But God in heaven! Won’t you try to understand me! I’m trying hard enough to understand you! There had to be one man who said yes. Somebody had to agree to captain the ship. She had sprung a hundred leaks; she was loaded to the water line with crime, ignorance, poverty. The wheel was swinging with the wind. The crew refused to work and were looting the cargo. The officers were building a raft, ready to slip overboard and desert the ship. The mast was splitting, the wind was howling, the sails were beginning to rip. Every man jack on board was about to drown—and only because the only thing they thought of was their own skins and their cheap little day-to-day traffic. Was that a time, do you think, for playing with words like yes and no? Was that a time for a man to be weighing the pros and cons, wondering if he wasn’t going to pay too dearly later on; if he wasn’t going to lose his life, or his family, or his touch with other men? You grab the wheel, you right the ship in the face of a mountain of water. You shout an order, and if one man refuses to obey, you shoot straight into the mob. Into the mob, I say! The beast as nameless as the wave that crashes down upon your deck; as nameless as the whipping wind. The thing that drops when you shoot may be someone who poured you a drink the night before; but it has no name. And you, braced at the wheel, you have no name, either. Nothing has a name—except the ship, and the storm.
Now that's a quote worth quoting! Before I found out who said it, I thought of people from Christ to Hitler. But it wasn't ideological enough for Hitler and not humane enough for Christ.
So now you know that this is the voice of Creon, the ruler of Thebes, from Jean Anouilh's play, Antigone.
It is interesting that you mention Hitler. The play premiered in Paris in 1944, during the Nazi occupation. While the play presents a sufficiently nuanced view of both Creon and Antigone to have avoided the censors, many have commented that Antigone represented the French Resistance while Creon stood in for the Nazi occupation. As demonstrated by this passage, however, Creon is not an altogether unsympathetic character.
One more word. I think the point is that ultimately you cannot sacrifice your soul for the state, no matter how how-minded the cause. We see the same point made in Dr. Zhivago. Pasha Antipov, later Strelnikov, tells Zhivago that, "Feelings, insights, affections... it's suddenly trivial now. You don't agree; you're wrong. The personal life is dead in Russia" -- and we know that he's wrong and Zhivago is right.
Even though in some ways, Antigone is completely irresponsible, she ends ups the slight superior to Creon because her soul is still intact.
Looking back, I can't imagine ever agreeing with this when I was in my 20's.
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Now that's a quote worth quoting! Before I found out who said it, I thought of people from Christ to Hitler. But it wasn't ideological enough for Hitler and not humane enough for Christ.
So now you know that this is the voice of Creon, the ruler of Thebes, from Jean Anouilh's play, Antigone.
It is interesting that you mention Hitler. The play premiered in Paris in 1944, during the Nazi occupation. While the play presents a sufficiently nuanced view of both Creon and Antigone to have avoided the censors, many have commented that Antigone represented the French Resistance while Creon stood in for the Nazi occupation. As demonstrated by this passage, however, Creon is not an altogether unsympathetic character.
One more word. I think the point is that ultimately you cannot sacrifice your soul for the state, no matter how how-minded the cause. We see the same point made in Dr. Zhivago. Pasha Antipov, later Strelnikov, tells Zhivago that, "Feelings, insights, affections... it's suddenly trivial now. You don't agree; you're wrong. The personal life is dead in Russia" -- and we know that he's wrong and Zhivago is right.
Even though in some ways, Antigone is completely irresponsible, she ends ups the slight superior to Creon because her soul is still intact.
Looking back, I can't imagine ever agreeing with this when I was in my 20's.
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