Leadership - Lit Flashcards
What decision is Antigone faced with right away?
In Antigone, her character is faced with a difficult decision right away. A decree was passed that one of her brothers was to be buried but the other, a traitor was to be left to rot, and no one was to mourn him and that his body should be left to decay. She decides that it’s her duty as a woman to perform funeral rights on her brother and give him honour in his death. This is the will of the gods and her responsibility as a Greek woman that she should carry out this task.
What does this show?
Here Antigone is displaying her strong will, common traits within a good leader, and shows the audience that she is unlikely to backdown in a battle of wills. She also shows her loyalty and strong familial bonds as even though her brother is a traitor, she still refuses to abandon him and will ensure he gets a proper burial even if it goes against the wishes of the king. This paints her as a strong capable leader as she is able to stick to her beliefs and is extremely loyal.
How can these traits be negative?
However, these traits can be negative and display Antigone’s poorer leadership skills as she is stubborn and headstrong.
What shows this?
As she refuses to obey creon’s demands, she is thrown into prison until she repents. However, Antigone is just as stubborn as creon and still refuses him and is to be executed, although she commits suicide before this can happen. This results in her fiancé also committing suicide along with most of her family out of solidarity and grief.
What does this show?
Antigone’s actions, although they show will and determination, also highlighting her selfishness and her pride as she kills herself out of pride, not thinking about how that would impact her family and resulted in their deaths. This displays poor leadership skills as a good leader is able to relinquish their pride for the greater good, which she cannot do. Although Antigone displays many characteristics that make a great leader, she also displays an abundance of things such as stubbornness and lack of foresight that make her an overall bad leader.
what kind of leader does Creon initially present himself as?
creon has moments within ‘antigone’ where he presents himself as a good, noble and just leader. at the very beginning he displays his patriotic side. he is the defender of the city, calling on the loyalty of its citizens in a time of danger, he wants to protect thebes from any future traitors or conflict. he decides to expose his nephews body to show he is a traitor much to the shock of everyone around him.
what does this show?
the exposure of the corpse would have caused some distress although the would have agreed with creons views on the security risks of traitors and a lack of patriotism. this shows how he appears to be strong and willing to to a good job as king of thebes by setting a good example for his people and suitably punishing threats to the security of Thebes, evoking admiration from the audience and his subjects.
how has creon been selfish?
however, he has not always had everyone else’s best interests at heart, except his own, clearly shown in his ruthless punishment of Antigone without a second thought of the impact that would have.
what shows this?
Creon refuses to let Antigone bury her brother, breaking her role as a woman to bury her family, and reacts poorly when she does it anyway, throwing her in prison and ordering her execution
what does this show?
Antigone is a young girl about to be married who behaves badly by stepping outside her role as a woman by breaking the law and openly insulting Creon. However, Creon is an older, more experienced worldly man who also happens to be Antigone’s king, uncle and Guardian. he should have behaved better; we would expect a good leader to be in control of his emotions and a model of good behavior. instead he matches Antigone’s poor behavior and anger, sentencing her and her innocent sister to death.
overall how is creon as a leader?
Creon can be an excellent leader, however, he cares more about his pride than doing the right thing, quick to anger and easily sentencing family members to death, creon displays his poor leadership skills and tyrannical tendencies
how does Oedipus appear?
Oedipus appears to be a good leader, well loved by his subjects.
what shows this?
he gained this status by solving the riddle of the sphinx. due to the ‘plague’ in Thebes, as leader Oedipus takes it upon himself to save the root of the problem, which he discovers is the man who murdered the previous king Laius. He doesnt know however, that it was him who killed laius who was his father and married jocasta, his mother, who had exposed him to prevent all this.
what does this show?
Oedipus is displaying good leadership as he takes it upon himself to discover the killer instead of getting a team to do it for him. this shows that he really cares about his people and is more than willing to go above and beyond in order to help them in any way he can. however, his treatment of those who want to help him display his negative characteristics prominently.
what shows this?
Oedipus in pursuit of the truth for his own gain does not keep the good of his people at heart and fails to listen, rudely dismissing people advising him such as creon, tiresias and jocasta, who advise him not to reveal the truth as it will harm him. he ignores this and upon finding the truth, he gauges his eyes out and jocasta commits suicide.
