Tyrant and Martyr in Antigone "The tyrant dies and his reign ends, the martyr dies and his reign begins." Soren Kierkegaard This quote applies in many ways to Sophocles' play Antigone. The two lines can be used to describe the opposition of the two main characters in the play, Creon and Antigone. One is a new king on the throne who will not reign for long, and the other, a martyr whose strong beliefs will endure even after her death. In the first line of his quote, Kierkegaard states that a tyrant's rule 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 on the grounds that it would weaken state power. This is what scene III shows, when he responds to Haimon: “Do you want me to show myself weak in front of the people? Or break my word? No, and I won't. The woman dies. » It's obvious. from this quote that his image is more important to him than...