Dear Ismene,

If you’re reading this, I’ve already left the kingdom of Thebes.  I couldn’t stick around to say goodbye, because I knew that you would try and convince me to stay.  Although you, Uncle Creon, and our brothers have always treated me well, and it pains me to leave my remaining family behind, I cannot stay here.  How could I?  How can you?  After all that has come to light, and after the death of our mother, I no longer feel at home here.
That being said, I cannot deny the truth, nor can I wish that our family’s secrets had remained buried.  Like our late mother, I know that you wish our father had never uncovered the truth, as you  told me that you longed for the days when we lived in blissful ignorance.  I however, do not share this wish.  The horrible truth pains me, but I would never long for ignorance.  I am many things, but I am no coward, and, unlike you and our mother, I refuse to hide from the truth.
After having pieced together the truth, Mother beseeched our still ignorant father, “Don’t pay it any attention.  I beg you - do not hunt this out - I beg you, if you have any care for your own life.  What I am suffering is enough.”  In some ways I respect her desperate attempt to salvage our family and protect us from the truth, but how could she turn her back on the people of Thebes?  All of the citizens were relying on Father to find King Laius's murderer and end the Plague which he had brought upon the city.  Even so, the prophet Teiresias shared Mother’s sentiment, telling our father, “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it turns against you!  Let me go home.  It will be easiest for us both to go no further in this.”  But if our father had listened to them, if he had not sought out the truth, it would have been the people of Thebes who suffered.  How could any king be so selfish as to live in ignorance when doing so harmed his people?  The truth ravaged our now dysfunctional family, but at least the plague has been lifted from Thebes, and for that reason I do not disapprove of our father’s investigation.  In this cruel world, some of us must bear to know the most horrible of wisdom in order to benefit everyone else.
Nothing can change the tragic events which have occurred, so why live in denial?  Why waste your energy wishing for a state of naivete that we can never return to?  Besides, knowing the truth may harm us, but at least it gives us a platform from which to move forward and learn.  Furthermore, we as humans cannot help but seek the truth.  Surly being grounded in reality is better than living in false happiness?  Our father had said, “I must know the truth,” and when the Herdsman refused to talk because he said he was on the brink of frightful speech, Father responded “And I of frightful hearing.  But I must hear!”  The truth of our conception is repulsive, but certainly the way our father held his resolve even as the noose tightened around his throat is noble.
For these reasons I hold fast to my belief that it is better to know the truth than live in blissful ignorance.  And now that I know the truth, it's time for me to leave this broken family behind.  I do not regret discovering the truth, but I am still reeling in terrible shock, and I must move on from this dreadfully familiar place.  I cannot stay to mourn my suicidal mother or live under the care of Uncle Creon.  Our family has been destroyed.  It is time for me to chart my own course and carry out my own fate, independent of the origin story I have discovered.  I can only hope my fate will be kinder than our father’s.
I will always care about you, Ismene, my dearest sister.  I urge you to do as I have done and accept the truth.  Do not waste time feeling sorry for yourself or fearing wisdom, simply move on.  I wish you all the happiness that is possible in your life,

Love always,
Antigone