Literary Analysis Prompt 1
In many stories there are characters that have a tragic flaw that leads to their
downfall. This tragic flaw is often seen through the conflict that the character has within
themselves. In both plays Antigone and Julius Caesar the main characters all have
conflict within themselves. The main characters in Antigone, Antigone and Creon, are
two examples of characters that contain conflict within character. Antigone has the
tragic flaw of being stubborn and passionate; Creon's fatal flaw is also stubbornness. In
the play of Julius Caesar, the character Brutus has a fatal flaw of being too nice. Conflict
within a character allows us to see their flaws and what personal price they have to pay
to resolve them.
As the main character in Antigone, Antigone is a character that has a conflict
within herself. Antigone's tragic flaws are that she is stubborn and passionate. Antigone
refuses to change he mind about burying her brother no matter what people tell her.
"That must be your excuse, I suppose. But as for me, I will bury the brother I love," line
68-69. Although Antigone knows that she will die for her crime she does not want to
change her mind because he believes that her brother must be buried. In the end
Antigone does bury her brother and it cost her her life. Seeing the conflict that Antigone
had within herself allowed us to see her tragic flaw that caused her downfall.
Creon is a character also in the play of Antigone that also has the tragic flaw of
being stubborn. As the king Creon wants to control everything and refuses to change
his mind on his decision. "Go join them, then; if you must have your love, find it in hell!"
line 135-136. At the time of making his word law Creon did not know what he was going
to lose. By the end of the play Creon had lost everyone that he loved, and went crazy.
Creon's tragic flaw also led to his downfall and the downfall of others around him.
In the play of Julius Caesar, Brutus is a character that let his tragic flaw cause his
downfall. Brutus was the one that had allowed Mark Antony to speak at Caesars
funeral. "You shall Mark Antony", line 231. If Brutus had not allowed Antony to speak at
the funeral, there would not have been a war between the conspirators and Antony.
Because Brutus had been too nice he lost his mind because of what he had done.
Brutus killed himself because he had thought that he had lost it all. His conflict within
himself led to him committing suicide.
In both plays, Antigone and Julius Caesar, the main characters all struggled
because of their tragic flaws, which caused their downfall. Antigone and Creon were
both to stubborn to change their decisions that they had made, and Brutus had been too
nice to Mark Antony. Both of these tragic flaws caused the downfall of all the main
characters. These characters all failed to learn a lesson in time. After knowing the
conflict within the character we are able to understand them more, and how they could
have prevented the price they had to pay.