Squash Symbol Analysis

The sport of squash represents an idealized sphere of hearty, straightforward masculine competition, as opposed to the characters’ regular lives, in which betrayal and treachery lead them to compromise on their ideals. Robert’s insistent invitations for Jerry to play him in squash only increase after he learns of Jerry and Emma’s affair, revealing the symbolic importance the game has for him. Robert perhaps sees squash as a straightforward if coded means of settling the challenge to his manhood that Jerry has raised by having sex with his wife. Jerry’s evasion of the match, then, confirms his cowardice in Robert’s eyes.

At the same time, beyond a simple vicarious duel, Robert sees in squash a means to repair their male friendship, which their rivalry over women has sullied. He significantly denies Emma’s request to watch their next match, going on to speak at uncharacteristic length about the importance of male exclusivity to the ritual of squash. Again, Jerry’s nervous avoidance of this ritual once his affair is in full swing makes him womanly in Robert’s (misogynistic) eyes, and their friendship accordingly withers.

At the story’s chronological end (and the play’s formal beginning), Robert cites not Jerry’s affair with Emma but rather his subsequent evasion of squash as the mark of their friendship’s decline. In an odd mirroring, Robert takes up Casey as his squash partner after Jerry begins dodging his invitations, and he finds Casey to be a vigorous, worthy opponent. Casey too, then, begins an affair with Emma. Robert’s fixation on squash thus turns out to be self-defeating, as his choice of opponents seems to supply his wife with suitors. His desire for frank masculine contests perhaps suggests a buried insecurity, which both his wife and his opponents seize on in betraying him.