Dishonesty In Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road

In Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates depicts the life of a couple, April and Frank Wheeler, in the American suburbs in the 1950’s. Throughout the novel, the Wheelers repeatedly blame their marital discord on the suburbs. Despite their various excuses for the failure of their relationship, the failure is ultimately driven by their dishonesty; as the result of their dishonesty, they blame each other and never understand what the other person really wants.
Since the beginning of his relationship with April, Frank values his image over his honest opinions. When April first told him about their first baby, he strongly opposed the idea of aborting the child. Even though he told April that he did not want her to abort child was because he did not want her to hurt herself, he actually did it out of his wish to feel masculine: “And it seemed to him now that no single moment of his life had ever contained a better proof of manhood than that” (52). Protecting a good-looking woman who promises to carry his child makes him feel proud and masculine, but when he reflects on that particular night, he knows that he had lied: “I didn’t want a

After the Laurel Players’ performance, starring April, fails to rally up interest from the audience, April feels depressed and asks Frank to leave her alone. Frank refutes April’s request by saying, “I don’t happen to fit the role of dumb, insensitive suburban husband” (26). Because Frank does not want to be associated with the labels associated with the suburbs, he repeatedly tries to comfort and talk to April instead of giving her a moment of peace. By doing so, Frank believes that he is not conforming to the suburban stereotype. He also claims that he finds suburban types to be distasteful: “I mean it’s bad enough having to live among all these damn little suburban types” (25). Based on what he claims, April can only concludes that he truly wishes to abstain from the suburban