As a well respected American writer of many extraordinary texts, Edward Albee was able to demonstrate many modernist and absurdist characteristics in his play “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”. His play was able to give an insight to the readers about what had influenced the play. This play is more than just a story about the imperfect marriage between the two main characters; when analyzed more thoroughly it can be seen to have a deeper understanding of the 1950s. Edward Albee’s play “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?” is able to reflect many absurdist and modernists characteristics including the re-evaluation of life’s big questions; this is evident through the flashbacks of their pasts, the symbolism of George and Martha's son, and the paradigms of George and Nick.
Throughout the entirety of the play, there are several flashbacks relating to the main characters: George, Martha, Nick, and Honey. These re-evaluate both religion and reality. Most of these flashbacks are seen during the games which were played during the night. During Humiliate the Host the readers are given insight towards Georges’s book which had mentioned him killing his own parents. This narrative was never true and had been made up. This illusion inevitably leads to the re-evaluation of the truths as their pasts were just a deception. The acknowledgement of “In spite of something funny in his past” clearly indicates the beginning of these games. As they talk Martha says, “Naughty boy who...uh...who killed his mother and his father dead.”, and to this Nick responds, “Hey...wait a minute…”. The last line by Nick is made clear to have more meaning as he is remembering what George had previously stated, “he had killed his mother with a shotgun some years before [....] they told him that his father was dead”. Nick remembers this familiar story which was mentioned to him earlier, and this leads to the misconception that the stories which are being told are real. These stories question the meaning of reality as many of these stories are just a figment of their imaginations. As Martha talks about these pasts she mentions a boxing match which had happened. These stories had been well-rehearsed as they have been told numerous times. The point of these games is to humiliate the other person using the illusions of their past. The blurring of the truths and illusions is illustrated by “Right in the jaw [...] and he was off balance...he must have been…and he stumbled back a few steps, and then, CRASH, he landed...flat...in a huckleberry bush!”. They are blurring the boundaries of what is real and illusional. This is evident through the indication of the “huckleberry bush”, as that does not exist and was made to suit their illusions. Illusions often give characters a sense of satisfaction and relieve them of the harsh truths of reality. Unlike many other playwrights, Albee strips his characters of the illusions which they live off of. The recognition of Albee’s thoughts of taking away all illusions, “strips all of them away from his characters [...] he believes self-deception is evil and that no fraud should be entertained, no matter how comforting [...] people must live without illusions and accept the inevitable consequences.”. These thoughts give an insight into the reality of illusions. The readers begin to re-evaluate religion and the illusions they live with. As many religions are based on partial deceptions and many people would need to re-evaluate this aspect of their lives to accept “the inevitable consequences”. Rather than just leaving the boundaries between reality and illusions blurred these flashbacks to the characters’ pasts begin to re-evaluate the essential questions of life. But the flashbacks are not the only literary devices that express the main modernist characteristics in the text.
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Furthermore, there is a frequent reference to George and Martha’s son. Not only is he a figment of their imagination, but he also sets down the foundation for one of the largest modernist characteristics that are present in this play. The illusion of their child leads Honey and Nick to the misconception of reality. They begin to live in a world where they believe in self-deception. Once confronted with the truth these illusions in which they live in need to be re-considered and they need to understand what life really is without illusions. The son is first brought up by Honey while talking to George, “When is your son?” and George’s reaction “SON!” sets up the mood for suspicions. Martha’s response, “I’m sorry I brought it up.” makes it seem like she was not allowed to mention their son. The illusion of their son is more clear as they refer to him as “it” taking away the human characteristics and treating him like an object. Self-deception is seen during this conversation as they try to hide the fact that they have a son. This makes the readers consider the fact that they need to hide these illusions if they wish to live in a world of comfort. The loss of someone or something which is close to an individual gives them the chance to re-evaluate life and what it truly means to live. Being given the chance to have a happy life can be taken away in seconds as death is never far. AS George decides to kill their own son not only does it affect him but it also affects Martha. As she wraps her head around this, she is not just heartbroken but she is fueled by anger as she yells, “YOU CAN’T KILL HIM1! YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM DIE!”. Reality can often be painful as the inevitable consequences begin to catch up. The symbolism of their sons’ death and Martha’s reaction shows the fear to live without illusions as they aid the wounds of reality. Furthermore, this leads to them needing to question what life is like to live against the society’s norms of two kids, heterosexual, and white. Albee is able to question this image of a “perfect family” as every family is different and as this couple of two white, heterosexuals begin to fall apart. Modernism is able to make the audience think about the things they may have thought to already know. They begin to question the meaning of life, who God is, what religion is and much more. Many of Albee’s plays including “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?” present “conflicting desires, moral dilemmas, and the double-gaming of truth and illusion.”(Shuman; Gidmark). These aspects of writing help convey different aspects of modernism and absurdist drama. The truths and illusions which Albee uses in his play are evident through the symbolism of George and Martha’s son. These illusions which he implements into his plays indirectly question the readers and help them re-evaluate their lives as many live with illusions. They need to question this aspect of their life and begin to face the real world, and what the truths hold. Albee is able to do a great job of hiding modernist characteristics in the characters. He is able to make the son a symbol of truths and illusions. As the son is a symbol, George and Nick are also used to help illustrate the re-consideration of life’s big questions.
Finally, the paradigms of the two male characters George and Nick are able to represent history vs. biology. This dichotomy is able to help enforce the main theme. The subjects they represent are used to question are used to represent the value of life, and religion as the two subjects are both opposites and support different ideas. Through Nick Albee is able to represent biology - the study of life. During the time period in which the play was written in biology was questionable as to what if could be used for. The perfect human was seen to be a blond-haired, blue-eyed and biology would help them with this dream. This causes a lack of individuality making everyone the same. During a conversation with George, Nick tells him about teaching in the biology department and to that George says “millions of tiny little slicing operations [...] which will assure the sterility of the imperfect...the ugly, the stupid...the...unfit[...]with this, we will have, in time, a race of glorious men.” He later says “There will be a certain...loss of liberty [...] diversity will no longer be goal[....]history will be eliminated. There will be order and constancy” (Albee,72-73). With the paradigm of biology, the loss of diversity, individuality, and religion will be imminent. This causes the reader to think about the time meaning of life because if everyone is modified to become the same what would make life so valuable. These would be nothing special about anyone and the loss of someone will make no difference as then brought nothing new with them. After the second world war, many people were traumatized by the events. Hitler had many ideas during this war but one of his greatest ideas was the idea of a master race. This was thought to destroy religion and individuality. The world needed to think of life’s value and what religion really meant. The Nazi’s “racial ideas” and “eugenics” were taught to the children to help with their “master race”. They wanted to create “the pure Aryan race” and the girls “were taught parenthood, biology” since they “would be mothers of the future ‘master race’”(Allan). This shows their views for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed race, as they would be the perfect humans. The value of human life is diminished through the “pure Aryan race”. As these lead to the destruction of religion, humans need to re-evaluate the true value of religion as it allows variety between everyone. History is able to represent the complete opposite of what biology was seen to represent. George is seen to be a paradigm of history and talked about how he opposes these ideas of Nick. He questions the lack of diversity and religion as biology will get rid of these aspects of human life. During the conversation of biology, George says, “And I, naturally, am opposed to all this. History, which is mu feild” helps show how history naturally oppresses the views of biology. George later adds, “The most profound indication of a social malignancy” since Nick and Honey had “no sense of humour” and “the monoliths could not take a joke”, he tells them to “Read history” since they have lost their individuality and purpose of life. This helps express how history was able to unlock a new aspect of humans since everyone is not the same and it was able to show the difference between the biological and historical mindset. This paradigm helps depict how the meaning of life, the value of life, and religion could change depending on the way it is viewed since both biology and history see life in completely different ways. These paradigms of George and Nick assist Albee with conveying a major aspect of modernism.
With the many literary devices present throughout this play, a substantial amount of modernist and absurdist characters are evident. Throughout the night many different aspects were uncovered and revealed. The flashbacks of their pasts, the symbolism of George and Martha’s son, and the paradigms of George and Nick express a major characteristic of modernism which is the re-evaluation of life’s big questions. The influences of the time era also help set the true meanings of this text as it was written in the 1950s not long after the second world war. Albee’s ways of writing were unlike others as h had different beliefs and would present the harsh reality to the readers.
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