There is still an immense debate on who is, in fact, the true tragic hero in Sophocles" Antigone. Many think that the tragic hero is Antigone because the play does really bear her name. But in actuality, Creon is the true tragic hero. In order to determine who the real tragic hero is, one will have to answer the question, "What is a tragic hero?" Aristotle studied the works of Sophocles and he stated in The Poetics that a hero is neither innocent nor evil. This person also must possess a tragic flaw. The tragic flaw dooms the character to a ruinous end. Creon's tragic flaws are his stubbornness, his abuse of power, and his evil actions.
First of all, Creon shows his stubbornness by not wanting to be proved wrong because of his pride. When the Choragos tries to tell Creon he had made a mistake by saying that nobody could bury the body of Polyneices, Creon does not want to listen. Creon exclaims, "My voice is the one giving the orders in this city! / You forget yourself, you are speaking to you king." Creon thinks by making an example of Antigone's execution, everybody would become scared and not try to break his laws, and it works for awhile.
Secondly, Creon abuses his power by thinking that he could change or break the laws of the gods. He finally realizes he has been "rash and foolish. / I have killed my son and wife. / I took comfort; my comfort lies here dead. / Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. / Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust." He does not want to bury Polyneices" body, but one of the gods" laws is to find eternal peace and that every human deserves to be buried after death not depending on what that certain person did in his lifetime. Creon causes fear among his people by announcing that "Polyneices, I say, is to have no burial: no man is to touch / him or say the least prayer for him." He also publicized that he is the state of Thebes, and there are no other laws than his.