Paige Christian
Ms. Gilbert
Honors Freshman English
19 October 2013
Excessive Pride Can Lead to Excessive Tragedy
Everyone should have pride in themselves, but excessive pride can be a very bad
thing. Plus, when they are very stubborn about everything, there is more of a chance for things
to not go their way. Sophocles uses Human vs Self conflict, situational irony, and dramatic irony
to demonstrate the theme that pride and stubbornness can lead to tragedy.
In Antigone, when Antigone buries Polyneices even though she is not supposed to, she
still does. She knows that there will be repercussions from what she is doing, but she does it
anyways because she is being stubborn. This is an example of Human vs Self conflict. This is
an example of Human vs Self conflict because Antigone knows that she is going to get herself in
trouble for what she is doing, but she still does it. She has too much pride for herself, and she is
being bull-headed about the whole thing. One could say that she mostly did this because of the
pride she had for her family, but one could also say the excessive pride was for herself. It could
have been for her family because maybe she did not want to possibly “let down” her brother’s
“legacy” as one could say, but someone could also say that it was her own self-pride because she
was being too stubborn to follow any of the set rules.
An example of situational irony in Antigone is when Creon accepts the Chorus’ advice
about freeing Antigone and burying Polyneices, but he reverses the order he does these things,
thinking that he has all the time in the world. He hopes that he will give Antigone a nice and
pleasant surprise by freeing her from the tomb, but he then learns since he kept her in there for so
long, she had already committed suicide before he had gotten the chance to release her from the
tomb. This was not his overall intention, but since he initially was the one who imprisoned her
in the tomb, this was his fault. This was a result of his actions, and his actions were a result of
his stubbornness and pride.
An example of dramatic irony in Antigone is one of the most important aspects of the
story, Antigone. Creon states that he has suffered all the tragedy he could. But, there are some
things that he does not even know yet. He thinks that he has suffered all the tragedy he possibly
could suffer, but he does not even know about his wife’s suicide yet. But, the audience
does. Creon admits that he has brought all of these tragic events on to himself. These events
actually happened because he thought he was superior to everyone else, and that he was “above
the law.” He was stubborn and had excessive pride. So, in many aspects, everything bad that
happened to Creon in the story Antigone were completely his fault. The deaths of Antigone,
Haemon, and his wife could all pretty much be considered Creon’s “karma” in a way, for
everything he did. Creon did understand by the end of the story though that pretty much
everything that resulted bitterly for him was a result of his actions and decisions, which were
ultimately derived from his pride and stubbornness.
Even though I am only fourteen years old, I have learned a great amount of life
lessons. One of them is that pride and stubbornness can lead to tragedy. To put that in simpler
terms, basically if one is too full of themself to listen to others, nothing is going to end well for
them. This can relate to humans and other humans, humans and themselves, humans and nature,
and more. This still relates today because like I said that I have learned before with previous
experiences, if one is too full of themself to listen to others, things are not going to end well for
them. I think anyone and everyone should be able to apply this to their everyday lives because
for example, in a job, this might have to be applied to someoneś life. Say a boss tells a person to
do something a certain way, but they think their way is better and decide to do the task their own
way and it does not work out. I think that we probably all know how this situation would end.
Works Cited
Applebee, Arthur N. The Language of Literature. Boston: McDougal Littell, 2006. 1020-1060.
Print.