Far Too Trusting
In A New Hope, Grand Moff Tarkin compels Princess Leia Organa to reveal the location of the secret Rebel base by threatening to destroy her home planet of Alderaan. Leia seems to cave under pressure, confessing that the base is on Dantooine. Tarkin then proceeds to destroy Alderaan anyway, scoffing, "You're far too trusting." Tarkin dismisses the very idea of honor – the belief that there is a real obligation to keep one's word after one has given it – as a kind of weakness to be exploited in the name of expedience.
Shortly thereafter, Tarkin is shocked and outraged to learn that Leia lied to him to save her allies: the Rebel base is not, in fact, on Dantooine. "She lied! She lied to us!" he exclaims when he receives the report from the scouts. Tarkin's indignation is comically hypocritical. He scoffs at the idea of keeping his word, but expects others to keep theirs. The self-defeating irony of his position is well expressed by C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man: "We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."
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Characters: Grand Moff Tarkin / Leia Organa
Films: Episode IV: A New Hope
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Concepts: honor / truth and falsehood
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