Representations of Masculinity in Post-War Britain

Post-war Britain was a time when masculinity came in to question and was scrutinized by all form of art. The film Dr. No, John LeCarre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems all give representations of what it meant to by “masculine” in a post-war British society. Each text presents a different view on this concept from the extreme of the overly-masculine James Bond to the broken and emotionally dysfunctional Philip Larkin. While each text present a different view on what it meant to be “masculine” in post-war Britain they all seem to agree on one thing…that the idea of “masculinity” was changing, that there was something happening to fundamental quality of masculinity that needed to be addressed. 

In the film Dr. No the main character, James Bond, is presented to the viewer as the typical alpha-male figure. He has an exciting job, money which to throw around, sex with multiple women, and he can kill whom ever he wants whenever he wants. James Bond is a complete contrast to the main character in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Alec Leamas. While Leamas is also a spy like James Bond, Leamas is not the glamorous womanizer that Bond is. Leamas is presented to the reader as weak, broken, and cowardly. Bond appears to be presented to the viewer as a character who represents all that men in Britain should be like, whereas Leamas represents what LeCarre feels they are like.