Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And The Merchant Of Venice

People are often encouraged to promote and work towards their self interests, however when a persons self interests don't coincide with what is considered good, it can create a problem. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the poem "Power" by Corrine Hales, and the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, the characters struggle to show empathy and instead choose to promote their own interests, which ends up causing problems for them. Lack of empathy will often come back around and hurt you, as displayed by Curley, the siblings from “Power,” and Shylock.

In the novel Of Mice and Men, the character Curley puts his self interests of proving his masculinity before feeling empathetic for his wife. Since Curley is a smaller
guy, to prove his masculinity he married a beautiful woman. But, despite the fact that he keeps a glove full of vaseline on his hand for her, Curley still treats his wife with disrespect and will disregard her feelings. This is evident when Curley's wife says, “Think I don’t know where they all went? Even Curley. I know where they all went.” (p. 73.) Curley’s wife knows he went to a brothel and she’s not happy about it, but Curley doesn’t seem to care at all about his wife's feelings, he is only interested in proving his own masculinity. But, while Curley may think he’s proving that he’s a man by refusing to show empathy for his wife, he is actually pushing his wife away. Since Curley doesn't show any compassion towards his wife, she goes around to the other men on the farm in a search for companisonship. This leads to Curley feeling insecure because of his wife's interest in other men, which creates a cycle.

Similarly to Curley in Of Mice and Men, in the poem “Power” by Corrine Hales, the brother and sister let their own personal interest get in the way of feeling empathetic. This poem is about a brother and sister who want to impress their friends by throwing a fake body in front of a train. The poem starts with the line, “No one we knew had ever stopped a train.” (line 1). This helps to illustrate that the kids that the kids were just looking for recognition from their peers. The brother and sister didn’t think about how their actions may effect the conductor. It’s not until after the train hits the "person" that these kids learn that their joke could actually harm someone.

In the play The Merchant of Venice, the character Shylock refuses to show empathy towards Antonio and instead chooses to promote his own interests.
Antonio and Shylock have made a deal that if Antonio does not pay back a certain sum of money by a certain day, Shylock will be allowed to cut a pound of Antonio's flesh from a place of his choice. Unfortunately for Antonio, the ships containing his possessions got wrecked at sea and he is unable to pay Shylock back in time. They meet in a court where Bassanio, Antonio’s best friend and possible love interest, offers to pay Shylock twice the sum of the original bond. Even after Bassanio offers to pay twice the amount of the bond, Shylock still refuses to show empathy. When Shylock says, “i want it” it is evident that he wasn’t considering how Antonio felt, he was only thinking about how to get what he wanted. In the end, Shylocks lack of empathy came back to bite him when he was told that he could only cut Antonio's flesh as long as he didn’t draw any blood. Since that is impossible, Shylock did not get the pound of flesh, which is what he wanted. If Shylock had empathized with Antonio and accepted Bassanios offer, he would have been better off than he was when he
refused.

As shown by Curley, the brother and sister in “Power,” and Shylock, lack of empathy causes problems in the long run. Self interest usually isn't a bad thing, but it's also necessary to show empathy for others while getting what you want. If these characters had shown the slightest bit of empathy, they could’ve prevented the unwanted outcomes they had.