Roy Cohn: Difference between revisions

Roy shows no compassion to anyone throughout the screenplay, even when he is on his death-bed.  His cold-heartedness and manipulative ways help make him an easy target for hatred.  However Roy was doing what he felt had to do in order to succeed, in order to accomplish his goals, in order to get what he wanted.  It is for this reason that Roy Cohn is the most symbolic character in this play, for what he epitomizes - America, the capitalist land of the social cheeseburger.

Cohn might be compared to [[Oedipus Rex|Oedipus]]. Oedipus for example, feigns compassion and understanding with his people suffering from the plague in order to maintain his political position. When he is addressing the crowd, he makes his own suffering seem far greater than any other: "Well I know you are sick to death, all of you, but sick as you are, not one is sick as I. Your pain strikes each of you alone, each in the confines of himself, no other. But my spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you" (ll. 75-76). Oedipus believes that his triumphs exceed any of those made by his counter parts. This behavior is key to hubris; his arrogance allows him to believe that he is greater than any God.