Third Episode: Haemon's warning

Haemon comes to his father. He begins with deference — I am yours, father, your wisdom is my helm; no marriage is more precious to me than your guidance. Creon, satisfied, lectures him on right-minded sons and the dangers of letting a woman fool away one's wits. He concludes with his political principle: whoever the state appoints must be obeyed in everything, in just things and unjust alike. Better that men should cast us out than for it to be said a woman proved our match.

Haemon's reply is the play's most carefully built speech. He does not contradict his father openly. He notes, instead, what is being said in the city. The common people stand in terror of Creon's frown and dare not speak, but he has heard their muttered complaints — that Antigone is doomed for the noblest of deeds, that her name should be written in gold. Wisdom can come to other men, not only to fathers. The trees beside a stream in flood, if they yield, keep every twig unharmed; by resisting, they perish root and branch. The sailor who keeps his mainsheet taut in a gale finds himself sailing keel-up.

Creon hears every line as personal attack. He is being lectured by a beardless boy. The exchange escalates. Are we to be schooled by a child? I plead for justice. A strange merit, to sanction lawlessness. The Theban commons say no. Shall the mob dictate my policy? A state for one man alone is no state at all. They strip the conversation down to its single question: must the king be obeyed when he is wrong? Creon's answer is yes. Haemon's answer is no. Creon orders Antigone killed at once, in front of his son. Haemon swears Creon will never see him again and storms out. It was the last open door in the play.