Sophocles `ANTIGONE`

Running head : LETTER TO CREON

[Title]

[Name]

[Institution]

[Date]

Dear Creon

Let the highest praise and cheer be said in your name , dear Creon , for restoring law and in the kingdom . The curse has been lifted and the misery of your people has finally ended . All thanks to your courage to uphold law without showing favor and bias to those who you once considered master and friends but later had to punish yourself for their misdeeds . Time and again the gods and men honor those who put the

welfare of others first before one 's personal sentiments . To quote you By fear of consequence , that man I hold [ .] and ever held , the basest of the base . And I contemn the man who sets his friend before his country (Sophocles , 1982 ) You have shown equity in serving the ends of justice regardless of title , class and merit , wherever it is due and whenever it is needed . As king , you have not been remiss in your duty as the enforcer of law and , and for that you deserve the greatest honor and command respect among your subjects in Thebes . The people rejoice and find reassurance in your strong character . It gives them hope that the kingdom will soon be healed of its wounds and the dark memories of the past shall soon be forgotten

However , there is one more thing that remains to be done King Creon Where the authority of law and the obligation to enforce its commands have already been carried out fully , these must likewise yield to humanitarian causes . There is little doubt that Polynieces deserved his punishment , as the law so decrees , but is it absolutely necessary that his body be left unburied ? Indeed , dura lex sed lex ! The law is harsh but it is the law . One can imagine the difficulty of choosing between old friends and the kingdom . Yet no man is so bound to his duties and so compelled by his obligations that he should forget his sense of humanity in the process . Why continue to scoff at the remains you consider miscreants and enemies of the state when they have already suffered the extreme penalty of death ? No matter how much evil a person does in his lifetime , his death is more than enough to extinguish the debt he owes the world . His lifeless body need no longer be scoffed at , desecrated and disrespected to prove your point . Dearest King Creon , let death disarm thy vengeance . O forebear to vex the dead . What glory wilt thou win by slaying twice the slain (Sophocles , 1982 ) Even the basest and bad creatures deserve a proper burial . Not only because his death is sufficient payment to an injury caused , but those who survive his memory become surrogates to his suffering . Take for example Antigone , who by her love and innocence , continues to suffer a vicarious hurt for what is being done to her brother 's memory and corpse . Your heart and intention is...