Gender Roles In Richard Yates's 'Revolutionary Road'

Feminism during the 50’s: A Look at Conflicting Gender Roles The book Revolutionary Road, written by Richard Yates, tells the reader a story about the life of Frank and April Wheeler. The Wheelers are a married couple with children who live in a 1950’s suburb. This essay shows the reader how characters in the book do not conform to typical gender roles during this time period and how these gender roles are switched between men and women. The story gives us a lot of insight in to gender roles during the 1950’s. However, Frank and April Wheeler do not abide to the typical gender roles of men and women during this time period in American society. The idea of this analysis is to show the reader how Feminism and Masculinity are tested in Revolutionary
They are viewed by their neighbors as your ideal husband and wife. They have a nosy real estate agent named Mrs. Giving’s who randomly shows up throughout the story and has a deranged son named John who ends up having some conflict with the Wheelers. Mrs. Giving’s also has a husband named Howard who seems not to care what she has to say most of the time because she is always gossiping or talking too much. There is also a couple, Milly and Shep Campbell who are family friends of the Wheelers and often hang out and drink together. Frank ends up having an affair with Maureen, a woman who works at Knox with him. He ends up feeling guilty about it because April does something special for him. She stops the argument they are in and has a surprise birthday plan for him and tells him about her plans of moving their family to Europe. Plans fail however when April realizes she is pregnant and Frank is satisfied that they won’t have to move. April ends up having an affair with Shep Campbell who is in love with her secretly. The story ends up with April killing herself attempting to do her own abortion from home. Frank lives on in distraught and
The author’s use of feminism helps him to show how Frank is a man who feeds of his wife for satisfaction. Everything Frank does is mainly to get the approval and acceptance of his wife April. Feminism also helps us to take a look at how April Wheeler is portrayed. She is a very independent woman and for this time period that is very rare. Women typically depended on men and did not step up as leaders and sole providers of their family. However, April is much different. She wants Frank to know that she can take care of herself and her family without the help of a man. She is portrayed as being much more masculine and superior than her husband. She is in control of their relationship and she is in control of Frank’s life. Everything Frank does is based on what April thinks and getting her to notice and her to approve is what makes him feel like a man. Richard Yates did an amazing job in “Revolutionary Road” by showing the reader the conflicting gender roles of April and Frank