Antigone Creon's Tone Essay

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Antigone is an ancient Greek tragedy, in which, Creon is the tragic hero. A comparison of Creon’s two famous speeches, the state of the union address and his closing remarks, show the shift in tone from unfolding and prideful to weary and accepting, which transcends throughout the story. Creon’s use of literary devices effectively illustrates his tone shift between these fore-mentioned speeches, dramatically showing his tragic hero status.

During Creon’s state of the union speech, he is trying to show his authority as the new King of Thebes by using an imperial and almighty tone. Syntax plays a role in creating the tone of this selection through the use of declarative sentences. By doing Creon is leaving no room for the people of Thebes to question his authority as King. It also shows his steadiness and lack of compassion for those who go against him. The use of diction also helps enforce this idea. Creon uses words and phrases, such as “full power”, “governor”, “my country”, and “command”, to help contribute to the tone he is creating in his speech. By using words such as the ones quoted above Creon is forcing us to feel the power that he is trying to impose upon his people and show the fact that he is now the sole ruler of Thebes.

In his closing remarks Creon’s tone has become gloomy and depressing due to the deaths of everyone he has cared about. Imagery like “Surely a god has crushed me beneath the hugest weight of heaven” plays a role in showing how low he feels after he realizes that he caused the deaths of his family and that it was all avoidable. Diction plays a role in creating this shift in tone by developing a picture of sadness and weariness through using words and phrases such as, “angle of evil”, “death”, and “darkness”. The character’s actions and words have left the reader as sullen and dejected as the lead character himself.

The shift in tone from the beginning of the play to the end leaves two different versions of Creon, a proud and...
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