Greed and Dominance

I  went to The American Shakespeare Society's show of Macbeth and during the show I was able to make a strong connection bewteen our readings "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe, "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke and "Cincinnati" by Mitsuye Yamada. All three of the readings and the show faced an enemy. Whether the enemy was actually innocent, such as in Macbeth and "The Cask of Amontillado," or if the enemy was physically/emotionally harmful. I found Macbeth to be most similar to Poe's and Roethke work because I believe they shared a similar theme of greediness, evil pleasure and dominance. However, I found Yamada's and Roethke's poem to be a fight against evil. All the readings contain good vs evil and I know a lot of us can relate to some of the good vs evil.

Beginning with the show Macbeth, I think the theme of greediness is most suitable for this case. In the show, Macbeth is told by witches he will be named the king of Kane and the Kind of Scotland. Shortly after being told so, he does become the King of Kane, but being named King of Scotland has not happened yet. Macbeth is not satisfied with the title King of Kane and his greediness takes over. He kills King Duncan who was, at the time, the King of Scotland and is soon throned King of Scotland because Duncan's kids thought they were next in line for death. Macbeth became so greedy that he was not satisfied with being a king of anything smaller than Scotland and lots of lives, including his own, were lost. Greedily he enjoyed the dominance of his power through evil pleasure at the b\point before he was killed. I think we can all relate to this in a very small way because being a king you would think he has almost everything with that title, but he wants even more and more. In relation to his greed on a much smaller spectrum, we all have roofs over our head, shoes on our feet, and food in our bellies yet we demand more and more. I live in a nice house with a stable family but I ask for a new phone or gaming system when one comes out. I believe greed loses in a sense that eventually greed will catch up to someone and kill them, like Macbeth, or the things one presently have will be taken for granted and by then its too late.

Relating to Macbeth, ""The Cask of Amontillado" is all about one getting greedy for revenge and exemplifying that through evil pleasure. It starts off with Fortunato exchanging words that Montresor did not like very much. The character Montresor then seeks revenge and secretly lures Fortunato down to a hole in which he traps Fortunato and barricades him in with bricks. Montresor was so desperate and greedy for revenge he wanted Fortunato to die slowly. By chaining him into the hole and barricading Fortunato in, Montresor was evilly pleasured because he felt a sense of dominance and control over the helpless Fortunato who deserved revenge in Montresor's eyes. Dominance and evil pleasure is also exemplified through the poem "My Papa's Waltz". It is about an alcoholic and abusive father that I believe when he is drunk, a certain level of satisfaction runs through him while he beats his kid. The poem says "At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle" insinuating he was swaying back and forth beating the kid with a belt. The kid is innocent while the father feels dominance because the kid nor the mother who helplessly watches can stop him. That dominance brings an evil pleasure to the drunk father.

Lastly, on contrary of bad vs good, this seemed to be the opposite and a good person vs a bad surrounding. In "Cincinnati" the woman is "freed" from a camp but is not really freed. The Japanese were frowned upon at this time and when she was released she felt free but walking down the street her surrounding made sure she shut that down quick by getting spit on. Mitsuye Yamada made sure to include emotional harassment and evilness too by saying "hissing voice that said dirty jap". This is a good person vs evil acts and I believe we can all also relate to this. Fortunately we are not in a time with so much racial hate but it does exist. Not only racial hate but emotional/physical hate too. We have all been emoitonally hurt by something someone has said to us and even physical hurt by evil acts directed towards some people. This poem relates all the poems together. The people around this woman are acting evil and feel a sense of dominance by spitting and name calling the Japanese woman. This poem is a good example as to why not to be greedy. Here is a Japanese lady who finally feels like she has freedom, yet walks down a street and gets completely degraded by people. The there is kings like Macbeth and people like Montresor who have freedom yet want more and more. The moral of all readings is to be a good person and happy with what you have because you never know what someone else is going through.