Power corrupts, understanding rebuilds

As a leader, there is much to consider when creating a law or a standing for an entire society or country. The decision made must benefit the people beneath you and must also ensure your leadership is continual, especially in the case of a king. In the case of Creon, a decision must be made about whether the law or the moral code has a greater standing within the society that he rules.
At the beginning of the play, the reader dislikes the power role of Creon because he seems a heartless and domineering character rather than a kind and helpful king. This view point makes the reader more easily understand Antigone’s point of view and convinces the reader that moral obligation is much more important than legal obligation. If a reader were to step back and understand the trap into which he or she fell by convincing his or her self that moral defiance of a law is always in the right, the reader would begin to see that Creon is simply acting as a leader with a difficult decision. It is not until we fully view Creon’s struggle between morals and enforcement of his own laws does the reader understand the position in which the king has placed himself. It is important to the reader that there is an understanding of both sides so that the attitude change of Creon seems more human. As Creon sees the error in his law and understands that he must crush his own stubborn pride in order to do the right thing for his kingdom and for Antigone, the reader begins to pity the uncomfortable situation that the conflict between moral right and enforced law has created for Creon. At the beginning of the play we place Antigone on a pedestal as a symbol of moral obligation and rightful disregard for an unfair law, but as the play progresses, we see Creon as another inflicted character, not simply an antagonist to Antigone’s morality. The change in heart that Creon experiences between creating a law while punishing Antigone for breaking it and realizing that his law was against the god’s and human nature shows the reader that even a human with so much power and pride is simply that, a human. Human’s are fallible and mistaken much of the time, but what makes someone a good person is realizing the wrongs he or she has committed and attempting to right these wrongs. Creon does try to take back what he has done, but the deed being already committed; his punishment is the loss of his loved ones.
Throughout the beginning of the story, everyone can see Creon as the antagonist and the villain, but as the story progresses, I believe that Creon becomes a second protagonist and his own conflict between retaining power and admitting a wrong-doing becomes his antagonist. Because at the end of the play we see the world through the eyes of Creon, we begin to understand his struggles and to pity the decision he has to make, not because of the moral constraints of the situation but because the reader comes to terms with the fact that a man of his position is only human and did realize that he was wrong. His realization gives us hope that humans are inherently good and can overcome their stubborn pride to make things that were wrong turn right (567).