I think that the fact that Tony had scenes in the dream where he's having sex, and Artie is watching, were very signficant. Tony may suffer from sex addiction.
From sexxaa.org, the home page of sex addicts anonymous, comes the following:
"The essence of all addiction is the addicts' experience of powerlessness over a compulsive behavior, resulting in their lives becoming unmanageable. The addict is out of control and experiences tremendous shame, pain and self-loathing. The addict may wish to stop --- yet repeatedly fails to do so. The unmanageability of addicts' lives can be seen in the consequences they suffer: losing relationships, difficulties with work, arrests, financial troubles, a loss of interest in things not sexual, low self-esteem and despair.
Sexual preoccupation takes up tremendous amounts of energy. As this increases for the sex addict, a pattern of behavior (or rituals) follows, which usually leads to acting out (for some it is flirting, searching the net for pornography, or driving to the park.) When the acting out happens, there is a denial of feelings usually followed by despair and shame or a feeling of hopelessness and confusion."
I believe there is a correlation being made between sex and "The Life" Tony can't be monogamous anymore than he can leave "The Life" They are both compulsive behaviours to which he is addicted, and which feed Tony's low self esteem and self loathing. The compulsive behaviours feed off each other. The more Tony is consumed by "The Life" and his problems, the more he has sex. In this episode, he's alone in the Plaza, he's obsessing about the problems he's having with Tony B. He calls a prostitute. I don't think Tony really WANTS to have sex with this prostitute, she's noone he knows or is attracted to, but it is compulsive. He needs the sex to reinforce his negative self image. Also notice that when the prostitute walks in, Tony is on the phone with Paulie about business. The two compulsive behaviours being acted out at once.
In the episode where Christopher thinks Tony's been with Adriana, Christopher even says that a big reason he thinks that is that for the last five years everyone knows that Tony's been screwing girls left and right. The same five years that comprise the years we see on the show, and that compromise the years when Tony's mafia life has been really catching up to him. The more problems Tony has in "the Life", the more sex he has.
It seems obvious that if this correlation is true, that Tony CAN'T resolve his marital probems and stay in "the life" It is therefore appropriate that in the scenes in the dream where Tony is having sex, that Artie is the one talking to him. Artie is the only civilian friend he has. Every one of his other friends are part of "the life" and are the reason he's having all this meaningless sex. One compulsive behaviour feeds the other.
</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p196.ezboard.com/bsopranolandfor ... ywaters</A> at: 5/19/04 2:11 am
Return to “Episode 5.11: The Test Dream”
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