Creon, enraged, reels off insults at his son, calling him disrespectful and the slave of a woman. Creon calls for Antigone to be brought out and murdered in front of her groom, but Haemon exclaims that his father will see him no longer and rushes off. Once his son is gone, Creon concedes that he will not kill Ismene, but he promises a living death for Antigone: he will enclose her, alive, in a tomb. Creon goes back into the palace, and the Chorus sings of the power of love, which cannot be defeated by arms, and which can drive a sane man mad.
When Antigone approaches, the Chorus announces that even it would rebel upon seeing the pitiful girl being led from the palace to her tomb. Antigone tells the elders her death will be noble, but the Chorus doubts her, regarding her nobility as pride. Antigone raves when the Chorus compares her to her father, and she cries out against the fortunes of herself and her family. Creon comes out of the palace, insists that Antigone is protesting too much, and tells the guards to take her to her tomb.
Only for a sibling whose parents are dead, the last son of the terrible house of Oedipus, is she willing to accept such punishment. As she is taken away, she cries out that Thebes is ruled by cowards who punish her for revering the gods.
He says that reason is a gift of the gods, and he cautions Creon against being single-minded and self-involved, noting that there is no such thing as a one-man city. He asserts that everyone has to give way somewhat, listen, and change, and that no one is infallible.
The Love Ode implies that perhaps neither Haemon nor Creon is really motivated by practical reason or right judgment, and that one or both is in the grip of blind passion. Later, in the ode that describes Danae and other mythological figures, the Chorus describes people who have been sealed up in tombs while still alive. It might be argued that love is one of the greater goods that the state exists to enable people to pursue—one of the greater goods that Creon overlooks when he argues that the well-being of the state is the highest good in human life.
As he has throughout the play, Creon denies that ethical conflicts can arise, or that ethical decisions sometimes require deliberation.
Haemon's dialogue with his father makes clear Creon's inflexibility and arrogance in this difficult situation. Respectfully, Haemon approaches Creon and offers him information that should have an effect on any rational ruler's decision.
The people of Thebes, Haemon reports, have taken Antigone as their heroine and will not tolerate her execution.
Note especially here that Haemon does not plead for Antigone's life on the basis of his love for her or his desire to marry her. Haemon's argument could come from any close advisor, and reason demands that Creon listen and weigh it carefully. Creon, however, cannot take advice from his son, and the formal conversation breaks down into bickering and accusations.
Note that Creon's main charge is that his son has become Antigone's ally — a "woman's accomplice" and "woman's slave" — rather than the supporter of his father, right or wrong. Haemon, like Antigone, appeals to the higher law of the gods, but Creon sees Anarchy — which he personifies as a woman — as the greatest crime of all. Unaware of his own pride and arrogance, Creon thrashes out wildly at all who dare question his authority. However much he condemns his son, Creon's decision about the method of Antigone's execution indicates that Haemon's argument has had some effect.
Conscious that he cannot count on the support of the city — which is essential if Antigone is to be publicly stoned to death — he determines to carry out the sentence in isolation, in a manner that will not involve the people of Thebes at all.
Furthermore, the execution suits Creon because he imagines it will diminish Antigone's strong passion and sense of purpose. In her sealed tomb, Creon gloats, Antigone can worship her only god, Death, and come, too late, to a clear understanding of her wrongs. Ironically, Creon will come to the same understanding about himself, in the conclusion of the drama.
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