Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine Creon’s character in Jean Anouilh’s Antigone and view how Anouilh through his subtle changes has made a powerful ruler out of the ancient tyrant. Since Sophocles presented Antigone at the festival of Dionysus in 441 B.C., Creon became an example of a tyrant ruler. However, Jean Anouilh in the midst of World War II surprisingly adapts Sophocles’ Antigone and presents a different picture of Creon. Jean Anouilh sympathizes with Creon, and many critics especially the German audience came to admire him and saw him as the real hero of the play.
Introduction
In Sophocles’ Antigone our first meeting with Creon is when he makes his declaration; he has just entered from the battleground, as the new king. He gathers the council of elders, in the civil sphere and pronounces his decree. Through his speech, he presents himself as the man in authority, by virtue of which, and in the interests of the state, he demands absolute obedience. He preaches order and discipline, to the exclusion of all else. Creon speaks mostly of his office, but actually he thinks of himself. His demands belong to an absoluter, his attitude those of a tyrant or well on the way to be a tyrant. But he is not the mere stereotype of a tyrant. He is a recognizable human being, stone hearted, with commonplace mind and narrow sympathies. Winnington Ingam concludes that his cruel heartiness is revealed once he takes no notice of other people’s feelings, and especially in his attitude towards Haemon’s marriage and feeling towards Antigone.
Sophocles presents Creon with a lot of ambiguities. He can never be judged by his words, because most of what he says are full of gnomic. The strong man, who in his persistence and determination seemed to be a powerful antagonist to Antigone, collapses. The political man, who was full of wise saws and subordinated all personal relationships to politics, breaks down by the loss of a son and a wife. The tyrant becomes the most ordinary and unhappy of men.
Creon in Jean Anouilh has the same characteristics, his demands are absolute and his attitude is like the German fascisms that have subordinated and occupied France. He is a dictator, nationalist, elitist, and anti-liberal. Still the way Jean Anouilh presents the play makes us sympathize with Creon.
Creon Has an Advising Tone
Once the guard brings in Antigone, Creon speaks delicately and with an advising tone. He tries all his best in order to settle things out, in order to make Antigone change her mind. Creon has an advising tone; he speaks gently calling her “my little sparrow,” “my child,” and also “my dear.” He tries to convince her by telling her that she is young, too young to enter such troubles. He reminds her of Haemon’s love and the happy future that she could have. He reminds her that he is her uncle and he loves her and will do anything in order to save her. Creon tells Antigone several times to keep quiet and promises her that he will place things in order.
The more Creon tries to persuade her to live, the more Antigone is tempted to die. It is Antigone who sentences her act on herself, while Creon is trying his best to save her.
Creon Makes a Wise Choice
The Germans appreciated the character of Creon, the dilemma of a political and military leader who makes wise decisions and reinstates order in a chaotic situation. Creon was placed in a harsh situation. He explains that Polynices and Eteocles were two petty thieves who slaughtered each other like cheap hoodlums over a division of the lands. Within this devastating situation Creon made a wise decision and made a hero out of one of them, thus restoring order and preventing more chaos.
Creon Has Feelings
Creon in Jean Anouilh is not the cruel stone-hearted man who thinks of nothing except power. He sympathizes with Antigone and tells her that he is also unhappy about seeing Polynices’ body rotting in the sun, but this is politics, and he was forced into it.
Creon Is Not Interested in Power
Creon has accepted the throne unconditionally. Anouilh’s Creon declares that he was not interested in power; he says that he was forced into being a king. He said “yes” because there has to be someone who says “yes.” The state was confronting a storm; he had to save the people or it would have sunk. Creon is not interested in power of the throne. He accepted the position just because of the safety of the people.
Creon Is Strong
Most importantly in Jean Anouilh, Antigone’s resistance and the suicides of both his wife and son bring Creon face to face with the extent of his actions. Creon is strong and does not break down as he does in Sophocles. He decides to roll up his sleeves and stoically accept his role. Unlike Oedipus, Creon does not opt for physical self-punishment. He accepts the turn of events without the need to repent through self-sacrifice or rebellion. The king walks away supported by the young page, the last remaining link with his long-lost humanity.
Anouilh’s Antigone is “an ambiguous work.” Anouilh does not give his final judgment to his audience; instead he places them in a situation to make judgment themselves. Anouilh explicitly informs the audience that man is a free agent in a hostile and alienated universe. He has a choice either to rebel, like Antigone, in order to reinvigorate his individuality or to conform like Creon.
Conclusion
Compared to Jean Anouilh, Creon in Sophocles is a tyrant ruler whose only interests were the state, power and prosperity. However, Jean Anouilh, who could not have excluded himself from the situation of France during World War II, presents a different picture of Creon. He is not just the dictator searching for power and wealth but the way that Jean Anouilh presents him we come to sympathize with Creon and view him as the real hero of the play.
Jean Anouilh’s Creon is not as harsh as Sophocles’ Creon; he speaks delicately with an advising tone. Creon is no longer the stone-hearted man; he has feeling for his family and his loved ones. And finally and most importantly, Creon in Jean Anouilh is strong. He does not break down as Sophocles’ Creon does. So Jean Anouilh with either the changes he makes to Creon’s actions or his words makes Creon to be the hero of the twentieth century.
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