Max uses his physical career as a butcher, where he wielded an ax and a cleaver, to contrast with Sam's less demanding job as a chauffeur. The first contrast is between the members of the older generation: Max, Sam, and Mac. While each of the male characters has a trait or two that save them from being totally reprehensible, ultimately they are classic mid-20th century males, keen on retaining and enforcing the patriarchal status quo. They become disconcerted when anything or anyone threatens their masculinity, and work to assert it at all cost. They view women as objects and as falling into only two categories of mother and whore. They find their identity in their work and in their assumption of power. All the males feel the need to assert dominance over others they criticize, bully, manipulate, and threaten. Masculinity is almost like a toxic disease in the household, pervading the actions and thoughts and values of the characters. The Homecoming is one of Pinter's few plays that deals specifically with the theme of masculinity, touching on the idea in a vein similar to Hemingway's machismo. This identity, too, is left in limbo at the play's end, as Ruth's final fate is never determined. With regards to Max, the patriarch is only able to accept Ruth into the family when he first can visualize her as a mother-like his wife Jessie was-rather than as a bride or as a sexual being. This sort of logic is designed to appeal to the side of her character that values stability, comfort, and motherhood, but it is exactly that rationale that she seems to despise and that draws her instead to Teddy's family. He is practical and cold in his reasoning, claiming that it is cleaner in America than in Britain and that the weather is better. Teddy tries to remind her of their life in America and their children to convince her to leave the house rather than to engage in business with his brothers. This conception contrasts with her role as a mother, which is reflected in her interactions with Teddy. At the play's end, though, it is left unclear whether this is actually a future to which she aspires or whether she simply longs for the beauty of her youth and to be recognized as valuable. This side of her character is tied in to her sexuality and her attractiveness as a female it is while she tells Lenny of her time as a model or when she declares that she is interested in the movement of her legs that her role as a woman is most emphasized. Her negotiations of the terms by which she will become a prostitute also suggest that she has some experience in the business. In dealing with Lenny and Joey, she is only too happy to make sexual advances and to, as Pinter puts it, give out the gravy. Ruth also embodies both halves of the mother-prostitute dichotomy. This illusion, though, is dispelled at the play's end, when it is implied that the car rides were actually so that Jessie could carry on an affair with Max's now-deceased best friend, Mac. Sam is insistent that driving her around was all that he did, and that she remained faithful to Max. In an early scene, even Sam, Max's brother, claims that their relationship must be strong because Max once trusted Sam to drive Jessie around. The children, too, seem to fondly remember Jessie as a mother figure in their lives. He claims that Jessie would have loved to have seen the family united together and that she would have made a perfect grandmother. Several times, Max sings Jessie's praises during his reminiscing. The role of the mother manifests most clearly in Jessie, the late, absent matriarch of the play. This illustrates that both of the characters fulfill two roles, that of the mother and that of the prostitute. In many ways, there are similarities between the two both of them have three boys, were married, and yet carried on sexual relations with other men. In The Homecoming, there is little room for moderation, and this is especially true of the two female characters who are mentioned by name, Jessie and Ruth. Buy Study Guide The Dueling Roles of Women
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