The Depiction of Gender and Toxic Masculinity in Mark Ravenhill's 'The Cut'

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2,0, Technical University of Braunschweig, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the depiction of gender in Mark Ravenhill's play The Cut. Special emphasis is hereby placed on the aspect of 'toxic masculinity' - a topic which has not lost its relevance since its first definition in the 1980s. Toxic masculinity and patriarchal dystopian systems are closely intertwined and have for some time found their place in feminist dystopian narratives such as The Handsmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler's Wild Seed or Vox by Christina Dalcher. At first glance, Marc Ravenhill's The Cut fits into this list only in terms of the dystopian moment. However, upon closer inspection, his play, which focuses almost exclusively on the male characters, also reveals the effects of patriarchal cultures and toxic masculinity on both the female and, in particular, the male members of society. Nevertheless, the aspect of gender and especially toxic masculinity has not yet been dealt with in the context of Ravenhill's work. Merle Tönnies, for example, concentrated primarily on the aspect of the immobility of power in her detailed analysis of The Cut, while Robert Kielawski placed his focus on 'the reinvention of utopia revolution and the big Other in decline' (Kielawski) - the aspect of gender inequality, however, did not seem to play a role for either of them. Furthermore, neither the critics, nor Ravenhill himself addressed the topic. In order to fill this gap, the present work will analyse The Cut based on the thesis that Marc Ravenhill's The Cut represents a patriarchal dystopia whose members suffer from the effects of toxic masculinity. In the course of this paper Marc Ravenhill and The Cut will be briefly introduced, followed by a theoretical background on gender in dystopian fiction in general and toxic masculinity in particular, and finally the depiction of gender and toxic masculinity in The Cut. In order to be able to undertake an analysis that is as detailed as possible, despite the limited scope of this work, Chapter 4 will focus primarily on the main character of the play, Paul, in order to highlight the aspects of toxic masculinity. However, this should not lead to the assumption that not all other characters would also show similar symptoms.