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Roy Cohn: Difference between revisions
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http://www.logoonline.com/sitewide/promoimages/a/angels_in_america/characters/roy/150x200.jpg http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcohn.jpg | http://www.logoonline.com/sitewide/promoimages/a/angels_in_america/characters/roy/150x200.jpg http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcohn.jpg | ||
The character of Roy Cohn serves as vehicle for Kushner's most telling act of counterhistory. As a "Saint of the Right", Cohn represents a point of continuity between the anticommunism of the 1950's and the Republic ascendancy of the Reagan 1980s (Garner 5). | <blockquote>The character of Roy Cohn serves as vehicle for Kushner's most telling act of counterhistory. As a "Saint of the Right", Cohn represents a point of continuity between the anticommunism of the 1950's and the Republic ascendancy of the Reagan 1980s (Garner 5).</blockquote> | ||
Kushner employs a quite different brand of humor with the character of Cohn, whose gleefully bitter corruption is both comic and frightening. Cohn is a rapacious predator who is first discovered in his command module juggling phone calls and wishing he had eight arms like an octopus. Roy's self-loathing is his most unsettling quality, vividly shown in his scathing denial of his homosexuality: "Like all labels they tell you one thing and one thing only: where does an individual so identified fit in the food chain,in the pecking order?" Cohn represents a kind of trickle-down morality in ''Angels in America''; he is a symbol of Kushner's notion that if there is corruption, hypocrisy, and bad faith at the top, it will ultimately seep down to each individual in the society (Layman 10). | <blockquote>Kushner employs a quite different brand of humor with the character of Cohn, whose gleefully bitter corruption is both comic and frightening. Cohn is a rapacious predator who is first discovered in his command module juggling phone calls and wishing he had eight arms like an octopus. Roy's self-loathing is his most unsettling quality, vividly shown in his scathing denial of his homosexuality: "Like all labels they tell you one thing and one thing only: where does an individual so identified fit in the food chain,in the pecking order?" Cohn represents a kind of trickle-down morality in ''Angels in America''; he is a symbol of Kushner's notion that if there is corruption, hypocrisy, and bad faith at the top, it will ultimately seep down to each individual in the society (Layman 10).</blockquote> | ||
Like an incipient cancer, Cohn's corruption, however destructive, is nonetheless insidious. It infiltrates and draws on the body's internal systems to spread, eventually overtaking and destroying the host--Cohn or the law.Although he corrupts the method by which judges decide cases (by sleeping with them and the like), he does not try to have cases decided any other way (Quinn 3). | <blockquote>Like an incipient cancer, Cohn's corruption, however destructive, is nonetheless insidious. It infiltrates and draws on the body's internal systems to spread, eventually overtaking and destroying the host--Cohn or the law.Although he corrupts the method by which judges decide cases (by sleeping with them and the like), he does not try to have cases decided any other way (Quinn 3).</blockquote> | ||
Cohn's deviation from the jurisprudential norm is indeed like that of a cancer, ravenous in its hunger, growing and operating at a rate independent of the rest of the body of which it is a part, destined to overtake and kill the very body that sustains it. But the corrupt, diseased, tumorous nature of Cohn's lawyering also has important textual and thematic links with the physical infection and ensuing "corruption" of Cohn's flesh and blood with AIDS (Quinn). | <blockquote>Cohn's deviation from the jurisprudential norm is indeed like that of a cancer, ravenous in its hunger, growing and operating at a rate independent of the rest of the body of which it is a part, destined to overtake and kill the very body that sustains it. But the corrupt, diseased, tumorous nature of Cohn's lawyering also has important textual and thematic links with the physical infection and ensuing "corruption" of Cohn's flesh and blood with AIDS (Quinn).</blockquote> | ||
==Commentary== | ==Commentary== | ||
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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. | 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. | ||
http://www.hbo.com/films/angelsinamerica/img/photos/photo_roys_closer.jpg | |||
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. | 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. | ||
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http://www.hbo.com/films/angelsinamerica/img/photos/photo_roy_hospita.jpg | http://www.hbo.com/films/angelsinamerica/img/photos/photo_roy_hospita.jpg | ||
Cohn was chosen to be a part of this play because aided McCarthy during the anit-communist hysteria in the 50's and symbolizes power and selfishness. | Cohn was chosen to be a part of this play because aided McCarthy during the anit-communist hysteria in the 50's and symbolizes power and selfishness. While aiding McCarthy in the Ethel Rosenberg trial, Cohn helped to secure the death penalty for this "little jewish [mama]" (Kushner 114). In the play, Roy states that he "fucking [hates] traitors" (Kushner 114), yet he disregards the law to make sure that Ethel Rosenberg dies. He uses her communist ties to justify his actions. He perceives her as a traitor, but he is the "Judas" of the play. In addition to speaking with contempt for her and other jews in the play, he is also derisive of homosexuals in spite of being one. He continues to declare that he is not a homosexual, but a "heterosexual man...who fucks around with guys" (Kushner 52). He was a contradictory man because although he was a "closet homo" he helped in the persecution of gays (Jacobus 1635). | ||
==Study Questiones== | ==Study Questiones== | ||
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5. Why do you think it is so important for Roy to live a life that is exactly like the life his father lived? | 5. Why do you think it is so important for Roy to live a life that is exactly like the life his father lived? | ||
6. Explain Roy's statement "I fucking hate traitors." Is there irony in this statement? | |||
7. What other characters in the play who act as traitors? | |||
8. How does Kushner use these Characters to demonstrate themes of betrayal, justice and redemption? | |||
==External Resource== | ==External Resource== | ||