Male Relationships Theme Analysis

The majority of the characters in Regeneration are men, and the story explores the various relationships and affections that arise among them. Although the novel takes place in the midst of the horrors of World War I, several feel love toward each other as comrades, parents, friends, or even romantic partners. Although on the surface these relationships seem quite similar, prevailing societal and cultural attitudes celebrate some of these relationships while reviling others. These contradictory attitudes place men in complex and often confusing situations where affection is both yearned for and despised, encouraged and persecuted. By pointing to the similarities of love between comrades, friends, and lovers, the narrative argues that society is hypocritical in its view of love and affection between men, valuing and lauding it in some instances while forbidding and even persecuting it in others.

In war, society praises and fosters camaraderie among soldiers so they can fight and persevere as a unit, demonstrating that society does encourage love between men, when it serves society’s purposes. Rivers regards camaraderie as a form of love that society easily accepts, saying, “in war, you’ve got this enormous emphasis on love between men—comradeship—and everybody approves.” Since it serves national interest, love among comrades is celebrated. Captain Graves, Sassoon’s commanding officer, glowingly tells Rivers about the love between Sassoon and his men, saying, “Sassoon’s the best platoon commander I’ve ever known. The men worship him […]. And he loves them. Being separated from them would kill him.” Such camaraderie is essential for soldiers to be effective and work together. Thus, within the military context, neither man sees such love as abnormal or wrong, demonstrating that society encourages such love between men when it suits a larger social purpose, such as advancing the nation’s cause in war. Sassoon forms a loving friendship with Owen, another patient at Craiglockhart, over their shared experience as soldiers and shared expression of that experience through poetry. This friendship, though outside the demands of combat, is still deemed acceptable by other doctors and patients since it still fits within the norms of masculine camaraderie, suggesting that as long as love between men is centered around something as supposedly righteous and masculine as war, it may still be permissible.

However, society in the novel still considers homosexuality to be among the worst social transgressions, demonstrating that though society encourages one form of love between men, it fiercely objects to any forms of physical affection or deeper attraction. Sassoon is a self-professed homosexual (though he only admits this privately and confidentially) and Graves is implied to be gay himself. Yet when one of Graves’s friends is arrested for his homosexuality, Graves consciously pushes away from Sassoon and acts as if homosexuality is an “abominable thing,” hurting Sassoon in the process. This demonstrates not only that society deems homosexuality a criminal offense, but that it carries such intense social stigma that Graves is willing to cut off a close relationship to protect himself from it. Likewise, despite Sassoon and Owen’s deep and almost-intimate love for each other—on their last meeting, Owens is “drunk and afraid of becoming too serious”—when they part, they are so wary and self-conscious of showing any physical affection toward each other that Sassoon settles for patting Owen lightly on the shoulder before saying goodbye to him forever. This further demonstrates that even in a simple friendship, the fear of being labeled a homosexual inhibits men’s ability to show simple affection toward each other as an expression of their loving friendship. Several other male characters are unable to show even platonic affection toward other men, since they are fearful of being seen as homosexual. Prior, for instance, can be physically affectionate toward his girlfriend, Sarah—demonstrating that it is affection toward other men, not physical affection itself, with which he struggles. However, after a particularly painful hypnosis session with Rivers, Prior, sobbing, grabs onto Rivers arms and begins head-butting him in the chest. Though it seems violent, Rivers realizes that “it was the closest Prior could come to asking for physical contact.” Prior’s inability to show or ask for any kind of physical affection from Rivers, whom he comes to regard as a parental figure, suggests that the societal fear of being perceived as a homosexual diminishes men’s ability for even comforting physical affection toward other men, even when they desperately need it.

Rivers contends that this simultaneous encouragement of camaraderie and forbiddance of deeper affections makes society hypocritical in its expectations, and resultantly more intolerant toward homosexuality in times of war. Although Sassoon expresses that he’d hoped society was growing more tolerant of homosexuality before the war started, Rivers admits that in spite of society’s demand for soldiers to love each other as comrades, “there’s always this little niggle of anxiety. Is it the right kind of love? Well, one of the ways to make sure it’s the right kind is to make it crystal clear what the penalties for the other kind are.” Rivers aptly observes that society’s demand for soldiers to love each other, but not too much, ironically make society even more intolerant and hypocritical.

Regeneration points out that, especially in the war-filled years of the early-20th century, love between men was simultaneously encouraged and forbidden, highlighting society’s hypocrisy in its dealings with male affection in all its forms, including homosexuality.