Literature and Film Essay: BIG BAD RICHARD AND FRIENDS

Men and Masculinity

    Masculinity is often defined as, “pertaining to or characteristic of a man or men,” or, “having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength and boldness.” (Dictionary.com) No only is masculinity attributed to manliness but it is immediately connected with the qualities of strength and boldness. But how is does this description become linked with these “manly” qualities? Interestingly enough throughout history men have been thought of as the stronger of the sexes and not surprisingly this idea has been precipitated throughout the media of the times. To look at this proliferation of masculinity through media throughout history I have focused on the play Richard III, written in 1591 by William Shakespeare, and the 2006 movie The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese. Richard III focuses on Richard’s assent to throne and concentrates on the deceptive tactics he uses to become king and how those same actions lead to his ultimate downfall and demise. The Departed focuses on the days of deceit lived by two rats, one named Colin Sullivan who is the inside man into the police for the movie’s main mobster Frank Costello, and Billy Costigan who is an undercover police officer in Costello's crew. Each character struggles to maintain the level of masculinity expected of them by their personal and social positions. The expectations weighed upon a man trying to live up to the intangible idea of masculinity will force him to change his attitude and demeanor in various personal and social situations in order to maintain the status and respect his masculinity affords him; yet often his strive to be the image of masculinity leads to his downfall.

One of the main facets of masculinity is the need to use excessive vulgarity in language to prove a point, to assert dominance, and often to shelter unmanly insecurities. In the Departed Colin Sullivan can’t perform for his wife sexually which makes him feel inadequate as a man. In response to this feeling of deficiency he exudes crude, sexual masculinity. This form of compensation is shown through his over use of lewd language. Scorsese emphasizes this contrast between Sullivan's lack of sexual prowess and his excess of sexual masculinity with his ironic conversations between Sullivan and the hyper-masculine characters of The Departed. One such interaction occurs between Sullivan and his boss, Ellerby, on the shooting range of a golf course, the exchange goes as follows,”  
Ellerby: How is your wedding coming along?

Colin Sullivan: Great, great; she's a doctor.

            Ellerby: That's outstanding.

            Colin Sullivan: Yeah.

            Ellerby: Marriage is an important part of getting ahead: lets people know you're     
            not a homo; married guy seems more stable; people see the ring, they think at
            least somebody can stand the son of a bitch; ladies see the ring, they know

            immediately you must have some cash or your cock must work. [laughs] 
            Colin Sullivan: [laughing] Yeah, it's working... Overtime!

 Ellerby: I'm glad to hear that.

 Colin Sullivan: Yeah... Thank you.”

This conversation occurs after we have seen that Sullivan has had trouble performing sexually for his girlfriend, and right after we see that his girlfriend has begun sexual relations with Billy. The irony of this conversation is not lost on viewers, Ellerby picks out Sullivan's greatest insecurity about having working genitalia forcing Sulivan to overcompensate to keep up his guise of masculinity by saying his penis is working overtime. Similarly Richard uses vulgar language to assert dominance, declare his masculinity, and get a rise out of others. For example Richard uses very boorish language when trying to convince Queen Elizabeth to let him marry her daughter Elizabeth, a except of their conversation proceeds as follows,”

Queen Elizabeth: Yet thou didst kill my children.

Richard: But in your daughter’s womb I bury them,

Where, in that nest of spicery, they will breed

Selves of themselves, to your recomfortune.”

(Act IV, Scene iv, Lines 445 - 448)

In this exchange Queen Elizabeth is mourning the deaths of her sons, whom Richard had murdered, and Richards reply is to promise that is she lets him marry the young Elizabeth that she can bury her sons in her daughter's womb for he will will fill it with grandchildren as replacements for the loss of her sons. This response is supposed to elicit a reaction from Queen Elizabeth and is used by Richard to affirm his masculinity and his unwavering remorselessness for ordering the deaths of the two young princes and the intention of marrying and impregnating his own niece after he has just killed his recently wedded wife. As shown in these examples of exorbitant uses of crude language, a degree of vulgarity is often utilized as a quick and easy way to cement an outward image of masculinity in common media, works of literature, and even everyday life.

This idea of upholding a masculine persona is also achieved by characters literally adopting a different identity in order to assimilate into their hyper-masculine environments. In The Departed when Billy is being recruited to be an undercover agent Dignam explains how Billy has always lives a double life, “

Dignam: Your fuckin' family's dug into the Southie projects like ticks. Three-decker men at best. You, however, grew up on the North Shore, huh? Well, la-di-fuckin'-da. You were kind of a double kid, I bet, right? Huh? One kid with your old man, one kid with your mother. You're upper-middle class during the weeks, then you're droppin' your "R"s and you're hangin' in the big, bad Southie projects with your daddy, the fuckin' donkey on the weekends. I got that right? [Billy does not answer] Yup. You have different accents? You did, didn't you? You little fuckin' snake. You were like different people.”

This description of Billy’s experience with split personalities as a child of divorce foreshadows Billy’s life as an undercover agent in Costello’s crew. Every day Billy has to exude a false front of hyper-masculinity and violence in order to remain under Costello’s radar and must comply with inumerous heinous acts in order to stay in the crew, all while he is secretly upholding his duty as a police officer and reporting back to Dignam and Queenan in the hopes that he can help take down Costello and make the city a safer place. Richard also keeps up a similar front, although it is the reverse, he is an evil soul trying to survive in a peaceful time, evident in his need to masquerade as a pious man to gain the throne, “                   

Buckingham: The mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear;               

Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit.                       

And look you get a prayer book in your hand                       

And stand between two churchmen, good my lord,                   

For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant.                       

And be not easily won to our requests.                           

Play the maid’s part: still answer “nay,” and take it.

(Act III, Scene vii, Lines 46 - 52)

In this passage Buckingham instructs Richard how to act in order to hoodwink the Mayor of London into believing he is a pious man who is fit for the throne, but who does not too eagerly yearn for the throne, so that he will support Richard’s assent to King.  Both of their deceptions work and both characters are able to act their way into their respected positions, yet both also go mad because of their lives of deceit. In Richard III, Queen Margaret's curse takes its toll on Richard and he is no longer able to differentiate friend from foe and is consumed with paranoia. In The Departed, Billy is also overwhelmed by his double life as he explains to Dignam, “

Billy Costigan: I'm going fucking nuts, man. I can't be someone else every fuckin' day. It's been a year of this. I've had enough of this shit!

Dignam: Calm down, alright? Most people in the world do it every day. What's the big deal?

Billy Costigan: Well, I'm not them, alright? I'm not fucking them, okay?”

Having to constantly maintain this persona of hyper-masculine and violent mobster has driven Billy to the edge of his breaking point, but Dignam makes the most interesting point of all that in some way everyone lives a double life. In these works, men use deception and alternate personas to achieve the level of manliness they need to assimilate into, and rise in the ranks of, their societies.

    All of these men who strove for masculinity in these works sealed their own fate with their decisions and actions in pursuit of this futile ideal. Richard, Sullivan, and Billy all died due to their decision to lead a double life in which they feigned men who optimized aspects that their society viewed as masculine. This idea of portraying masculinity is dramatized in these works, and in mob movies at large, but it stems from the day to day “manliness” that men are taught and groomed to portray, from the strong, leading men they see on TV to the superheroes action figures they play with as a children.