His quandary echoes the legacies of masculinity. What kind of man lets a woman call the shots? It’s no accident that the cuckolded heroes of the great dramas and operas tend to kill their beloved rather than give her the freedom not to choose them. Death—of her, of him, or of them both—is the only honorable way out. “The heart that bleeds wants blood to wash away the shame,” croons Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
