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Zachary Smith
ENGL 101
Dr. Patrick Keats
December 7th, 2010
THE WORSHIP OF POWER
To Whom It May Concern,
It has fallen upon me to take up this sad state of affairs. It
seems that it is my fate to be
tied to the line of Oedipus once again, either by some
unfathomable gift or some more obvious
punishment. Alas, this is not the time for poetic musings on my
own fate, for your time must be
short, considering the increased rate entering your hall here in
Thebes. Why this is so, though it
intrigues me, is not my concern at the moment; I have been given
the sad task of recommending
our lord, our leader, our father, Creon, for admittance into
your asylum for the mentally unstable,
on the event of his recent suicide attempt. While it may pain me
to speak of this, it would seem
that this destination is the true climax of his life, and that
every moment that came before,
whether it be the fall of Oedipus, the tragedy of Oedipus two
sons, or the even greater sorrow
that befell Creons very family, was arranged by the gods to lead
to it. Since your asylum
demands a thorough description of patients, I am prepared to
present to you much of my own
first-hand knowledge of these sad events, and of the tragic tale
of Creon, king of Thebes.
While most of Creons life is known to the people of Thebes, for
the sake of this letter,
much of it must be reiterated so that certain events might come
into a greater light. Related to
the late King Laius of Thebes, and thus to Oedipus, Creon
retained temporary control of the
throne twice before finally taking it as his own. Whether he had
control of the crown or not did
not seem to matter much to Creon; whatever the state demanded
was what he truly cared about in
the end. Only when no other option remained did he accept a
permanent lordship over Thebes,
and with his first action, his view of the state as the first
priority became ever more apparent.
Before he at last took full control of Thebes, the throne had
been split between the two sons of
Oedipus, Eteoclos and Polynices. Such power has the ability to
drive men mad you should
know this better than most and civil war eventually erupted
between the two, with Polynices
Comment [WCS1]: If you are making this a
memo or letter, it needs to be formatted correct
Ill change it so it looks like a letter with this
salutation but if you dont want it that way, swit
back.
Comment [WCS2]: This seems to be an
incomplete thought. I dont understand it
Comment [WCS3]: Unstable?
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horror to befall Creon on that day. It was at this point that I
entered the tragic tale, for it was I
who ran into Thebes to announce the deaths of Haemon and
Antigone, of which Eurydice, dear
wife of Creon, heard all. It was I who later informed Creon of
his wifes suicide, and how she
had cursed him with her final breath. It was I who destroyed
Creon, and thus brought ruin and
unrest into Thebes. Even after all this misery, the state still
commanded Creon, and he soon left
the scene of his wifes destruction to attend a cabinet meeting.
Perhaps it was for this very
reason that Creon attempted his own suicide during that very
same meeting, finally seeing how
his willingness to put the state above his family had eventually
cost him everything, even his
own family.
Why it fell upon me to have the sad duty of condemning Creon to
this asylum is
unknown to me, but, perhaps, maybe I too should share a cell
with Creon for the misery I
wracked upon him. But.but these are the words of a broken man;
please bear them no heed,
but instead turn your attention back to Creon. If one were to
enter the now-prison of his mind, it
might be discovered that Creon tried to justify his actions by
saying that he had a duty to the city
over which he held lordship. Such words, though, ring hollow to
the ears of the many, and lack
the heart and soul needed to make these actions right. He may
have been our lord, and a loving
man, but alas, Creon succumbed to the very power to which he
paid much worship, and that god
has cut him down as swiftly as the sands of time cut down us
all.
Comment [WCS6]: To this asylum, to an asy
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When I first read the different topics available to us for this
final paper, my mind was
enraptured by the concept of an asylum admittance letter, and
immediately I began to envision
where I might go with this idea. As I sat in my room considering
it, I saw my worn copy of
Antigone on a shelf nearby, and suddenly it struck me like a
lightning bolt from the very hand of
Zeus: what if Creon attempted suicide after the events of
Sophocles famous tale? This was all it
took to make my creative juices begin to flow, and within hours
my idea came to fruition in these
very pages. Through the writing of it, I came to a deeper
understanding of the book and of Creon
himself, and how, even though he is a man to be respected, his
placing of the state above even
his own family is a tragic flaw that cannot be overlooked.
