In Antigone, Sophocles examines the age-old conflict between the requirements of human and divine law. This universal problem is crystallized in the dispute about the burial of Polynices, in which Creon's understanding of the public welfare is opposed to Antigone's conception of her religious duty. The central character of the play is Creon, a distinctly tragic figure who acts from sincere, patriotic, and selfless motives, but who is too inflexible and narrow in outlook to heed criticism or admit error until it is too late. At the close of t ....