" Anarchy—
show me a greater crime in all the earth!
....never be rated
inferior to a woman, never."
This passage is said by Creon to his son and the chorus. It represents many aspects of his character and perspective seen throughout the story. For example, half of the verses describes his feelings about anarchy. First of all, the fact that he used the word "anarchy" to describe Antigone's burial for her brother shows that he has a very specific and personal sense of what the word means. Although the burial of dead bodies was an old tradition and only done out of respect for the dead and the gods, Creon blows it out of proportion because of the fact that she disobeyed his orders. He doesn't care that Antigone did it to follow the order of the gods- only that she specifically did not follow his. The vivid and violent descriptions he uses to describe her actions, "destroy[ing] cities" and "rip[ping] up houses" shows how strongly he feels about her actions. Therefore, the first half of the passage demonstrates that 1) Creon desires and expect total and unshakable order, and 2) the only orders that have authority are that of the king's- his own.
The second thing the passage shows is Creon's view on women. He believes that men should dominate over women: another hierarchy that he constructs in his mind. He personifies the destructive "anarchy" as "she," already giving a negative connotation to the female gender. Then he goes on to say that it is "Better to fall from power at the hands of a man" than to be beneath a woman. Creon believes that men must always hold the power over women, whether it means being right or wrong. This suggests that Creon might, in fact, have some idea that his decree was morally flawed and Antigone was actually right about the burial, but because of pride and a stubborn belief in the necessity of hierarchies, he won't allow himself to admit it.
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