Ernest Hemingway and Masculine Dominance
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Ernest Hemingway and Masculine Dominance
“But man is not made for defeat. A Man can be destroyed but never defeated.” This quotation from the late Ernest Hemingway in the Old Man and the Sea summarizes his view on masculinity. Hemingways works are both criticized and praised for their portrayal of masculinity. Hemingway equated masculinity with toughness and guts. Also Hemingways beliefs on masculinity were dependent
upon control of women. Hemmingway once said, “To me heaven would be two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on different floors.” From this quote one can easily see Hemingways emphasis on masculine dominance in his own life. This was reflected in his work.
Hemingways works are widely thought to mirror his own life. He once said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” He also often referred to his typewriter as his “physiatrist.” The struggles his protagonist faced in his stories were often similar to those that he himself faced in his own life.
Even in Hemingways writing style were his ideas on gender relations evident. He often used short concise sentences this is sometimes referred to as muscular prose.
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Hemingway even through his syntax embodied his own ideal of masculinity. Female authors often tend to be more descriptive writers and tend to use more flowery language. Hemingway used very concise and pithy sentences in his writing. About writing Hemingway said, “It wasnt by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.”
Hemingway was accused of misogyny, hatred of women, in his writing. Mark G. Newton in his dissertation argued against this. “Clichйs abound,” he says. “Hemingway was in search of his manhood (an ignoble quest?); he hated women; he had a “death wish” and a “thin persona”; he was the archpriest of violence, etc.” Newton argued that Hemingway portrayed women as supporting characters; they aided the male protagonist and supplemented their masculinity. A common saying is “Behind every good man is a great woman.” Newton is argues that in his works Hemmingway is attempting to show women in a favorable light.
However, in The Forgotten Female by Janice Walker, Janice argues that Hemmingway is indeed a misogynist. She does not feel that Newtons argument is at all compelling. She says, “My problem with Newtons approach to the feminine in Hemingway is that Newton seems to accept that, in presenting women as archetypal Eves, the woman as “help-meet”-type image, that Hemingway is somehow presenting women favorably.” Walker says that in putting females in this position, as a “savior to mankind”, Hemingway is not actually portraying women. He is portraying a stereotypical male fantasy that women have had to live up to for years as homemakers and stay at
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home mothers. In her paper Walker quotes Wilma Garcia who said, “myths are narratives used to validate standards of belief and behavior, and mythologies are metaphorical descriptions of reality.” Walker determines that Garcia means that Hemingway uses these depictions of women to validate his own masculinity and to cover up his own insecurities. Walker concludes her paper without a complete conclusion and only questions whether Hemingway was a misogynist or an androgynist.
A good example of Hemingways depiction of masculinity can be found in The Sun Also Rises. This is a prototypical Hemingway war story. It deals with the realities of World War I. WWI signaled a change in the idea of a brave soldier. As a result of the straying away from linear warfare, the brave, stoic, stately soldier could no longer be a war hero. The masculine soldier was almost animalistic and ruthless. This ideal came from the advent of trench warfare in WWI. These changes of what it meant to be a man are shown through the development of Jake. Jake was an American soldier in WWI. Early in the novel he is wounded in the trenches and his manhood is rendered useless. Throughout the rest of the novel he feels as though is unmanly and inadequate. This shows that Hemingway equated a mans genetalia along with his bravery with his masculinity. When the main woman protagonist in the story, Brett, refuses to be courted by Jake, his sense of inadequacy is amplified. This shows Hemingways emphasis on the ability to dominate a woman in order to be a real man. In a dialogue between Jake and Brett in the novel Jake says, “Couldnt we live together, Brett? Couldnt we just live
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together?” Brett responds, “I dont think so. Id just tromper you with everybody.” The word tromper means to commit adultery. Here Brett is saying that a relationship would not work because of Jakes impotency. His inability to satisfy her sexual needs would result in her infidelity.
Hemingways portrayal of Brett is also very interesting. All of the soldiers are made to feel insecure of their masculinity by Brett. Brett is an independent woman who is very masculine. She is seen as more manly than many of the soldiers. She has a short haircut and is very strong. She can be seen as the embodiment of Hemingways masculine ideal. However, it is important to note that Brett is not strong independent and feminine. She is very masculine and even possesses a very masculine name. Hemingway does not acknowledge that a woman can be strong independent and yet still embody feminine qualities. Bretts masculinity makes the veterans uncomfortable and, in order to negate their insecurities, find someone to deem unmanly.
Robert Cohn was the scapegoat for the veterans. He is deemed unmanly for his behavior. He is deemed a coward as a result of his fear of the trenches, a fear that many of the soldiers clearly expressed. He was also ridiculed for following Brett around. Cohn was also a Jew who attended an Ivy League university. He held a boxing title at Princeton. Although this