ARTS REVIEW
ARTS REVIEW
reproductive role also plays a vital part in her and Frank’s relationship. In becoming pregnant seven years earlier than planned, seeds of discontent are already sown in the relationship. April plans, on her own, to abort the baby; in excluding Frank from this decision, he feels a loss of control over her and rejects her decision solely for the sake of regaining authority over April, despite ‘the idea itself [being] more than a little attractive’. Having this child signifies a shift from one romanticised notion of love to another, one being young, carefree love; the other familial bliss in a domestic setting – neither of which the couple ever fully attain.
to abort the baby. This idea proves to be the downfall of Frank and April’s marriage, as the domestic bliss they have fabricated together is revealed to be built wholly on deception. Both partners become spiteful and bitter towards the other, leading to the discovery of their stark lack of individual identity and finally, the gaping absence of love in their relationship. Revolutionary Road, through the context of a suburban marriage, examines what it means to live in 1950s consumer America. With April asking, ‘don’t moral and conventional really mean the same thing?’, the novel questions what it means to be morally upstanding and how this can be lost in the pursuit of an idealised image. Ultimately, Frank and April Wheeler depict desperately lonely people who, through an obsession with escaping conformity, gradually compromise their own integrity for, as it turns out, nothing at all.
In return, April plays into Frank’s ego to obtain the idea of a secure, reliable future. Early in their relationship, she tells him, ‘I love you when you’re nice’, suggesting there is a wholly conditional quality to her love which emerges fully-fledged later in the novel. Her disillusionment with Frank becomes evident in the first of their many arguments. She is able to manipulate Frank’s fragile masculinity, using it to flatter and appease him saying, ‘Don’t you know? You’re the most valuable and wonderful thing in the world. You’re a man’, but simultaneously weaponizing his insecurities in arguments with statements like ‘Look at you and tell me how, by any stretch of the imagination, you can call yourself a man!’ April’s
The true unravelling of the marriage is set into motion by April’s proposal that the family move to Europe. The couple’s preoccupation with escaping conformity translates into the desire for a radical change of scenery. April, revealing her fears of stagnancy, suggests to Frank that moving to Europe would allow them to pursue their genuine interests, liberated from the constraints of the consumerist society. He shares her enthusiasm at first, but later rejects the idea due to the threat it poses to his masculinity – in Europe, April suggested that she would work to allow Frank to ‘[find] himself’, in turn reversing the traditional gender roles that afford Frank a sense of security. The significance of April as a reproductive body is further emphasised as, before their plan can be realised, she becomes pregnant again, further disrupting the desired structure of their relationship. Like the first pregnancy, April wishes
“Revolutionary Road, through the context of a suburban marriage, examines what it means to live in 1950s consumer America.”
HANNAH NUNAN
52
53
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online