User:Skoep9/sandbox

Summary

Eden’s Empire was a play written by James Graham, that was a drama originally  published in 2006. This was a story written about Anthony Eden, who was a prime minister and First Earl of Avon in his life time of 1897-1977.During the play Graham went over how horrible the timing was for Eden. Graham went over all the controversy surrounding Eden had during his lifetime, and whether or not we should believe he was a good ruler or not. During his rule, there were a lot of major concerns he had to deal with. Eden had to deal with the major war going on in his country along with his own health, many loses, gossip, the press and the fact that he had a horrible support system behind him. Even after all these issues, history would still mark him as the worst British Prime Minister of the twentieth century, because of him not ending the most disastrous war in the Middle East.

Health

One major problem Anthony Eden had to deal with was his health. Before coming to power, a lot of people were concerned about his health. You can clearly see in the beginning of the play that his wife Clarissa, Woolton, and Churchill were all extremely worried about his health. Churchill, before giving Eden power, even stated “you need to get fit, Anthony. Fit and well. Then we’ll talk” (25, Graham). His wife told him before he came into power that he needed to take a break and relax because he was overstressed. She tells Eden that  “Anthony, the doctors would like to do some tests. You are not well” (22, Graham). Towards the end of the play, Eden then starts abusing pills, and not eating. Clarissa later in the play calls Anthony out gesturing to the pills “Is that dinner today?” (79, Graham) Eden replies “I need them. They’re keeping me alive" (80, Graham), which demonstrates how his health continued to deteriorate towards the end.  Ruling didn’t only take a physical toll on his body, but also a mental one, as

well.

Loses

During Eden’s rule, he was never given an opportunity to get over his dramatic loses. Losing his son affected his mental health dramatically, in turn  affecting how he ruled. He claimed in the beginning of his rule that he wanted quick justice for the war. Eden stated that “Everybody lost somebody” (11, Graham). This war was affecting absolutely everyone, even people who weren’t directly involved. Graham made it very clear when going into office that Eden wanted to “heal old wounds” (27, Graham). Wanting revenge during a crisis was not in Eden’s best interest. Eden continues this conversation trying to compose himself by saying “They say the… the hardest thing a man has to do is...is bury his son. I think though… not being able to bury him… is… is probably… far worse…” (27, Graham). He very clearly struggled not being able to bury his own son through the whole play. Throughout the whole play you are able to see how greatly affected he was by this.

Gossip

During this time of war and crisis where everyone was being cruel to Eden by making up rumors and slaughtering his name. Along with not listening to him, while he had to watch people going against not only him, but his morals. Before Eden got into power, in the play there was already gossip going around about not only him, but the house as a whole, as well. The first of many rumors that was brought up in the beginning was that the house was not in order. Eden then respond to Schuman about this “rumor” that “You… shouldn’t pay attention to gossip monsieur Schuman. Our house is in order” (23, Graham). This is hard to believe that the house was in order at this time, when the ruler has just passed, and the nation is in crisis. Towards the middle of the play, after Eden had just became Prime Minister, Eden holding up the newspaper  states to Bishop “Treacherous, the lot of them. Buckling under pressure. Giving in to hysteria. Denouncing me one by one!” (60, Graham). At this point, he had just become Prime Minister and was already being slaughtered to the public. The issue at this time was that Eden wasn’t even able to send out a press release back to the public due to the press secretary resigning over Suez, which was just the start of people resigning from office.

Support system

Eden’s “support system” didn’t do very much for him during his rule. Woolton and Swinton did not want to give power to Eden, because they believed there were plenty of other more qualified people for the job. Swinton even mentioned to Churchill about trying to look for someone better; “Personally I think anybody would be a better. His health for start. And he can never seem to make up his mind, which doesn’t bode well. And his temperament!” (29, Graham). Eden’s health was not good enough for him to become Prime Minister, but in history Reginald Rabb, a scholar, in his piece implies that Eden wasn’t alone making the decisions her did. He states that “Eden often wrote to his friends asking for their opinion on matters that interested him...” (Rabb, 159). This demonstrates as to why he seem so indecisive because he wasn’t confident enough in his own decisions. Most likely due to his name always being slaughter by not only the press, but by his support system as well. But afterwards, the butler defended Eden and tried to prove that this was all bad timing for the nation. He states “Let’s not forget this man once considered to become the first ever Secretary General of the UN. He’s a proven diplomat and an accomplished politician. And he’s been in line for over a decade” (29, Graham), showing that this isn’t the first time Eden wanted to come into power. He had been working hard to go into power his entire life. Eden was put under a great deal of stress being under power, along with his private life. Many people towards the end of the play were resigning because of how bad the war was. Nutting, whom was one of the members, before resigning said to Anthony “You look like a man who has seen his own terrifying downfall in front of him. I can see it in your eyes. The cavernous hole… getting bigger and deeper, spreading outwards, to swallow you up...“ (71, Graham). This occurred while the whole empire was already in a downfall. Eden then demonstrates that he is worried about “Everyone jumping ship now that the going has got rough?” (73, Graham). Macmillan, one of the members, was still optimistic claiming “Last time I checked we were still a superpower that made its own decisions.” But Eden didn’t see it that way, he responded “… I have cabinet members resigning, a country divided, a parliament nearly in revolt. Our Commonwealth against us! And the press! Who still backs us in the press now, Bishop?” (74, Graham). Another part of this downfall was the cabinet members that weren’t resigning, which shows them not being fully supportive. Eden asked Bishop “What are these whispers about Mountbatten?” Bishop responded with “Apparently he talked his opinion through with a few Cabinet members” (81, Graham). At the end of the play, Macmillan even tells Eden that “We may have to consider moving you out of London, Anthony. Just in case” (Graham, 82), implying that he wasn’t safe where he was. Many people blamed Eden for not ending the war, and not being healthy enough so they wanted him gone.