The Role Of Frank And April Wheeler In Revolutionary Road

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Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for …show more content…

As a young girl, April aspires to live among “marvelous golden people”—gorgeous, affable, incredibly generous—who never put in an effort yet still manage to do everything perfectly (Yates 272). [SP 7] Her vision of perfection emerges from her parents, who leave her to live with her Aunt Mary and barely visit her. When they do come to see her, they tower over her gracefully, and she only has eyes for her father’s shimmering golden hair. She treasures for years the cheap, worthless gifts he gives her—gifts that reveal the falsehood that penetrates outward perfection. [SP 9] April soon realizes this after her performance in a local production of the Petrified Forest. Having attended a leading drama school, April portrays herself as a golden person to her suburban audience until others around her make mistakes and she loses her grip, causing her performance to sink below those of the amateurs. No longer has a golden person in the eyes of the public, April allows the “weight and shock” that she is a “graceless, suffering creature” with a “constricted” appearance and a “false smile” to overwhelm her (Yates 13). Her sudden epiphany puts her in a limbo between what she wants to be and what suburbia dictates she is, a middle-class housewife whose only purpose is to take care of her …show more content…

[SP 1A] Couple identity, the sense of togetherness that a couple develops throughout a relationship when thinking about short and long-term plans, is necessary for a healthy, strong marriage. When April and Frank first meet, they fall madly in love with each other. Engrossed in Frank’s stories, April swallows every one of his beefed-up exaggerations, telling him that he the “most interesting person” she has ever met (Yates 25). [SP 12] Soon, the couple gets married, which satisfies the gnawing disappointment in both of them. Frank finally feels as if he has done something manly and strong, while April marries Frank to stave off the reality of her mediocrity. The Wheelers’ physical connection proves to be strong, but their already weak mental connection wears thin as the years go by. They realize that once they begin playing roles in their marriage, the harder it is to come clean, tell the truth, reveal their true selves. April and Frank realize they have been playing roles in their marriage at the same time that they realize they have been playing roles individually. April loves the suave, bright Frank from New York, not the weak, unconfident man he truly is. Horrible fights dominate their lives, and they only resume their old roles when trying to

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