Tyrant and Martyr in Antigone"The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins." Soren Kierkegaard This quote applies in many ways to Sophocles' Antigone. The two lines can be used to describe the opposition of the two main characters of the play, Creon and Antigone. One is a king new to the throne who will not rule for long, and the other, a martyr whose strong beliefs will survive even after his death. In the first line of his quote, Kierkegaard states that a tyrant's reign dies with him. . Creon, in the play Antigone, is undoubtedly the tyrant. Although he is new to the throne, he has already started to show his true colors. He is inflexible and inflexible, afraid to give ground because this would undermine the power of the state. This is shown in Scene III, when he responds to Haimon: "Do you want me to show myself weak before the people? Or break my sworn word? No, and I will not. The woman dies." It is evident from this quote that his image is more important to him...