In Chapter 2 we saw some of the ways in which men became fathers and how the process of fatherhood had a definitive effect on male identity. With the father–son relationship, we see the convergence of many kinds of masculinities. This brings to the fore many of the central features of manhood, and helps explicate several important questions regarding issues of mutuality, duty and familial power dynamics. The father–son relationship, it becomes clear, is an uneasy yet vital relationship in terms of family and social structuring. Fathers need heirs – specifically male heirs – in order to establish and reinforce their masculine identity. But as sons grow up, they begin to threaten the hierarchy of the family by encroaching on the fathers’ territory. Sons, meanwhile, gain their masculine identity from their fathers and are raised in their likeness, but the more they grow to resemble their fathers, the more they chafe under the yoke of paternal authoritas, finding themselves wanting to exert their own nascent authority.