Portrayals of Compromised Masculinity

Transcription

1 Portrayals of Compromised Masculinity English E-208: The Expatriate Moment in Paris Graduate Credit April 11, 2012

2 Ernest Hemingway s The Sun Also Rises and F. Scott Fitzgerald s Tender Is the Night offer a view into a world in flux. Old values have been uprooted, and they have not yet been replaced with new ones. As a result, the novels characters are always on the go with no clear sense of where they are going. There is an unshakeable sense of restlessness and loneliness, even when the characters are partying or conversing. While both male and female characters struggle with the challenge of the changing times and their evolving roles, the men seem to have lost their sense of purpose in a more profound way. As the women attempt to carve out a new identity, masculinity is assailed on various fronts. Here we will explore the compromised masculinity of Jake Barnes and Dick Diver. Jake Barnes as Hemingway s narrator also serves as the novel s moral center. He may be a flawed character, but he seems more stable and reliable than the rest of the bunch. Yet using traditional masculinity as the yardstick, Jake comes up short, and he too has lost his way. While the Great War is only occasionally foregrounded over the course of the novel, it has played a key role in reshaping how Jake must view the world and reset his expectations. Aside from the trauma of fighting in the war and witnessing the expendability of himself and other young men, he has been emasculated in the most literal way. As readers, we first sense this when he pushes the prostitute s hand away telling her, Never mind (Hemingway, 23). But his response when she then asks him if he is sick is telling, he replies, Everybody s sick. I m sick too (23). With this simple line, Hemingway begins to reveal a deeper theme that runs throughout the work: society has been turned upside down; nothing is as before. When Jake is later alone and undressing, we are forced to imagine what he sees in the mirror, and the nature of at least part of his trouble becomes clear. He thinks, Of all the ways to be wounded. I suppose it was funny (38). But of course, there is nothing funny about it. Here is a goal-oriented man obsessed with masculinity and the ritual of conquest, as we see when he gets into bed with his bull-fight papers, and yet, he is unable to engage in seduction and sexual conquest. This seemingly strong man is reduced to tears thinking of Brett with whom he is in 1

3 love (39). The stereotypical roles of masculine and feminine are reversed: we never see Brett cry, and we never see Jake make sexual conquests. Partially in response to Jake s impotence, Brett engages in a frenzied pattern of sexual activity. She explains to Jake in the dance club, I suppose I like to add them up (30). Since she met Jake after he had been wounded, he has a somewhat cynical view of her interest. He thinks, I suppose she only wanted what she couldn t have (39). While Jake can never settle down and have a family in the usual way, he seems to embody certain traditional male traits, certainly more than his generally irresponsible male friends. He takes pleasure in work, drinks in relative moderation, plans the group s trip to Spain, and serves as provider and then rescuer to Brett. Yet his own compromised masculinity and Brett s overcharged sexuality lead Jake to be a most unusual provider, and Robert is somewhat correct that he serves as her pimp (194). After setting the stage for Brett and Romero to begin their affair, Jake senses the disapproval of the bull-fighter table, and he thinks, It was not pleasant (191). And of course, later Jake s friend Montoya, the owner of the inn in Pamplona and another bull fight aficionado, refuses to speak to him. Jake has compromised his values in helping Brett make another conquest. For the Spaniards, Romero represents unsullied masculinity and bravery. Jake explains, Romero had the greatness. He loved bull-fighting, and I think he loved the bulls (220). Jake s compromised masculinity leads him to place Romero in a dangerous situation. Montoya can neither understand nor respect this. Finally, we see Jake rescue Brett in Madrid, once she has supposedly sent Romero away. Here they would seem to be in stereotypical male and female roles of rescuer and damsel in distress. Yet, there can be no happy conclusion, and they can only comfort themselves by thinking that under other circumstances they could have had such a damned good time together (251). In Book I of Tender Is the Night, Dick Diver seems to be the novel s moral and ornamental center; others turn to him as the person to trust on matters of substance and style. Unlike Jake, Dick seems to have everything going for him. He is young, wealthy, well-liked, and seemingly in love with 2

4 his beautiful wife. However, we should keep in mind that this dewy-eyed, naïve view comes largely from Rosemary Hoyt, a young Hollywood starlet. Illusion is a recurring theme throughout the book. Dick is something of an actor himself, or possibly a director. The narrator explains, Dick, realizing that he never had a better audience, made the group into so bright a unit They had been two days in Paris but actually they were still under the beach umbrella (52). But from the beginning, Fitzgerald offers clues that all is not as it appears. Again we see the woman pursuing the man. Dick initially resists Rosemary s advances with paternal advice:... it might be nice to meet your first love all intake (66). Shortly after learning that he is a non-practicing doctor of medicine, we witness him become besotted with Rosemary (62). As a result, we begin to suspect his solidity as a well-grounded man of purpose and integrity. Just after Dick has served as Rosemary s knight by having the dead black man removed from her room, she catches a glimpse of Nicole s mental collapse and overhears the couple s fraught exchange. Both she and the reader then begin to realize that something dark lurks beneath Dick s armor. In Books II and III, Fitzgerald shatters the illusion completely by taking us on a kaleidoscopic trip backwards and forwards in time. We learn how Dick, the promising young psychoanalyst and doctor, met the mentally ill young Nicole at a Swiss sanatorium during the war. The narrator reveals early on that his middle class values have been compromised, The domestic gestures of Franz and his wife lacked grace The post-war months in France, and the lavish liquidations taking place under the aegis of American splendor had affected Dick s outlook (133). As a result, he narcissistically allows himself to be drawn in as part of Nicole s treatment and finds himself falling in love with her and possibly her wealth. By doing so, he compromises both his professional and personal integrity. In conversation with Baby Warren, Nicole s older sister, he realizes that the Warrens were going to buy Nicole a doctor (152). He is ripe for the plucking. While Baby Warren finds Dick lacking and not fitting her idea of an aristocrat, she is more than 3

5 willing to use him innocently as a convenience (157) to look after her sister. He is emasculated by their money which devalues whatever income he could contribute to the marriage through his writing or clinical practice. But more ironically, his masculinity is diminished by his wife s increasing grip on sanity. As her need for him decreases, he becomes needier, more feminine (in Nicole s eyes revealed through an unmasculine devotion to their children), surly with friends and strangers alike, and also alcoholic. Their decadent lifestyle causes him to give up his work in any meaningful way. He loses his masculine drive and realizes that Baby and Nicole own him and that it is absurd to keep up the pretense of independence (177). As part owner in a Swiss clinic, he also loses faith in his profession. As he chats with a female patient, he hears himself with disgust because he knows that he is lying (185). Once Nicole seems well and has begun her affair with Tommy, she feels bitterness toward Dick and justified in throwing him over. She is motivated by her nascent transference to another man and accumulated resentment (301). As Nicole has become stronger, he has become weaker. Dick ends up a broken man. The narrator coldly explains, The case was finished. Doctor Diver was at liberty (302). Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald create vexing portrayals of male characters that are unable to fully connect to others or fulfill their potential. The dramatically changing world leaves little room for traditional masculine roles. This is due to many factors. In the war s aftermath, the pre-war values seem pointless, and the new wealth of some, such as the Warrens, serves to undermine hard work and intellectual drive. Also, in the 1920s, women are struggling to assert some newfound autonomy, so relationships between the sexes seem more embattled and less stable than in the less fluid pre-war world. While Jake and Dick attempt to protect and rescue Brett and Nicole, they do so at great cost to themselves, and their masculinity and integrity are diminished as a result. 4

6 Bibliography Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender Is the Night. New York: Scribner, Print. 5