Word: creon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Creon of Sophocles is a pigheaded, authoritarian tyrant who is absolutely confident of his own infallibility. The Creon of Anouilh-Carnovsky is quite different. We even learn that in his youth "he loved music, bought rare manuscripts, was a kind of art patron." But now he has become the sort of person against whom Archibald MacLeish has just warned us: "Man in the electronic age is not a votary of the arts--he has more serious business. He sees himself, whatever his economic system, as a social and scientific animal, the great unraveler of the universe, its potential master...
Anouilh's Creon is intelligent, dignified, and efficient. He didn't seek power, but "once I take on the job, I must do it properly." He is not without some compassion; he even offers to gloss over Antigone's first violation of his edict if she will agree not to repeat it. To him the burial of Polyneices is "meaningless," the people he governs are "featherheaded rabble," and "this whole business is nothing but politics." Carnovsky is marvelously forceful in describing his job ("Kings, my girl, have other things to do than to surrender themselves to their private feelings...
...Jane Farnol brings a good deal of warmth to the role of Antigone's devoted and solicitous old nurse. Richard Castellano, Edward Rutney, and Garry Mitchell, dressed in blue uniforms with red stripes, are fine as the three guards, who represent the majority of society; they are part of Creon's "featherheaded rabble." They are hard-drinking, vulgar-tongued, card-playing dullards...non-entities, really. They are utterly indifferent to what is going on around them, and couldn't begin to understand it even if they cared. They serve to underline Anouilh's prevailing pessimism about mankind. Kilty has also...
...issues raised by Antigone and Creon that one's mind keeps returning. Important among them is civil disobedience. When and to what extent is it justified? Will not the putting of conscience above law lead to anarchy...
...book on General Billy Mitchell has revived the story of his courtmartial, conviction and suspension from service. Mitchell has been proven right, but the only officer at the trial to vote for his acquittal was Douglas MacArthur, who some years later would have his own Harry S. Creon to contend with. The Nuremberg War Crimes trial raised the issue again. And in the past few weeks the headlines have been full of the trial and conviction of Muhammad Ali and Captain Howard B. Levy--both of whom refused to compromise with conscience...