Cup of Gold: Major Themes
Unfulfilled Desire:
Captain Henry Morgan is the first in a long line of Steinbeck characters that are plagued by disillusionment. Some, like Morgan, ultimately attain what they have achingly desired, only to learn that the desired object, in this case, La Santa Roja and the Cup of Gold, does not bring the satisfaction for which they longed. Since he conceived of the possibility of taking a Spanish town as a young man, Morgan spent all of his energy concocting plans to achieve his objective without much reflection on the true purpose of his efforts. Always a "dull, torturing desire" plagues him (61). He mistakenly thinks […] it was plunder that called to him: the beautiful things of silk and gold and the admiration of men" (61). Certainly he desires fortune and fame as an accomplished sea captain, but his continued isolation from friends and comrades, and his inability to develop a satisfying love relationship once he has attained those desires, indicate that Morgan is grasping for something more meaningful, though he does not seem to realize what that might be.
Morgan's unfulfilled desires become intertwined with his own fantastical notions about the power of La Santa Roja and so she, along with the Cup of Gold, take on mythic proportions in his mind. It is no surprise then when Ysobel and the conquering of Panama fail to bring Morgan the satisfaction for which he longed. In fact, Morgan is shocked when he finally sees La Santa Roja: "He is staggered at such a revolt against his preconceptions" (133). She is not the rosy seraphim he imagined. Ysobel is simply a woman, and one who wants nothing to do with Captain Henry Morgan. Like his true love Elizabeth, she is intimidating in her womanly strength and power and she renders Morgan impotent, rebuffing him with a single stick pin.
Morgan, in his humiliation, then kills his best friend, double crosses his men and leaves Panama in shame to live as King Charles' dupe. He even has the gall to prosecute and hang his own comrades. Unable to face or even understand his failure, he trades his desires for grand adventure for a life of ease and comfort as a hollow British socialite who threw away his one chance for true love. He even rejects salvation at the end of the novel. Because "[…] his eyes had never lost the trick of looking out beyond distance and over the edge of the present," Morgan could never appreciate at what he had when he had it (59).
Pride:
Pride seems to be Henry Morgan's primary motivation. He seeks fortune and fame for the simple sake of attaining them. As he becomes increasingly successful, he grows more isolated from his comrades as he fears their admiration of him is insincere. Morgan's own insecurities prevent him from establishing meaningful relationships with his comrades and especially with women. As a young man he is confused and humiliated by Elizabeth, who he views, in his inability to understand his attraction to her, as "a loathsome being" (21). His insecurity and hurt pride over a woman's ability to embarrass him seems to haunt him throughout his life and prevents him from allowing anyone to get close to him.
Morgan desires to conquer La Santa Roja only so that he may have the satisfaction of having overcome the most beautiful woman in the world. It has nothing to do with loving or being loved. His desire to possess her causes him to murder his only friend, Coeur de Gris, even though his desire is superficial and she scorns and rejects him. In shame over his inability to captivate La Santa Roja, Morgan is embarrassed and angered that his men will perceive this as weakness: "[…] he quailed before the knowledge of his men's laughter when they discovered his embarrassment. There would be snickering when his back was turned. […] This hidden ridicule was terrifying to Henry Morgan" (137). Even worse than this hidden ridicule, is the sense of empathy he expects from Coeur de Gris: "He did not fear ridicule from Coeur de Gris, but rather sympathy and understanding. Henry did not want understanding now. His lieutenant would look at him with compassion and some pity; and there would be something superior about the pity, something faintly ironic" (142).
Henry Morgan at no time recognizes his shared humanity with humanity and thus he can successfully deny that he possesses the weakness that is apparent in every other human. He especially fears women as they make him most aware of his own weakness and vulnerability since true love involves the surrender of self to another. The only genuine feeling in others Henry ever recognizes is the shining light of love in his wife's eyes upon his deathbed and of that light he is astonished. Whether or not his recognition indicates some sort of growth in his character is debatable and anyway, it is too late. His pride and corresponding shame have compelled him down an increasingly embarrassing path as he rejects his own principles and ideals and turns on his fellow buccaneers. That "pride goeth before a fall" certainly proves true for Henry Morgan.
Desire for Material Gain/Fame:
An overwhelming portion of Captain Morgan's angst stems from the inordinate emphasis he places on achieving wealth and fame as a buccaneer. His desire for wealth and for conquering La Santa Roja and the Cup of Gold destroys his ability to find true and lasting happiness. His rejection of his one true love, young Elizabeth, on the night he left for Cardiff seals his fate as he trades true love for superficial possessions and the chance to control a beautiful woman who scorns him and makes him feel ashamed of himself.
As Morgan counts the ransom money Ysobel's husband sends for her, he muses on the treasure plundered from Panama and on the value of things in his life. He decides, now accepting of his own "mediocrity," that money is the only thing with a real purpose (152). He thinks to himself of the treasure, "But perhaps here is my iron for the making of a new anchor, […] at least it has a purpose, and only one purpose. It is an absolute assurance of security. Yes, perhaps this is the one true anchor; the one thing a man may be utterly sure of. Its claws hook tightly to comfort and security" (158). Thus, Morgan trades whatever it was that once motivated him for a life of conventional wealth and comfort, boring as that may be.
Interestingly, Morgan, the first of Steinbeck's characters, is similar to many others, including one of his last, Ethan Hawley in The Winter of Our Discontent, who faces the challenge of choosing something more spiritually and morally uplifting over superficial materialism. The list of works in which Steinbeck comments on materialism's ability to destroy the human soul is long as that theme preoccupied him throughout his career.
Critique of Conventionality:
Implied in Henry Morgan's final acceptance of material comfort as his fate, is a critique of social conventionality and the great sacrifices people will make to fit into the social mold. In accepting comfort and stability as his fate, Morgan gives up passion, adventure, and the desire for greatness. Albeit, Morgan's grasping desires were misguided and tainted from the beginning, but the pitiful picture of the conformist Morgan at the end of the novel indicates it is better to have and pursue misguided desire for greatness than to wither in ineffectuality. He openly admits to his former comrades, the Burgundians, whom he has sentenced to hanging, that he is a slave to the social "duty" that compels him in his new position: "[…] the giant duty—that which will not be overlooked—might be called the duty of appearances. I do not hang you because you are pirates, but because I am expected to hang pirates" (177).
Morgan's father, Old Robert serves as a foil to the young, adventuresome Morgan who cared not for social duty earlier in life. Old Robert seems to have withered from his choice not to pursue his inner longings. Old Robert admits to Merlin, all he carries about with him is "a bag of losses" (102). He remembers only what he lost and what he failed to do: "Often he wearily considered his existence, ringed around with little defeats which mocked it as street children torment a cripple" (2). In trading his passions for a comfortable, secure existence as statesman, Morgan essentially becomes his father—shriveled, hen-pecked, and haunted by the things that could and should have been at the end of his life.
Slavery:
Throughout Cup of Gold are images of slavery and the slave trade that permeated the region during the 17th Century. While overseer of James Flower's plantation, Henry was responsible for ruling and punishing the slaves, which he did with an iron will. Henry's methods struck fear into the hearts of the captives. Unlike his predecessor who punished and hanged slaves in the public square, Henry did so in secret: "This was not out of kindness. He knew, out of his own reasoning, that the unknown thing can never become the normal thing; that unseen punishments could be far more horrible to the remaining slaves than those seen under the light of the sun" (58). Thus Henry chose to inflict psychological torture upon the slaves to keep them in line.
Henry also purchases the slave girl Paulette to be his concubine, whom he views as "[…] a delicate machine perfectly made for pleasure, a sexual contraption" (62). Paulette's beauty, which results from her mixed-raced heritage, signifies the plight of the slave woman and her role as a breeder of slaves. Paulette fears being used as a breeding tool most of all, which she knows is her fate after Henry's deserts her: "[…] one day, she would be led to the hut of a great negro with powerful muscles, and he would bruise her little golden body in his beast's clutch and make her pregnant of a black child—a strong, black child that could toil and strain in the sun when it was grown" (63). Though Henry asks James Flower to protect her from that fate, Flower's forgetfulness points to his utter lack of consideration over the state of a slave.
Steinbeck also comments on the destruction and enslavement of the Native Americans by the Spanish explorers. The novel is littered with the images of brutality against slaves reminding readers of horrors of slavery and the cruelty upon which the wealth of colonial nations was built.
