Topdog/Underdog Themes

Acts of deception in Topdog/Underdog follow a relatively standardized progression. Indeed, even the most flagrant cons or scams adhere to the same general guidelines. Three-Card Monte, a classic street game played with cards, exhibits this perfectly, as the hustler’s performance and banter follow a uniform, step-by-step delivery. When Lincoln teaches Booth how to “throw the cards,” he explains this hustler’s process, emphasizing the most important step: tricking people into thinking they have a chance at…

Masculinity in Topdog/Underdog is often cast as unstable and potentially dangerous. Although both brothers speak about their sexual conquests in chauvinistic terms, Booth especially clings to inflated ideas of his own sexual prowess, allowing it to define his sense of manhood. Booth even tries to emasculate Lincoln during a particularly heated argument not only by reminding him that his wife left him because he was impotent, but by revealing that Booth had slept with Lincoln’s…

Lincoln and Booth’s relationship is complex in that it’s both loving and competitive. The mere fact that Booth has opened his home to Lincoln—allowing his older brother to stay with him in the wake of Lincoln’s divorce—demonstrates the kindness he’s capable of showing. At the same time, though, Booth betrayed Lincoln by sleeping with Lincoln’s wife, Cookie—an action that ensured the dissolution of their marriage in the first place. Booth isn’t the only…