Masculinity In Revolutionary Road

Having discussed the manifestation of the antihero’s masculinity and his loser qualities via relationality, embodiment, spatiality, etc., as a last point, the analysis now considers a literal approach to this topic: dialogue. In contrast to American Beauty and Shame, a very striking aspect one notices when watching Revolutionary Road is the frequent embededness of the word ‘man’ in dialogue. Early in the film, during a fight on their way back home from April’s lousy theatre performance, the topic of masculinity is addressed. While April, disappointed in her performance and her life, passive aggressively gives room to her anger, Frank attempts to save the day, whitewashing the severety of both their marital failure and their dreary life in a way. Well aware

After Frank and April have revealed the news of their Paris plan, including a working woman enabling her man to find himself in the meantime, Shep discusses this topic in bed at night with his wife, stating, “What kind of man is going to sit around in his bathrobe picking his nose while his wife works all day?” (ibid.). Very well, Revolutionary Road addresses norms how a man must and must not behave in more occasions; in Frank’s case, however, the film emphasises the failure of individual self-fulfilment rather than the failure of meeting collective expectations as a man. It appears that Frak is not afraid of shifting gender roles, but of facing his and his wife’s individual, emotional problems. In contrast, American Beauty and Shame do not include so many direct references and not so much discourse about masculinity, yet still portray some gender images such as the hunting man and muscularity. To sum up, one can conclude that all three films playfully and pointedly include a man’s image to convey certain meaning, but highlight the inability to connect to others and personal failure that is largely not based on gender