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Roy Cohn: Difference between revisions
some commentary, study questiones 1 - 3
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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). | 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). | ||
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). | 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). | ||
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). | 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). | ||
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From this perspective, we see that Cohn not only dominates those around him, but he dominates the society in which he lives. He has the power to make and break the reputations of those around him. | From this perspective, we see that Cohn not only dominates those around him, but he dominates the society in which he lives. He has the power to make and break the reputations of those around him. | ||
One of the great comparisons of Cohn is to Oedipus in Oedipus the King [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/myth.htm"]written by Sophocles [http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=maco12153&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U13003395&n=10&docNum=H1200007651&ST=Sophocles&bConts=278191]. 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 | Roy is the most frowned upon character in the screenplay and the character we all love to hate. 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 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. | ||
One of the great comparisons of Cohn is to Oedipus in Oedipus the King [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/myth.htm"]written by Sophocles [http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=maco12153&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U13003395&n=10&docNum=H1200007651&ST=Sophocles&bConts=278191]. 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." (Line 75-76)'' | ''"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." (Line 75-76)'' | ||
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As represented in all great Greek tragedies, hubris is the downfall of the character. As we read more about the progression of Cohn, we see how far his affluence takes him, allowing him to have access to ATZ during a clinical trial before anyone else. In the end, Cohn dies, cloutless and the same as everyone else. | As represented in all great Greek tragedies, hubris is the downfall of the character. As we read more about the progression of Cohn, we see how far his affluence takes him, allowing him to have access to ATZ during a clinical trial before anyone else. In the end, Cohn dies, cloutless and the same as everyone else. | ||
==Study Questiones== | |||
1. Why would Roy find it necessary to have Ethel Rosenburg killed? Could Roy have felt threatened by the loss of power acheived with Socialism? | |||
2. Do you think Roy could have changed, even if he wanted to? | |||
3. Do we feel justification when Roy dies painfully and disembarred? If yes, isn't that kind of a "Roy-esk" quality, if you will? | |||
==External Resource== | ==External Resource== | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn Roy Cohn] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn Roy Cohn] | ||