Creon's Discrimination in Antigone

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Creon’s Discrimination in Antigone Despite how prejudice and unjust, women have not always been treated fairly. In Antigone, a play by Sophocles, Creon, the king, displays an extremely discriminatory attitude to women and he unfortunately suffers in the end, undergoing a harsh downfall. He disregards the value that women have and shows lots of animosity towards Antigone, not only because of her “criminal” actions in going against his proclamation, but because she is a female. He then becomes impulsive with his decision-making and suffers immensely due to his nebulous view on female equality. Sophocles characterizes Creon as a sexist ruler who has little value for women, which consequently leads to his downfall. This ultimately reveals that possessing discriminatory traits can result in one’s demise. Sophocles characterizes Creon as a sexist man that consequently endures a harsh downfall when he displays his arrogant attitude about himself being king and his belittling attitude towards women. During his argument with Antigone, he says that because he is a man, he will never submit to a woman. Creon quotes, “Then get you down thither, and love, if you must love, the dead! No woman, while I live, shall order me.” (Sophocles 20). Creon feels that he is very much above females. Because he is a king and a man, his mindset of arrogance and prejudice is very dense. He is very open about his sexism and ignorantly acts on it. It is arguable that even if Creon was not the king, he would still have felt strongly about his aforementioned quote. He says that he shall not be ordered when he says “while I live, shall order me,” but he displays his sexist mindset when he says “no woman,” making him very rigid in his opinion about females being inferior to males. Creon’s characterization of a sexist man causes him to compare women to very negative things. Creon compares
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