Creon is guilty, without a doubt. There were three deaths in the play, Antigone, Haemon and Eurydice and in a way he was responsible for all of them. Each of them was a suicide triggered by the previous suicide: Eurydice killed herself because Haemon killed himself because Antigone killed herself and she killed her self because of Creon. Creon’s extremely stubborn actions caused Antigone to do what she did.
Creon’s pride is what makes him guilty and his inability to listen to others. First Haemon try’s to convince old Creon that there has been an error in his judgment “'no woman,' they say, 'ever merited her doom less,-none ever was to die so shamefully for deeds so glorious as hers; who, when her own brother had fallen in bloody strife, would not leave him unburied, to be devoured by carrion dogs, or by any bird:-deserves not she the meed of golden honor?'” (Sophocles 693-697) But rather than thinking of the big picture and the fate of Antigone, he is purely focused on how he will be viewed as king and how he can’t listen to others because of his stature “Am I to rule this land by other judgment than mine own?” (Sophocles 137) Then he received warnings of terrible things in his future by Teiresias, “Thou wilt learn, when thou hearest the warnings of mine art. As I took my place on mine old seat of augury, where all birds have been wont to gather within my ken, I heard a strange voice among them; they were screaming with dire, feverish rage, that drowned their language in jargon; and I knew that they were rending each other with their talons, murderously; the whirr of wings told no doubtful tale.” (Sophocles 179)
All of which he ignored based solely on his pride and position as king.
Creon had a chance to right his wrong but he chose not to. This is why he is guilty,
He even confesses it. “"Alas for me . . . the guilt for all of this is mine—it can never be removed from me or passed to any other mortal man. I, and I alone . . . I murdered you . . . I speak the truth.” (Sophocles 840) The case is rested, Creon is guilty.
Sophocles. “Antigone.” The Internet Classics Archive. Trans. R. C. Jebb. 04 Oct. 2000.
Classics.mit.edu. 24 Nov. 2008
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Creon did listen to others. This is why he spared Ismene on the advice of the Chorus, despite her confession and her reckless words. Then, he listened to Teiresias.
Haemon would have been slightly more convincing in his approval of Polyneices' burial if he had expressed this approval BEFORE Antigone was apprehended. But because it came late, Creon assumed that Haemon cared only about Antigone, and all fine talk about the city's good was sophistry. Subsequent events proved Creon right in this.
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