Tea and Sympathy
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- This article is about the stage play. For the Bernard Fanning album, see Tea and Sympathy (album).
Tea and Sympathy is a stage play by Robert Anderson that was adapted by Vincente Minnelli into a 1956 movie starring Deborah Kerr. Its plot revolves around the loner "Tom Lee" (John Kerr) who is befriended by the wife (Kerr) of one of his teachers.
Plot
Tom, a 17-year student at a boy's prep school, is having difficulties fitting in with the other boys who like sports, talking about girls, and listening to pop music. He prefers classical music, reads books, can sew, plays theater, and generally seems to be more at ease in the company of women.
The other boys torment him for his "unmanly" qualities and call him "sister boy", which does not go unnoticed by "Laura Reynolds", the young wife of the House Master "Bill Reynolds" (Leif Erickson). She tries to build a connection with the young man, eventually even falling in love with him, presumably because of his similarity to her first husband John, who was killed in World War II.
The situation escalates when Tom visits the local prostitute to dispel the rumors about his sexuality, but is unable to have intercourse with her. This failure prompts him to attempt suicide and he also has to leave the school because of his visit with her. He and Laura eventually have sex, prompting Laura to leave her husband.
The film opens and closes ten years into the future, when an aged Tom, who is now a successful writer and also married (though perhaps only to "fit in"), visits his college at a reunion.
Analysis
The character of Tom can be interpreted to be either homosexual or maybe just a somewhat effeminate heterosexual. Since the Hays code was in effect when the film was produced, this possibility of a double reading was probably intentional. Of course the central message of the film, that it is OK to be different, remains fundamentally the same, no matter what one reads into the main character's sexual orientation.
In addition to Tom, the movie also features two other characters whose possible homosexual tendencies are delineated in such a subtle way that their portrayals may have been under the radar for 1950s audiences as well as censors: The first character is Tom's roommate, who, while a jock, does not have any experiences with girls nor apparently any eagerness to make them and who also defends Tom in a way that suggests sexual attraction. Being too simple-minded to enjoy Tom's pursuits like classical music or to consciously recognize his own hidden motivations, he is also somewhat protected from closer scrutiny by his surroundings as he seems to be like the other boys at the surface.
The second character is Bill, Laura's second husband, who seems to have lost all sexual interest in his wife after their first few weeks of marriage and now prefers to be together with her as little as possible in lieu of hanging out "with the boys". It is suggested that Bill also experienced a sexual identity crisis in his teenage years and at one point he even jokes that his outward appearance of heterosexual masculinity is a built-up façade. In the play, there is also a final confrontation between him and Laura about his latent homosexuality. So while Tom Lee is the obvious target for harassment because of his actual or presumed homosexuality, the movie also presents other characters who have "adapted" to society's expectations despite their apparent sexual inclinations.