Macbeth Play

Paul DiPasqua

EN-101-14

Dr. Ellis

Blog Post #3

Macbeth

            After reading Mitsuye Yamada’s “Cincinnati,” Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” as well as attending The American Shakespeare Society’s production of “Macbeth,” I have found that there is a theme in each of them that overlaps the others. Specifically, each story tells of how good people can both do bad things, as well as experience bad things.

            In “Cincinnati,” Yamada speaks about her experiences in the United States as a Japanese-American. One can assume that her story takes place at a time of high racial intolerance towards Asians, as she is called a “dirty jap” by a passerby. In a large city like Cincinnati, where no one knows her, the fact that someone would take the time out of their day to call her a racial slur when she had done nothing wrong shows how good people often experience the most hardship. Additionally, I believe Yamada uses her hankie to symbolize herself. At the beginning of the poem, she says “freedom at last” which implies that her life is taking a turn for the better. Later, when she begins crying, she uses her hankie to make her tears go away. Her hankie makes things better for the moment, yet it still ends up in the gutter alongside “teeth-marked gum wads” which is the equivalent of how she must feel when she is met with such insensitivity on her first day in a real city where no one knows her. Although Yamada had done nothing to warrant the treatment she receives in the poem, she still ends up being made to feel terrible about herself.

            “My Papa’s Waltz” comes across as one big metaphor to me. I believe the dance that the small boy shares with his father in the kitchen tells the story of their entire relationship. Beginning with the fact that the father is drunk from the outset of the poem, the dance seems to portray some form of abuse by the father whether it is physical, emotional, or both. The boy hangs on to his father “like death”, which is an eerie simile to use in this situation, because waltzing with him is “not easy”, symbolizing that although he has a strained relationship with his father, he still loves him and wants to be close with him. Furthermore, Roethke describes the dance as a romp that slides pans off the kitchen shelf, yet the mother does not say anything and rather shows a face of disapproval. Once again, this signals an abusive relationship to me, as it seems that the mother is scared to tell the drunken father to quiet down while dancing so she would certainly fear him if he was beating their son. Finally, Roethke’s use of the belt scraping the boy’s ear whenever the father misses a step convinces me that this poem is about abuse. The steps that the dad misses are symbols for the mistakes he makes, so the child ends up being the one who gets hurt by them while his father continues unfazed. The waltz that the boy shares with his dad shows him that his dad is a good man and does love him, although he may not always act that way toward him.

            “The Cask of Amontillado” by Poe provides an interesting way to find good in a character who commits murder. Montresor, the eventual murderer, feels as if he has been insulted by Fortunato, so he formulates a plan to kill him. His plan consists of bringing Fortunato to a wine cellar and then chaining him there forever. However, Montresor seems to have second thoughts about his plan once they are underground, offering to bring Fortunato back home multiple times. When Fortunato keeps rejecting the offers, he seals his own fate and becomes chained to a stone by Montresor. What I see in Montresor is a man who values loyalty above all else, even above life. He felt disrespected so, as was the custom at the time, he took matters into his own hands. He seems to be so good a man that he even knows what he is doing is wrong, so he offers to spare Fortunato’s life. Once he knows that Fortunato will not leave, though, he feels justified in his actions and follows through with his plan. I believe that Montresor is a good man who was serious about his morals, and was compelled to honor them.

            “Macbeth” is what ties each of these stories together in my opinion. The play follows the warrior Macbeth as he is persuaded by his evil wife to overthrow the King by murdering him. Macbeth is a good man, who allows himself to become part of Lady Macbeth’s quest for power even though he knows in his mind and his heart that it is wrong. This is what allows me to compare Macbeth to characters from each of the stories I read, such as the abusive father who still shares a dance with his son before bed, or even the racist man from “Cincinnati” who may have been a good man but just influenced by society to act in a racist manner. What makes Macbeth most relevant to each of these stories, however, is that he knows how he should act, yet he acts contrarily because of outside factors, like alcohol for the father in “My Papa’s Waltz” or suspicions of disloyalty in “The Cask of Amontillado”.