Masculinity In Pat Barker's Regeneration

300 Words1 Page

The patients at Craiglockhart Hospital experience several different instances of doubting their masculinity in Pat Barker’s Regeneration. The men experience a variety of forms of emasculation as the plot progresses. Barker writes “The war that had promised so much in the way of ‘manly’ activity had actually delivered ‘feminine’ passivity, and on a scale that their mothers and sisters had scarcely known. No wonder they broke down” (Barker 107 - 108), which accentuates the theme of emasculation.
Signing up to fight in the war was a way for men to become heroes, thus was recognized as masculine. Doctor Rivers’ mission throughout the novel is to help the men at Craiglockhart recover from their experiences during World War I and send them back

Open Document