“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Sophocles illustrates this in Antigone, by showing king Creon as a man who does not think before taking life changing decisions, while he is angry. Another tragic flaw is also illustrated by Creon, which is rebellious. Identically, these characteristics are also found in ‘Lamb to the slaughter’ by Ronald Dahl, in which he illustrates Mary Maloney, a pregnant woman, who kills her husband out of anger. Mary Maloney is also illustrated as a rebel, when she proves herself innocent. Although the tragic hero in Antigone and Mary Maloney shone similar traits of rebellious and anger, the greatest downfall of is clearly demonstrated by king Creon.
Creon’s hot-tempered nature and his anger leads his life to a big downfall in the story. He disobeys the laws of God and don’t let anyone bury Polyneices body, because he is a traitor to the city of Thebes. ‘He made a war on his country”. {Sophocles Antigone 1085}. When Creon went against to the Gods laws. He said ‘An enemy is an enemy, even dead. {Sophocles Antigone 1085}. His rebellious made him to take rough and tough decisions. He didn’t even think once that what would be the outcome of his action, he decides to kill Antigone and says, ‘If you must have your love, find it in hell’. The actual fact was that she was getting marry to his son. However, Tiresias, a blind prophet warns him no you will find them too costly.
Similarly, Mary Maloney, a rebellious character in ‘Lamb to the slaughter’ kills her husband Patrick by using the leg of the lamb as her weapon. She swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and bought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. {Ronald Dahl, LLTS,2}. After she kills her husband Patrick, the author Ronald Dahl illustrates the situation and ask Mary Maloney question. The author Ronald Dahl LLTS states detectives kept asking her a lot of questions. However, Mary Maloney begs them to eat the lamb “personally I couldn’t eat a thing, but it’d be a favour to me if you are it up. Then you can go with your work.” {Ronald Dahl, LLTS,4}, it was so that there are no proves left to prove Mary Maloney guilty.
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According to the analysis above, the tragic flaws that king Creon and Mary Maloney share are very similar, However the analysis demonstrates that the greatest downfall is clearly seen by king Creon in Antigone. One example of Mary Maloney having no regret for her actions is that after killing her husband, she in not scared of the consequences instead she a plan that can prove her innocent and becomes successful in that ‘it would be favour to me if you eat it up{Ronald Dahl, LLTS 4}, this line shows the fact that Mary Maloney have succeeded in her plan. Furthermore, Creon regrets his actions at the end of the story and realizes his mistake and the decisions he took in the state of anger. Creon says, ‘Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust’.
As shown above, being rebellious is not bad overall but if one has a hot-tempered nature it can destroy their life and can cause a downfall. The decisions that are made in the state of anger never result in a good way.
