Tyler J. Cole Mrs. Vermillion Honors English 10 31 March 2023 Fist of Iron or Benevolent hand?: The Comparison and Contrast of Vlad Dracula and King Creon A man sits upon his throne; it is made of a simple, yet intricately carved design. The man is a striking figure; he has a large, flat forehead, bulging, great, green eyes, and long and thick hair. He is dressed in a Turkish style caftan of velvet and silk; embroidered with gold, jewels and precious furs. As he sits here, he dips his bread in a pool of blood. In comparison, a Greek man addresses his elder council. He wears a red robe with a gold band symbolising him as king. He has dark brown hair and a thick beard, with a constant stern expression that seems to be chiselled from marble itself. …show more content…
The Ancient Greeks had strong ideas and senses of loyalty. Creon invokes and represents this loyalty amongst his people. He holds strong to his sense of familial loyalty when he states to Haemon that “this is the way to behave: subordinate / Everything else, my son, to you father’s will / This is what a man prays for, that he may get/ Sons attentive and dutiful to his house”(Sophocles 3.11-14). He then proceeds to show his loyalty to his own ideals when he says “Do you want me to show myself weak before the people? / Or to break my sworn word? No, and I will not. / The woman dies”(Sophocles 3.26-28). Creon’s ideals of loyalty are those of familial and governmental. He desires his family to be loyal to him and for himself to be loyal to his own government. With Antigone having gone against his law, Creon feels that his loyalty has been betrayed and decrees her execution. A desire for loyalty is often the cause of much paranoia for absolutist rulers. Vlad had such fears during his reign. Vlad feared the boyars of Wallachia because the succession laws allowed illegitimate children to be placed upon the throne. This allowed the boyars to change the ruler to whomever they desired. Vlad sought to establish oaths of loyalty from the start of his reign. He summoned the peoples of Wallachia and for forty days people swore their oaths to him. By this “oath of loyalty which they swore, with their hands on the gospel and the cross, the boyars, clergy, town folk and peasants felt themselves strongly bound to their prince”(Cazacu 84). Despite Vlad’s violent tendencies, he was viewed in a positive light by his people. His very presence commanded loyalty and respect. Vlad’s own personal beliefs of loyalty were shown when he refused to guide a Turkish army into Transylvania because of him having been a part of the Order of the Dragon, which was a group