Male Relationships
There
are some heartwarming master/servant relationships (Lear/Kent, Hamlet/Horatio),
the brothers Guiderius and Arviragus, or the odd relationship between
Antonio and Bassanio in Merchant of Venice or Sebastian
and Antonio in Twelfth
Night, but the relationships between many men is destructive, especially
as compared to the relationships between women.
- Henry V executes five of his friends (three noblemen who were about to betray him, Cambridge, Grey, and Scroop; and two drinking buddies, Bardolph and Nym) and he turns his back on his great pal Falstaff in Henry V.
- Richard III has his brother and his friend Buckingham murdered (as well as lots of others, of course) in Richard III.
- Macbeth has his best friend Banquo murdered, attempts to have Banquo's young son murdered, and murders his friend Macduff's entire family in Macbeth.
- Romeo inadvertently causes the murder of his best friend, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.
- Leontes accuses his best friend Polixenes of adultery with his wife and plots his murder in The Winters Tale.
- Hamlet has his two school friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, murdered in Hamlet.
- Othello is destroyed by his trusted friend Iago in Othello.
- Tullus Aufidius betrays Coriolanus in Coriolanus.
- Proteus tries to steal the girlfriend of his best friend, Valentine, and attempts to rape her in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
- Iachimo lies to his friend Posthumus about sleeping with his wife in Cymbeline.
- Bertram betrays his cowardly friend Parolles into making a public idiot of himself in All's Well That Ends Well.