creon originally appears as the proponent of civic order, and it comes out that he is,
in the end, a tragic character as his absolutist adherence to the law of the state results in
the loss of kinship, ethics, and humanity.
In this essay, the legal-rational authority that Creon is supposed to be, according to the
theory developed by Max Weber, proved to have been a moral failure as Creon denies
relational ethics, by Bina Agarwal. The story is not only about a person losing his life, but
also about the political downfall. The modern case of the delays of funeral rituals because
of COVID-19 demonstrates that the concerns still apply nowadays. The case is obvious:
laws have to be weighed by creating empathy. Justice has to serve the state and the soul.*
References
Gibbons, R., & Segal, C. (2003). Antigone. Oxford University Press.
Sophocles, Grene, D., Lattimore, R., & Wyckoff, E. (1991). Antigone. In The Complete
Greek Tragedies. University of Chicago Press.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. University
of California Press.
Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities. University of California Press.
Butler, J. (2004). Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. Verso.
Agarwal, B. (1994). A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia.
Cambridge University Press.