Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too” my friend shouted at me in our drama class. On the way home I wondered what he meant and decided to check the meaning once I reached.
Literally, it means to have your cake leftover once you have eaten it up. That’s not possible I thought to myself! What context is it used in then? The proverb is normally used when a person takes unfair advantage of a situation.
Suddenly, my friend’s comment earlier that morning became very clear to me. ‘Othello’ was the play our school was to perform as part of the inter-school dramatics competition. Because of my passion for theater, the drama teacher had asked me to assist her in assigning roles for the play. It dawned on me that my friend must have felt that I had used this position to get the coveted role of lago for myself and had therefore passed this tart comment. I decided to clear the air the next day.
The drama teacher explained to my friend that the role had been assigned to me by the teacher solely on the merit of my good oratory skills. My friend looked a little peevish on hearing this but laughed out aloud when I thanked him for teaching me a new proverb.
