Only one thing truly separates man from the animals: his ability to reason. This gift of thought allows man to make independent and conscious decisions, placing him on a pedestal above the rest of creation. The philosophy that "Reason is God's crowning gift to man" is stressed in both Sophocles' play Antigone and Dante Alighieri's poem The Divine Comedy. Sophocles and Dante both show the dire consequences and destruction that occur when reason is abandoned.

In Antigone, Sophocles demonstrates that a loss of reason has grievous results. Throughout the play, King Creon allows his stubborn pride to inhibit his gift of reason. He condemns Antigone for her actions, refusing to listen to the warnings given to him by both his son and the blind prophet, Teiresias. His son, Haimon attempts to persuade his father before it is too late by telling him such things as "It is not...