Creon's Incentives

p. 94: Anarchy—

show me a greater crime in all the earth!

She, she destroys cities, rips up houses,

breaks the ranks of spearmen into headlong rout.

But the ones who last it out, the great mass of them

owe their lives to discipline. Therefore

we must defend the men who live by law,

never let some woman triumph over us.

Better to fall from power, if fall we must,

at the hands of a man—never be rated

inferior to a woman, never.

In this passage, Creon attacks Antigone’s trespass against the law of the city. In his tirade against her actions he reveals how he compartmentalizes everything into hierarchies. This passage reveals how he categorizes such things as order and gender. Creon puts a strong emphasis on order over disorder. He says, “Anarchy – show me a greater crime in all the earth!” He finds anarchy disgusting because it destroys the stability of the city, and anything detrimental to the city must be avoided. But the only solution to anarchy is discipline, or in other words, order. After this, Creon reveals his belief in the hierarchy of men over women. He believes men to be superior to women and thereby women should always be subservient to men. The greatest danger to a man is if some “woman [were to] triumph over” him. Losing to a woman, in Creon’s view, removes more than just his power. A fall from power is horrible indeed, but at the hands of a woman is even worse. A man can “never be rated inferior to a woman, never.” These are two of the threats that Antigone’s actions pose to Creon. If he does not enforce the law he can be giving way to disorder. In order to give strength to the city he must punish Antigone. Furthermore, if Antigone is to succeed against him, Creon will be made lesser than a woman, thereby reducing his power even more.

-Hamzah Ahmed