WHOS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING
The play is set in the living room of a house located on the campus of a New England
college in the town of New Carthage. The living room is set with chairs, a table, portraits,
and a bar stocked with liquor and glasses. The purpose of this stage setting is to "create
the illusion of total realism" so that the abnormality of life depicted in the play will have
greater impact. The fact that the play is set on a college campus, the supposed seat of
learning and discipline, gives further irony to the play.
The play actually takes place in less than a day, adhering to Aristotle's principle of time.
Yet the time of day is important. It begins in the early hours of the day before dawn and
ends at sunrise. This time of night is connotated with eerie events and dream-like
existence.
The setting also carries allegorical overtones. Carthage was the scene of Dido and Aeneas'
tragic love story. In contrast, the town of New Carthage presented in the play signifies the
loss of love, affection, and warmth in human relationships.

CHARACTER LIST
Martha
She is the middle-aged daughter of the president of the college and the unhappy and
domineering wife of George. She taunts him in public but loves him deeply.
George
He is forty-six, Martha's husband, and a professor of history at the college.
Nick
He is a handsome young man who is about thirty. He is a new biology professor at the
college and is quite ambitious.
Honey
A plain young woman in her mid-twenties, she is Nick's immature wife.
CONFLICT
Protagonist
The protagonist of the play is George, a professor of history, who is frustrated with his life
and the delusions he and his wife have created. He is important in bringing about change
in his and Martha's life. Though a generally subdued and henpecked character, he serves

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the fatal blow at the illusions that he and Martha have been subsisting on for all their
married life.
Antagonist
George's antagonist is the world of illusion that surrounds him. His childless, long-term
marriage to Martha, a loud, vicious-tongued woman, is shallow. The imaginary child they
have created to help them cope stands in the way of his facing reality.
Climax
In the second act of the play, Martha attempts to seduce Nick in front of her husband. His
compliance with her behavior prompts George to wake up to his reality and deal with the
illusions he and Martha have created.
Outcome
George exposes the emptiness of their marriage and "kills" their imaginary son. He also
exposes Nick and Honey's hollow relationship. At the end of the play, George, Martha, and
the guests must face the harsh reality of the future without delusions. The play,
therefore, ends in tragic comedy. The illusions have been confronted, so in a sense George
has defeated his antagonist; but the tragedy of the characters' lives is not solved.
SHORT PLOT SUMMARY (Synopsis)
The play opens with George and Martha returning from a faculty party hosted by Martha's
father - the President of New England College. The time is two in the morning and both of
them are very drunk. Martha tries to recollect the name of a Bette Davis movie and
pesters George to help her. He makes them a drink and finds out that Martha has invited
people over. He expresses frustration at this arrangement but eventually reconciles
himself. Meanwhile their guests, Nick and Honey arrive.
As the play progresses the true identity of each characters is revealed. George is a history
professor working in New England College. He is married to Martha, who is six years his
senior. They are the older couple in the play yet they are not very mature. Nick is a
professor in biology from the same college. Honey, his wife, is plain looking and slimhipped. They are younger and somewhat taken aback by their hosts' behavior yet
eventually partake in the game playing and manipulation that goes on. The guests and the
hosts after initial exchange of pleasantries begin to drink.
Under the influence of alcohol and much baiting from Martha and George, they all divulge
their personal secrets. George has his own difficulties in being married to the college
president's loud- mouthed daughter. Martha is peeved to find her husband incompetent in
comparison to her father and then later Nick. Her sharp tongue does not miss a single
opportunity in revealing his inadequacies. Nick is troubled because he was tricked into
marrying Honey, who had suffered a hysterical pregnancy. This has culminated in a
passionless marriage. In between all this George narrates an incident about his friend who
had killed his parents accidentally and how these incidents landed him in a mental asylum.
Both couples shield themselves from reality. Martha and George have created an imaginary
son that creates a bond between them. After excessive drinking, Martha is unable to guard
this secret and discloses it to Honey. When George learns of this, he is shocked, as she has
made a transgression that will inexorably affect the illusion they have created. The
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relationship between Honey and Nick is revealed as being shallow and empty. Nick had an
ulterior motive in marrying Honey. He knew that her father was wealthy and his wife was
sure to inherit the wealth. Honey does not want children and decides not to have a baby.
She takes birth control pills. Therefore, she usually complains of sickness and retires for
rest.
Martha continues with her unprovoked outbursts and George becomes cold and indifferent
to them. Disgusted with his behavior, she tries to provoke him by seducing Nick. By now
George realizes the futility of their illusions and that his and Martha' life together will be
changed after this night. He declares the death of his child and chants the burial service in
Latin. A startled and disturbed Martha is forced to accept this fact. With this he also
points out the deficiencies in Nick and Honey's relationship. For the first time in the play,
Honey expresses her desire to have a baby.
Towards the end of the play Martha and George are transformed and renounce the illusory
world they have created and face life without deceptions. The play begins at two in the
morning and stretches to dawn of the next day. George sings the title of the play softly as
if it is a lullaby and Martha's answer that she is afraid of Virginia Woolf reveals how much
reality frightens her.
THEMES
Major Theme
The play attacks American optimism and the privileging of progress and scientific thinking
over more humanistic ideas. It questions the American way of life where sentiments and
relationships have lost meaning and where life has become one long game of competition
where agonistic relationships are built on false accusations and spiteful indictments, but
have no real weight to them. Relationships are lacking in respect and compassion because
the world does not value these once-important qualities. The play attempts to draw
attention to the modern way of life, which is full of tensions, incompatibilities and divided
loyalties. Human emotions and interactions in the contemporary world are superficial.
Humans have isolated themselves from each other by escaping into playing games and
creating fantasies that only reinforce their loneliness and despair.
Minor Theme
The play brings to the forefront the futility of indulging in a make- believe world. It
defines the "anxieties" and "fears" of two couples "who are born in conflict between
private needs and public values." All the three acts of the play represent a society that
prefers to pacify itself, and cling to fantasy, under the pretext that it is essential for
survival.
MOOD
A sense of sardonic bitterness with a grotesque sense of humor pervades the play. It is
what is called "black" humor. Dark and caustic, the play is funny and tragic. The dialogue
is sharp and witty, often at the expense of someone else's feelings. It is a deeply cynical
play about the lack of human communication in the most sacred of relationships:
marriage. Disappointment and melancholy overpower the characters as they continue to
place their faith in their imaginary worlds. Dissatisfaction and depression grips the minds
them.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION - BIOGRAPHY

Edward Franklin Albee was born on 12th March 1928 in Washington D.C. Abandoned by his
natural parents, he was adopted by Reed A. and Frances Cotta Albee and raised in New
York. Albee's educational record was not satisfactory and he was dismissed from Rye
Country Day School in New York. While attending Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, he
wrote his first play Aliqueen. He was later transferred to Valley Forge Military Academy
where his stay was short lived.
In 1944 he entered Choate School where his English teacher encouraged him to write. He
began writing poems, essays, stories and plays. He was advised by W.H. Auden and
Thornton Wilder to concentrate on playwriting. In 1954 he published one of his poems
"Eighteen" in *Kaleidograph (or Kaleidoscope?) a literary magazine in Texas. A year later
his play "Schism" appeared in Choate Literary Magazine. He played the role of Emperor
Franz Joseph in Maxwell Anderson's play The Masque of Kings while he was attending
Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut at that time. After three semesters, he was
dismissed from the college.
After his graduation he moved to Greenwich Village and tried odd jobs as an office boy, a
salesperson, a barman etc. He was supported by a trust fund established by his maternal
grandmother and continued writing plays that were staged much later. Some of his
published and performed plays are given below.
The Zoo Story was written in 1958 and staged at the Schiller Theater Werstatt, Berlin in
September 1959. This play was not received well in the U.S., but he received the Berlin
Festival Award for this play. In April 1960, The Death of Bessie Smith was produced at
Schlosspark Theater Berlin. The same month The Sandbox was staged in Jazz Gallery, New
York. The American Dream was staged in New York at York Playhouse in January 1961.
This play ran for 360 performances. The same year Albee received Loa D'Annuzio Award for
original playwriting and also a Fulbright professorship to Wurzburf University, Germany.
Billy Rose Theater produced Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in October 1962 in New York.
It had 664 performances. Albee received the Drama Critics Award and Tony Award for this
play. However, it was denied the Pulitzer Prize. This play later became a movie starring
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the roles of Martha and George.
In 1963 he wrote an adaptation of The Ballad of the Sad Caf, a novel written by Carson
McCullers, that was staged at Martin Beck Theater, New York. A year later Tiny Alice was
staged at Billy Rose Theater, a play that won him the New York Drama Critics Award. A
Delicate Balance won him his first Pulitzer Prize. Staged at Martin Beck Theater, New York
in September 1966, it ran for 132 performances.
Two inter-related plays - Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung were staged at
Buffalo Studio Arena Theater, Buffalo, New York in 1968. Another play titled All Over was
produced at Martin Beck Theater, New York in March 1971.
Albee won his second Pulitzer Prize for Seascape. This play opened in January 1975 at Sam
S. Shubert Theater, New York and was directed by Albee himself. In 1976 there was a
revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which was also directed by Albee. In 1980 The
Lady from Dubuque was performed at the Morosco Theater in New York. Two years later,
The Man Who had Three Arms was staged. In 1987 Albee directed Marriage Play at
Vienna's English Theater in Vienna. In 1994 he received a third Pulitzer Prize for Three Tall
Women (1991).
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He currently lives in Houston, Texas where he teaches writing in the English Department
at University of Houston.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The middle of the 20th century witnessed an expeditious change in the social, political
and economic character of the United States. A rapid rise in economic growth along with
America's triumph in the Second World War contributed to its assertion of supremacy in
the free world.
A focus on developing technology as well as commerce resulted in a world of convenience
and choice such as television, fast food, shopping centers, and 3-D movies. Popular culture
dominated the American scenario and the focus on the family, especially on what was
called the "nuclear family" resulted in a culture that was dominated by the concept of
youth. These radical changes left many writers like Albee confused and discontent as
values and standards changed.
With the successful launching of "Sputnik," Russia was also making progress in technology.
As a result, America's supremacy in technology and its acknowledged position as a super
power was threatened. The rise in nuclear arsenals between Russia and the United States
ushered in the era of the Cold War where these two superpowers were pitted against each
other due to ideological differences.
The radical changes in the field of science and technology, and the changing climate of
the political scenario affected writers as well. The works composed during this milieu
reflect the political and psychological turmoil of that time. In the nuclear age, the fact
that human life is highly fragile and hopelessly vulnerable came to be looked upon as a
constant cause of anxiety. Life came to be evaluated in terms of existential philosophy.
Albee lamented that Americans had "substituted" artificial for real values. His plays
attacked the ideals and basis of the American dream. With a dissenting voice, he shatters
the belief of Americans that their civilization is superior to the others because of its
scientific and technological supremacy and that their dream to make unsurpassed
achievements in all areas is not possible.
LITERARY BACKGROUND
The play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was written in 1961 and produced a year later by
Billy Rose Theater, New York. It was well received and acclaimed throughout its 644
performances. Albee received the Drama Critics' Award, the Tony Award and numerous
other appreciative acknowledgments. The play was denied Pulitzer Prize and termed as
"filthy." It caused a lot of controversy and was even censored and banned in some places.
In 1964 it was staged in London and was later made into a successful film by the Warner
Brothers in 1966, starring Elizabeth Taylor as Martha and Richard Burton as George.
Twelve years later the play was revived on Broadway and had a successful staging with
Albee directing it himself.
THE MEANING OF THE TITLE
The original title of the play was "The Exorcism", but Albee changed it to the present title
after being inspired by a slogan scrawled on a mirror in Greenwich Village bar that said,
"Who's afraid of life without false illusions?" In fact, the title of the play recalls a common
nursery rhyme about the three little pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. (Wolf echoes the 'Woolf' in
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the title.) The wolf of the nursery rhyme can be taken to represent a fear of the unknown
and since the first two pigs do not prepare themselves for the eminent danger, they are
both killed. Conversely, the third pig keeps himself prepared to face this wolf and is able
to overcome it. Similarly, the play indicates that when the characters cannot manage to
equip themselves to deal with reality, they stand to lose. It is only when they divest
themselves of illusions that they are ready to take up life head on.
The famous writer Virginia Woolf is also recalled in this title. It is a known fact that she
had suffered many psychological problems in her lifetime and her works speak
predominantly of the fearful and tenuous nature of life. In this play, George and Martha
cannot endure reality and so they indulge in unsafe games (pretending that they have a
son). This can take on serious proportions and even lead to insanity. Therefore the
reference to Virginia Woolf in the title of the play is appropriate.
LITERATURE OF THE ABSURD
This kind of literature focuses on the irrationality and absurdity of life. It had its roots in
such movements as Expressionism and Surrealism. The Absurdist movement first emerged
in France after the Second World War. It was more or less a rebellion against conventional
beliefs and values and opposed traditional literature. It questioned the basic assumption
of human beings as rational creatures and as a part of an orderly society. The existential
philosophy which came into prominence around this time also had contempt and scorn for
hypocrisy in the world. It insisted on the priority of the individual over the institution.
Some of the writers of the Absurdist tradition are Samuel Becket, Eugene Ionesco, Jean
Genet, Arthur Adminov and to a certain extent Edward Albee and Harold Pinter.
Those who practiced the Theatre of the Absurd did not propound any definite philosophy
of this genre. In fact, all the writers appear to have formed their art independent of each
other. However, there are certain aspects that can be gleaned as characteristic of this
drama. They were against coherence in plot, settings that related to the play, and
dialogue as a necessary form of communication. They often focused on nonlogic to get
their ideas across, revealing the inconsistency and irrationality of a universe that has no
set standards or values.
The plays relating to this nature and form of literature reflected the irrational nature,
helplessness and absurdity of human life. The playwrights rejected the conventional
standards of sets and coherence in and adherence to a plot. More often than not, these
plays were grotesquely comic with lucid and witty dialogues projecting metaphysical
alienation and anguish. Some dramatists combined absurdism with diabolism. In this
manner, they exploited black humor with horrifying and illogical events. Samuel Beckett's
Waiting for Godot is probably the best example of this genre with its apocalyptic setting,
its disjointed dialogue, and seemingly aimless plot. This genre of plays left the audience
thoroughly confused as it primarily echoed the absurdity of contemporary life. Indeed it
would have been ironic to present this absurdity in logical progression of ideas, dialogues,
plot and other traditional dramatic devices. They also have a sense of horror as they laugh
at the chaos and anguish of modern existence.

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ACT SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

ACT I: FUN AND GAMES
Summary
The play begins with George and Martha entering the living room of their house late at
night. They are returning from a late night party hosted by Martha's father and are both
drunk. Martha is her usual boisterous self, constantly calling George a "cluck" as well as
cursing him in every conceivable way. George tries to calm her down with a drink since it
is two in the morning. Martha is irritated at not being able to recollect a Betty Davis movie
in which she works at a grocery store and is married to Joseph Cotten. She is thinking of a
particular scene of the film in which Betty Davis returns home with the groceries and cries
"What a dump!" On the other hand, George is tired of her father's liking for Saturday night
orgies. Martha rebukes her husband for not doing anything and failing to mix with people.
An already drunk Martha settles down for another round of drinks.
George is appalled to learn that she has invited guests at such an hour. She defends
herself replying that her father wanted her to do so. In any case, her husband does not
approve of this. In fact, he is piqued and sulks at her behavior of keeping him unaware of
all her decisions and "springing" surprises at him. She ignores him by singing the title of the
play. Someone in her father's party had sung it in this manner, replacing the name of the
famous novelist (Virginia Woolf) for The Big Bad Wolf in the nursery rhyme. He does not
think she is funny and she berates him then demands more ice in her drink. George calls
her a cocker spaniel for chewing all the ice cubes. Their conversation takes an ugly turn
and arguments follow. It is then revealed to the audience that George is six years younger
to Martha.
Martha now demands a kiss from her husband and he refuses to comply. She abuses him
and calls him a pig and a cipher. Meanwhile the door bell rings announcing the arrival of
their guests. Before allowing them in, George warns his wife not to talk "about the kid." An
angered and stubborn Martha declares that she will do what she likes. Just as he opens the
door, she hurls a word of insult at him, "Screw you!" The words are directed at George, yet
Nick and Honey, the guests, also hear it.
As they enter and see the condition of Martha and George, they realize they should not
have come. They are encouraged by their hosts to shake off their bashfulness and enjoy
the party. Nick is a professor in biology and a colleague of George at New England College.
His wife Honey is a bland, somewhat nave women of twenty-six. She prefers brandy to
any other drink. Her motto is "Never mix-never worry." George recollects his courtship
days with Martha as well as her excessive drinking habit. When Nick comments on a
particular painting in the room, George remarks that he is some Greek that Martha had
attacked one night.
The conversation now shifts to the jingle "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" that has been
recited at the president's party. They all pretend to have a high opinion about him.
Martha's father is greatly adored by his daughter. Irritated at his wife's glorification of her
father, George sullenly says that teaching in a university is much easier than being married
to the daughter of the president of that university. She immediately retorts that marrying
the daughter of the president would be a lifetime achievement for some.
The two women in the party leave the room to refresh themselves. At this point, George
warns Martha against mentioning the "you- know-what." But Martha refuses to get
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intimidated and rejoins that she will speak of whatever she likes to. The men continue
with their drinks. Nick becomes annoyed with George's repeated teasing. He suspects the
"games" that his hosts are playing. George pacifies him and explains that he and his wife
have only been "exercising" and "walking what's left of our wits." They talk about their age
and weight. George tells Nick about his habit of exercising regularly to keep himself
physically fit. His recurring confusion over Nick being in the Math Department irritates his
guests and he adamently tells George that he is in Biology.
This leads to a discussion or mostly a lecture by George on the differences between their
two professions and sets up one of the main dichotomies of the play: that of two
conflicting approaches to life or ideologies. Nick represents scientific thought and the
notion of progress while George is a humanist represented by history. George questions
the necessity of manipulating genes and producing clones to perfect the human race
rather than to accept living with imperfection. George explains that his own department is
disappointing as well and that he was given the chance to run the History Department
during the war but since nobody was injured in the war, they all returned without any loss
or discomfiture. Their random and inconsistent talk continues, revolving around running
the departments to fighting in wars and from chromosomes to children. George rebukes
the president for demanding undivided loyalty and devotion from the staff of the college.
He does not approve of his way of administration. Suddenly he becomes conscious of
Martha's absence and calls for her.
Honey comes down and says that Martha is changing her dress to feel more comfortable.
George marvels over the fact that Martha has never "changed" for him in years. Further,
George is shocked to learn from her that his wife has spoken of their son. Honey
announces with delight that the next day is the birthday of George and Martha's son, who
will turn twenty-one years. George is upset over the fact that his wife has let out their
secret. This is evident in the manner he paces up and down the room.
Martha comes back, looking quite voluptuous. Honey disapproves of this, but Nick is
impressed by her looks. George says that he had missed Martha's "soft purr." She teases
him for his excessive preoccupation with history and the History Department. They then
talk about football and boxing. Honey proudly proclaims that her husband was an intercollegiate state middleweight champion. Martha is highly impressed by this. She begins to
scorn George's physique and at the same time praises Nick's fine limbs. George tries to
check her indecent remarks but can only be the recipient of her castigation.
Now, Martha recalls a boxing match between George and her. This incident had occurred
twenty years ago during the war. Her father used to insist on physical fitness and selfdefense. On a particular Sunday, he had called a few of them to practice boxing. A
reluctant George had been forced to participate and it was Martha's accidental blow that
threw him into the huckleberry bush.
They all have a hearty laugh over his ineptitude in boxing. George disappears and returns
with a short-barreled shotgun and aims it at his wife. He pulls the trigger and a red and
yellow Chinese parasol comes out of the gun. Everybody is relieved.
Gene manipulation in creating clones and working for "super- civilizations" becomes a
topic for discussion now. As Nick is from a related field, he considers himself to be a part
of the "wave of the future." George narrates the genetic manipulation system that takes
care of all the imbalances and diseases, assuring longevity. On the other hand, Nick is in
favor of mass producing perfect human being but George condemns them (the scientists)
for producing ideal people in the world and refuses to co-operate with them. George
continues to evade the issue of his son, but Nick and Honey take up the matter and
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question him about his son's arrival. Martha charges her husband with not believing that he
is his own son. What follows is a discussion on the imaginary son, the color of his hair and
his eyes. Martha exclaims that he has green eyes like her father. Martha reveals her deep
connection to her father. She was attached to him after her mother's death, which had
happened early in her life. Her childhood memories go back to her early school days and
her affiliation with an institute called Miss Muff's Academy for Young Ladies.
After George retires from the scene, Martha recalls how her marriage with the garden boy
was put to an end by her father and Miss Fuller. Her father was eager to see his daughter
get married. Around this time George had joined the Department of History. Assuming him
to be young, intelligent and cute Martha had fallen in love with him. She pursued him
earnestly. Her father was eager to have someone to take over from him and George
appeared to be perfect for it.
Meanwhile, George comes back with more liquor and objects to his wife's narration. An
adamant Martha refuses to heed his warnings and continues with the story. She recollects
that "He was the groom.....he was going to be groomed." By now George is incensed, but
remaining heedless of this she discloses how disappointed her father was on finding him
incapable of taking up the responsibilities. She calls him a "flop" and does not hesitate to
degrade him. Unable to control his anger, George smashes the liquor bottle. Martha
immediately points out that an associate professor cannot afford to waste his salary on
liquor. She laments that she is stuck with a failure and admonishes him further for not
attempting anything in life. A disgusted George sings the title of the play as Martha
castigates him. Honey joins him but is overcome with nausea, and leaves the room to be
sick.
Notes
The first act introduces the two couples involved in the play as well as brings to light
information and Themes that will be developed in the next two acts. The older couple is
mature and skillful in hiding their sterility. Their empty lives thrive on playing verbal as
well as physical games. They merge illusion with reality and rely on escapism through
game playing. They are performers, acting out their frustrations in a way that is
entertaining. When George alludes to Martha's sexual appetite as well as her drinking, the
audience understands that this is not the first time he has censured her. The younger
couple is somewhat impervious to the games that are being performed for them yet they
also go along with them. This is their initiation into adulthood and the politics of the
university as Martha tells George that Daddy wanted them to be "nice to them." Martha
and George have been performing these same witty exchanges for years.
George is an intelligent history professor, but he is pathetically entangled in a situation
that has made his life meaningless. His father-in-law dominates his life and he resents
living under his shadow. He lives in the past and is content with where he is. He has no
desires to achieve anything more than what he has. Nick, the younger professor,
represents the future, with his values and good looks that are conducive to "success" in
life. He is ambitious and healthy, a good-looking high achiever who is willing to adapt to
new moralities in order to further his career. George points out the artificiality of his
achievements when he is referring to clones. They are nothing but "synthetic products of
science" which cannot be true to nature.
The women also stand in opposition to each other. Martha is a domineering, vivacious,
embittered woman who is discontent with her life as can be seen with the salvo of
obscenities she releases at the beginning of the play. She is also very aware of herself as
being attractive to younger men. She is a vixen. Honey, on the other hand, like her name
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is too sweet and nave to be sexually appealing. She is more like an appendage to Nick.
She supports her husband and rarely argues against him. She is meek and unassertive. She
is the happy homemaker type of shows like "Father Knows Best," and acquiesces to her
husband. She has little self-awareness and goes along with what everyone else thinks is
right.
This acts centers on the world that George and Martha have constructed to desensitize
themselves from reality. The mock battles and "games" that they play are what George
describes as "walking what's left of our wits." They are a means to survive in a world that
does not make sense. They can be seen as defense mechanisms. These games that they
indulge in are important as is underscored by the title of this act - Fun and Games.
Usually acts are not named in drama but the dramatist has a purpose in introducing this
strange concept as the title refers to the many games and hoaxes that the characters will
engage in. First, George and Martha are involved in the dangerous game of taking and
working with an illusion as reality. Next, George and Martha explain to their newly arrived
guests how they are used to exercising the remainder of their wits. This can be looked
upon as another kind of game, that of performance. In order to maintain their fantasy
world, they must constantly act out their frustrations to an audience.
George will play the game of undermining Nick ("Good, better, best, bested") by revealing
his knowledge of the humanities, a field that Nick is ignorant of. He does this to project
his self-loathing onto him. Just as he has had to face humiliation from Martha, so George
will degrade Nick. Not only is the whole play interspersed with games, their initial game
(of avoiding reality under the cover of illusion) is itself destroyed by a game: "Kill the Kid."
The constant verbal sparring in the form of witty exchanges is a form of aggression as well
as pleasure.
Throughout the play, George and Martha play a number of games on their guests from
singing nursery rhymes as the title suggests to more adult games that prey on feelings such
as humiliating the host and seducing the guest. These games, like most, have certain rules
that need to be followed. Yet in this act, Martha breaks two major rules. She discloses the
secret of their son and she also pronounces George as a failure. Even though George has
forewarned her not to mention "the kid" to their guests, she belligerently goes ahead and
does it. Her indiscretion leads to exposing their pathetic lives and the secret that has been
at the center of their constructed reality. This disclosure has serious repercussions as the
way the games will be played on this night will differ from others and thus change the
lives of this fantasy-bound intransigent couple. When Honey returns from her and Martha's
trip to the "powder room," and tells the men that Martha is changing and then asks George
about their son, George admits that his wife has never "changed" for him and if she is
doing so, it should be taken as an honor. He knows that she is only preparing to hunt the
guest (Nick), which is one of their games but that she has disclosed their secret about "the
kid" changes the rules of the games. Martha has made a transgression that will bring an
unpredictable edge to the evening's events, an unpredictability that George himself says is
necessary for a humanistic world. Now George must find a way to discount this lie before
his guests leave or their fantasy world will be revealed to the outside world.
Their relationship itself is a game they are playing. Both vie for power in this relationship
and in the first act, it is Martha who comes out as the dominant force. Her intolerance for
her husband surfaces in her caustic comments that challenge his masculinity and sense of
self. Not only does she dwell on his professional failures but his physical ones as well. His
presence is challenged and compared to Nick who is a paragon of beauty and
achievement. She is unrelenting in her comments about his inadequacies. This leaves him
bitter and mauled emotionally. He is called a "bog", a "flop" and "swampy." Her continuous
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comparison with his father-in-law shows him in a bad light as well and any of his responses
about her father being a mouse with red eyes fall short. The audience can sense the
adulation Martha has for her father as she describes their son as looking like him. She even
goes so far as to say that George realizes that he may not be the father of their son.
Her attacks on his lack of ambition allude not only to his lack of progress in the History
Department but his psychic inability to move forward. As Martha puts it, George truly
belongs to the Department of History, because he refuses to move with the times. He is
petrified to live and has shrouded himself in alcohol and pathetic verbal sparring to ward
off changing himself or confronting his life. He is highly skeptical of new developments in
genetic theory and refuses to believe that they are ultimately for the good of humanity.
He challenges all that Nick stands for yet Nick is not only representative of the world of
science and rational thinking, but in more primal terms he is seen as a threat to George's
world because he is an ideal that many people in society revere. His sex appeal and good
looks have threatened the sanctity of George's home. He wants a world with imperfections
so that he can justify his own existence and also so that Martha will accept him, warts and
all. His inability to defend himself in the boxing match is another indication of his
timidity. He believes in surrender as the easiest route.
In this first act, George has become a pawn in the hands of Martha. She takes perverse
pleasure in ridiculing him and tearing him to shreds. She clearly enjoys an upper hand in
their relationship and manages to make him carry out her orders. This is seen in the way
she invites guests at her own will, and George has to merely put up with it. Yet George
will not be simply a passive victim of Martha's aggression. He has his own arsenal that he
will deploy in the coming act. These power negotiations reveal the uneasy tension that is
an integral part of the play and a source of the mutable and delicate circumstances that
can change these games from being playful and harmless one minute to pernicious and
inhumane the next.
Martha's aggressiveness is revealed throughout the act as being not only verbal but also
sexual. It first comes to light when George jokes about her having attacked the artist of
the painting in their living room. George's comments on her preying mentality as well as
her own sexual innuendoes prepare the audience for her subsequent seduction of Nick.
Double entendres are constantly employed by Martha as she slowly works her wiles on
Nick. The gun can be seen as being an overtly sexual symbol. The insult that Martha hurls
at George ("Screw you!"), but that the couple overhears, can be seen as either an allusion
to sex or as getting even with someone as is the case with George. Martha suggests in a
vulgar tone that Nick would not need any "props" for the games he would play. She does
not shy away from pointing out that biology, which is Nick's subject, relates more closely
to sex or as she mentions, it is closer "to the meat of things."
Many literary and historical allusions are referred to in this play. Mostly they are
mentioned by George who has a trenchant humor that depends on knowledge of literature
and history. Therefore, many of his references are not understood, as Nick is ignorant of
these fields. Places like Illyria, an illusory island in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; Penguin
Island, an illusionary but satirical look at civilization, and Gomorrah, a biblical reference
to a city destroyed by God because of its licentiousness as well as the town the college is
in called New Carthage, Carthage being the site of Dido and Aeneas' destructive love in
Vergil's classical epic The Aeneid all contribute to the fantastical as well as corrupting
influences that mark many relationships.
The abstract painting in the room signifies the empty life George and Martha share. It is a
painting of surfaces much like George and Martha's interactions that are all based on
verbal exchange rather than deep feelings. The pointless arguments and the "sad games"
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they indulge in are a poor substitution for love and compassion. The genuine attachment
and affection, which is the essence of any good relationship, is missing in theirs. Yet
despite their antagonistic relationship must rely on each in order to maintain their
fantasies. They have alienated themselves from real life and immunized themselves to the
bitter fact that they are childless by creating a narrative of having born and raised a child.
Whenever reality scares them, they expect their fictitious son to come to their rescue.
The fantasy they cling to becomes essential for their survival, as they refuse to come out
of their cocooned world. Consuming extensive liquor is also one of their many ways to
shun reality. Theirs is an absurd society, highlighting the plight of humans in the modern
age that alienates people from who they are. They cannot accept things as they are and
need to set up illusions and deceptions in order to survive.
ACT TWO: WALPURGISNACHT
Summary
The second act begins with an anxious Nick talking about his wife's illness while Martha is
busy in the kitchen making coffee for Honey. There is a bit of confusion here as to whose
wife is being referred to in the conversation between George and Nick. This muddle is
deliberately caused by George as he wants to irritate Nick and humiliate him as George
has been humiliated by Martha. Nick fights back by remarking how well the two (George
and Martha) go at each other. George remarks that Honey's habit of throwing up ever so
often is not less remarkable. The hostility between the two men is quite tangible in this
scene as they exchange disparaging comments about each other's wives.
However, almost suddenly the mood of bitterness between the two professors mellows and
becomes confidential as they talk of more personal matters. Nick reveals the
circumstances that had led to his marriage. He claims that he had been forced to marry
Honey because of her hysterical pregnancy. Honey had been obsessed with the idea that
she was pregnant. However, that was not the case at all and as soon as they married,
Honey's pregnancy disappeared
George narrates an episode that took place when he was sixteen years old. During the
Christmas vacation at the prep school that he attended, he and his friends had left for
New York on a holiday. They enjoyed drinking and listening to jazz in the bar, and laughed
over how one of the boys called bourbon, "bergin". This boy had killed his mother
accidentally with a shotgun. The very next summer the boy killed his father while he was
driving drunk on a country road. He was trying to save a porcupine while driving, and in so
doing he had rammed into a tree. The boy was only injured but his father was killed. He
laughed over his (father's) death and was committed to an asylum for thirty years.
The conversation now returns to their wives. Musing over Honey's hysterical pregnancy,
George makes an off-hand comment that his wife never gets pregnant at all. The talk then
shifts to the imaginary son. George says that their son is the apple of their three eyes, as
Martha is a cyclops, i.e. a one-eyed person. He also casually remarks that his son is a
"bean bag." Nick is tired of him and is unable to follow the incoherent talk.
George goads Nick to come up with the explanation of the ulterior motive behind his
marriage with Honey. Nick confesses the truth that they had been childhood friends and as
children they played "doctor games. His father-in-law, a preacher by choice, traveled
quite a lot and had become famous. When he died he had left behind all his money to
Honey which had also been an important reason for marrying Honey. George discloses that

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Martha too had inherited money after her stepmother's death. He calls his father- in-law 'a
mouse', who had nibbled his old wife to death.
Nick talks about a plan he has chalked out for working at the college. His way of reaching
the top is to "play around" and take advantage of the "weak spots". He does not hesitate to
make use of the "pertinent wives" in the campus for his personal benefit. George cuts in
sarcastically that this was indeed the right way to achieve success. Suddenly Nick
remembers that Martha falls into the category of "pertinent wives". George shows no
reaction to his discovery. He surprises Nick by recommending his wife and calling her his
(Nick's) "historical inevitability". Later a serious George advises him to be careful with such
unscrupulous ways as it was like "quicksand" and would drag him down and swallow him
up. Nick only exclaims, "Up yours!" This is followed by a ridiculous account given by
George about how all the moral principles of civilizations have been reduced to a mere
"Up yours!" Nick does not hesitate from praising this speech.
Now, Martha and Honey enter the room. Honey immediately starts drinking brandy again
and explains that nothing is wrong with her. Martha blames George for having made Honey
feel so sick. However, Honey maintains that it has been her habit to throw up so often.
But Martha is persistent and discloses how George would even make their son feel sick. At
first George is upset that Martha has broken the rules by mentioning their son again. But
later he too begins to converse freely about this son and he gets an opportunity to
"exercise" his wit. He says that his wife's behavior prompted their son to keep running
away from home, at least six times a year. He suggests that Martha attempted incest with
her son. She gets violently abusive at this remark.
In return, Martha begins to relate the episode of George's unpublished novel. When George
tries to dissuade her she informs him that he may get the chance to relate his version of
it. George is disturbed with Martha's attempts to humiliate him and decides to think of
ingenious ways to get even with her.
A little later they play music and dance. Nick and Martha's provocative dancing irks
George. His wife dismisses his reaction with a nasty laugh. She continues narrating the
contents of George's novel, which is the same incident about the boy killing his parents
that George had narrated earlier. Martha goes on to recall how her brilliant and intelligent
father had ridiculed and rejected the novel. At the same time she hints at how cowardly
George had behaved to give in to her father's dismissal of the novel. She does not shrink
back from suggesting that her husband lacks any intellectual genius, as he does not protest
against his work not being published.
George cannot tolerate the insult any longer and retaliates with violence. His wife has
ultimately revealed his weaknesses to the guests. He tries to choke her in order to shut
her up. Nick manages to rescue Martha. She is so disgusted with him and calls him a
"murderer."
An agonized George sums up the whole episode as a game to "Humiliate the Host" and
decides to play another game entitled "Get the Guests". Now it is his turn to humiliate,
rebuke and take revenge. He begins to relay the story of his second novel, that of a
scientist and his "mousie" wife. The scientist has a priest as a father-in-law who leaves
money for them. The scientist had been tricked into marrying his "puffed" wife even
though her pregnancy was imagined. By now Honey and Nick realize that he is in fact
relating their story. Honey is aghast that her husband has disclosed the most intimate
facts of their lives. Sick with all this she leaves the room once again, with Nick following
her. Before leaving he warns George that he will take revenge for the betrayal.
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Martha and George argue about what has occurred over the night. She objects to George's
way of playing games. He retaliates that he cannot be mute to his humiliation and warns
her against trying to degrade him. However, Martha's belief is that George actually needs
her to flagellate him in such a manner so that he can at least blame her for his state of
affairs. George happens to accept this view but maintains that Martha is going overboard
with this. He decides to avenge this insult. At this point, George and Martha declare war
against each other.
Nick comes back with the news that Honey is feeling better. Martha begins to flirt with
Nick openly. George remains undisturbed and picks up a book to read. As Martha is
seducing Nick only to provoke George's jealousy and anger, she is irritated by his
indifference and orders Nick to go to the kitchen to "amuse" her. She threatens George
that she is serious about going to bed with Nick.
Martha leaves George alone and walks off to the kitchen as she is bent on making George
"regret" his indifference. George continues to read from the book titled - Decline of the
West. Some noise can be heard in the background. George suddenly flings the book away
in disgust at the continuous banging sound. Meanwhile Honey returns and cries that she
does not intend to have children. George is disgusted with her and begins to provoke her,
hinting that she has managed to avoid having a baby by aborting the fetus. Honey inquires
about the bell that rang a few minutes ago. Although George tries to hint that his wife and
her husband are involved in a passionate affair, she is determined to remain ignorant of it.
She persists in knowing who has caused the ringing sound. She probably believes that
someone was at the door. George suddenly replies that a messenger had come with the
news that their (George and Martha's) son is dead. This act comes to an end with his mixed
reaction of tears and laughter.
Notes
The title of this act is interesting as it refers to the night of the Witches' Sabbath on April
30th when it is believed that the spirits engage in many kinds of excessive behavior:
dancing, singing, drinking and participating in wild orgies. This act is characterized by
similar occurrences and behaviors in this act. Honey gets excessively drunk, a senior
woman (Martha) seduces a relatively younger man (Nick) to bed, and her husband ignores
the incident as though he is not concerned with whatever is going on. The mood of the
play goes from one of verbal sparring, bordering on malice in the first act to one of
excessive and pernicious manipulation of one another's feelings to the point where there is
no returning to the way they were before.
The second act touches upon how the excessive drinking of these Americans incites them
to act in ways that reveal their true nature and that allow them to let go of the fantasies
they hold on to. That this behavior trangresses what is normal is seen in the unleashing of
anger, fury, and sexual indiscretions. Liquor has an enormous influence in controlling
events and helping them retreat from reality. Both couples divulge their innermost secrets
to each despite their lack of familiarity with one another and regret it later.
George's story of the boy killing his parents when retold by Martha as being a failed novel
reveals that this boy who refers to bourbon as "bergen" may indeed be George and reflects
his inner urge to be alienated from society. To escape the guilt of these accidental
murders, the boy prepares "a needle jammed in his arm." Heroin, like alcohol, has a
numbing affect and wipes out reality replacing it with a detached relationship to the
world. That this novel may be autobiographical is revealed by George's lack of ambition to
get it published as well as his anger at Martha for disclosing the plot. George does not
want to have a child that will "kill" his parents, so he ends up killing his own son
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symbolically (that is declaring him dead) later on. Martha's accusation of being a
"murderer" after he has tried to strangle her is true on two levels, one concerning the
deaths of his parents and the other foreshadows the symbolic death of their child and in a
sense the fantasy that binds them to one another.
His apparent passiveness and inability to stick up for himself may come down to his feeling
that he deserves the abuse that Martha lashes out at him. She tells him this herself during
the course of the act. In any case, he prefers an illusory son to a real one as it makes life
less messy and he has more control over how the son will act. Reality is too much to bear
for them. They need the insulation of alcohol and fantasy to keep them functioning.
George's charge that Martha is a Cyclops - a one-eyed mythical giant known to have eaten
men alive--and their frequent exchange of insults and abuses portrays the futility of their
marriage. This love/hate relationship is one of extremes. They have no respect for each
other and yet they need each other for emotional support and the continuation of their
fantasy. Yet after twenty-three years of being married, the sadistic pleasure they take in
inflicting wounds on each other seems to move onto a different plane. The games they
have played before have never reached such a state before. Several violations occur that
reveal that this night is different from others: one is making public the supposed reality of
their son and George's intellectual cowardice at the hand of his father-in-law, and the
other is Martha's seduction of Nick. Although she has played games of innuendo and
seduction, she has never actually had an affair. But George's apparent oblivion to the
goings-on in the kitchen and his anger that flares when he throws the book at the chimes
reveal that Martha has gone a step too far and she will have to pay for it.
Martha has revealed the essential weakness of her husband. The fact that not only is
George a complete failure in all spheres but also that he takes to talking lies in order to
cover up for his weaknesses has been exposed to the guests. George is angry and
frustrated that he has been emasculated not just professionally by Martha's disclosure of
how her father has prevented him from publishing his book. Because of this frustration, he
physically tries to maul Martha, to shut her up. He can only react to his exposure as an
intellectual coward with brute force.
Nick is averse to getting himself involved in other's affairs yet he slowly gets pulled into
the game playing when George turns his fury on the younger couple, exposing the secret of
their marriage. Because he has been shown to be a fraud, he now must humiliate his
guests, especially Nick, whom his wife adores. Deep down, George feels threatened by
Nick's motives of seduction and success. His apprehension is that he will be successful in
greater measure because he is self-assured and knows how to play games that make him
out to be a winner. George had failed miserably in this domain. Nick represents a "direct
and pertinent threat" to his livelihood as well as his manhood. Even though Nick knows
nothing of history, George pronounces that he will be head of the History Department one
day. It is not so much knowledge but ambition that makes people successful.
Furious at George's audacity, Nick threatens him. Nevertheless, an unperturbed George
advises him to "rearrange" his "alliances". George points out how charm and passion are
missing in their marriage and also the gulf of difference in their attitudes, approaches and
temperament. He is equally disgusted with Martha for changing the rules of the games. He
accuses her of unfair conduct. She had already distorted reality by exposing the secret of
their son and was further mutilating it.
After Nick leaves to console Honey, the two exchange more barbs and Martha accuses
George of wanting her to treat him as she does so that he does not have to take
responsibility for his pathetic life. Although he knows she may be right, he says she has
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gone too far. He brands her a "spoiled, self-indulgent, willful, dirty-minded, liquor-ridden
woman." This verbal battle reveals that something has snapped in their repartee. Although
it has always bordered on caustic rejoinders, here both sides feel grossly violated and in
the end they declare war against each other. Martha's unscrupulous ways of "amusing"
herself, George's alienation and fury, Honey's devolution into infantile behavior, and Nick's
divulging of his and his wife's pathetic marriage reveal how easily the illusions between
people that are built up can be blown apart and how repressed feelings can explode into
violence and abuse.
The passage read by George from the book is ironical as it holds up a mirror to his
marriage, which is devoid of its essence. It also lays bare the life of people in the West in
general. The "crippling alliances" are the result of the inflexibility of life and how people
refuse to reveal their true intentions to each other. The vehemence with which Martha
threatens to seduce Nick implies that she may never have gone this far in "entertaining"
guests. This fact is confirmed by George's subsequent behavior. First he ignores her, which
makes Martha even more furious and then he loses control and flings away the book he is
reading.
At the end of the act, George starts renouncing his illusions. He plans out quite viciously
how their imaginary son will meet with an imaginary death and will use Honey's oblivious
state to corroborate his story. He is slowly coming to terms with reality and now it is
Martha's turn to do so. No doubt this is also a part of his vindication. Nevertheless, this
turn of events is important to the theme of the play. This is the climax of the play where
the protagonist realizes that one cannot continue living a life depending on illusions.
Illusions must be destroyed and life needs to be faced head on.
ACT THREE: THE EXORCISM
Summary
The third act begins with Martha talking and laughing to herself. She complains that she
has been abandoned like an "old pussy- cat." This saddens her a great deal. She addresses
her complaints to her father and intermittently yells at people around to come out of their
hiding places. Simultaneously, she continues her drinking and clinking ice in the glass. Nick
enters and is astonished to find her behaving in such a crazy manner. Earlier he had seen
his wife behave as if she too was going overboard. Furthermore, he is even more surprised
to hear Martha talking well of her husband. She tells him that she loved George who had
once been affable and good to her. At the same time, she keeps calling Nick a "flop,"
probably referring to his inability to perform in bed. She wonders if he is that bad even in
performing the chores around the house.
Meanwhile, George who had been outside returns with a bunch of flowers. He narrates
how he had plucked the snapdragons in the moonlight for Martha and his son. They now
begin another game, forcing Nick to play the part of their son as they both fight over him.
Martha continues to call him a "houseboy." A confused Nick does not know where he
stands.
The argument now revolves around the existence of the moon. George tells them how
once while he was traveling to Majorca, the moon went up and down. Martha brands it a
lie. This leaves Nick more baffled as he is unable to infer when they are lying and when
they are not. They dispute over truth and illusion. Martha receives a few blows from
George about whether or not Nick was satisfactory in bed. Martha is unwilling to admit he
was a "flop" so she repudiates his being a "houseboy," a sign of his failure to satisfy her.
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George cannot discern whether Nick and Martha have had sex and as he attempts to
access the truth, he becomes more manic, warning them that they must play by the rules.
He begins to throw snapdragons at the two of them, violently denouncing their bad
gamemanship. He then announces the final game "Bring up Baby" and orders Nick to get his
wife.
Before Nick and Honey return, Martha pleads with George to stop playing games. That she
is tired of them and wants to stop. George refuses to listen and says they must go on and
that she cannot stop the games just because she does not like them anymore.
Honey is back in the game and exclaims that she has been playing "Peel the Label" in the
bathroom. George compares her game to the peeling layers of skin until reaching the
marrow of the bone, an apt metaphor for what he is about to do. With a devilish smile on
his lips he says that the bones in the young are "resilient". George and Martha explain how
their son looked at birth and how they had raised him, catering to his likes and dislikes.
They recall an incident when he had broken his arm and another when he first saw a cow.
It is remarked that as he had grown older he had turned wiser and thus was ever present,
holding his parents' hands.
Suddenly, Honey declares that she desperately wants a son. Martha resumes her talk about
her son, his initial years, his schooling and his transformation into a five-year-old boy. In
between she also adds how he was ashamed of his father's failures. She calls him "the one
light in all this hopeless darkness." The whole time she is telling the young couple about
their son, George is speaking in Latin. George slowly begins to destroy the illusions that
Martha has built around herself by making up his own story.
He tells her about the telegram and the news that their son has been killed in an accident,
while trying to save a porcupine. A shocked Martha screams at him for deciding things on
his own. He reminds her that she had broken their rule of secrecy by disclosing her son's
very existence. Hence, it is his prerogative to kill him. They argue over the disclosure of
their secret and the death of their son until Nick figures out the real story behind the
games they have been playing. Disgusted by this news and utterly dejected, he leaves with
Honey.
Dawn has come. In the final scene, George sings the title of the play and for the first time
in the entire play, Martha is overwhelmed by the circumstances of what has occurred. All
the fire is out and she confesses that she fears reality.
Notes
The title of this act refers to the experience of exorcism, a purging of evil through
incantation and ceremony. George will now purge the fantasy that rules Martha's life. He
uses Latin as well as blatant honesty to reveal to Martha that their fantasy world has come
to an end. By this time, he has realized the futility of holding on to illusions for survival.
Therefore, only Martha is left to be exorcised as it were, to rid her of the evil of living a
life based on the unreal. It is helpful to keep in mind that exorcism is traditionally used to
bring a sense of well being to the victim. As will be seen, the final game, or denouement,
"Killing of the Kid" does bring about the eventual recovery of Martha into the real world so
that she is ready to face reality.
The anguish that Martha represses pours forth in her opening soliloquy. She is bitter about
many things and therefore her anguish makes her a sympathetic character. At one time,
she could communicate with her father, but even he has distanced himself from her. Her
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grief is intense. Her disappointment is reflected when she talks about how their tears are
put into the refridgerator and turned into ice cubes, which they then put in their drinks.
Her continuous jiggling of the ice cubes in her glass is a kind of reassurance for her that it
is her own grief that she is drinking. Although she is indulgent in her grief, she is also
aware of her pathetic relationship she has with her father and husband.
For Martha, all men including Nick are flops. Almost all men disappoint Martha. She
realizes that Nick's apparent passion for her was only a way to get up the professional
ladder and tells him so. She calls herself "Earth Mother" and the young men she desires as
"Gorgeous lunk-heads." She knows these flirtations are meaningless and unsatisfying but
she continues to act as a vixen. In comparison to the others, she finds George different.
She realizes that only he can make her laugh, can stand her insults, tolerate her
idiosyncrasies and play games with her. He is the only one, despite all his faults, who can
satisfy her physical and emotional needs. Nick laughs at this and is immediately derided.
He is relegated to being a houseboy because he has not been able to perform sexually.
When the doorbell rings, Nick answers the door and George enters the scene with the
word: "Christ!" Not only does this scene parallel the first act's door opening with Martha's
invective, "Screw You," but shows that George is the one who is in charge. Not only will he
assume a Christ-like authority of deciding the fate of their son (declaring him dead) but he
will also martyr his and Martha's fantasy for the harsher cold world of reality.
George immediately sets out to discover whether Nick has made it with Martha. His own
sense of play backfires on him when even he cannot figure out what is real and what is not
as both Martha and Nick refuse to admit that they attempted to have sex by not saying
whether Nick is a houseboy or a stud. George's anger, shown when he begins to throw
snapdragons at them, could be either vindictiveness out of being made a cuckold or else it
is that Martha and Nick are no longer playing by the rules. This is reflected in his remark:
"Someone's lying around here..." It is not as important to George that he know the truth
but everyone must follow the rules of the game so that no one is confused. George ends
up announcing a final game.
George is clearly the man in charge in this act even when he is fumbling and confused. His
anger and his desire to reveal the truth of Martha and his illusion is a driving force that
commands attention from the others. With the introduction of the final game ("Bringing
Up Baby"), a tired Martha pleads to George to stop the games, but he is determined to
break the illusion. Martha is finally scared of the consequences of their games. She has
become aware that these games have reached a level where the results will have drastic
ramifications in their lives. She is afraid what she will learn and attempts to stop playing,
but George refuses to stop. When Honey brings in her idea of a game: "peeling the label,"
George adopts this metaphor and applies it to the peeling layers of skin that eventually if
peeled long enough reach the "marrow." It is in the marrow where no more illusions exist
and where realities are confronted.
"Bringing up Baby" begins with the reconstitution of their son's life and the many details
and memories they have built up over the years. Rather than hide the details as he
attempted to do earlier, now the child is brought in as the central topic of discussion and
George freely reveals the minutest details of the son's physical attributes and how their
aspirations connected with his. The two of them build on the narrative; it is a cooperation rarely seen in the play so far and reveals the possibilities that there is a true
affection and love for each other despite the animosity between them. Their account
sounds so authentic that the audience is shown how strongly this illusion is a part of their
reality. Martha's account takes on a spiritual dimension as she reveals herself as the Earth
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Mother who has gently guided their son to achieve all that they could not. Honey is so
awed by her account that she declares she wants a child.
Yet Martha begins to move away from the idealistic family they have created when she
begins to use the child as a pawn between them, manipulating the narrative so it appears
that George was not even able to be a decent father to their son. They begin to argue who
was the better parent, each hurling accusations. Suddenly Martha is recounting childhood
stories while George begins to recite Latin from the Requiem and Kyrie Eleison.
It is at this point that George mercilessly kills his son in the way similar to the boy in the
novel he wrote. He chants the burial service in Latin and chuckles as he tells the story.
This is not a man mourning for his child but one victorious in quelling Martha's fantasy.
Martha's reaction is immediate and intense. She declaims that he cannot do such a thing
on his own. He is not able to make such a decision. Both Honey and Nick are confused.
Nick thinks that Martha is grieving and holds her back from George as George glibly
declares their son is dead. Martha keeps insisting that George cannot demolish their
illusion in one fell swoop. It was a joint effort and therefore he has violated their fantasy
world by betraying her. Her reaction is as if it were real, that their son was dead. This is
how palpable the fantasy is. She wails for their loss as well as the pain that fills her at
confronting the truth. By forcing her to distinguish between the real and the unreal,
George has torn apart her illusions very cruelly.
George's motives can be looked upon as twofold. One is that it is an attempt to get even
with all the humiliation that Martha has caused him. He definitely wants to gain control of
things as she says and this is probably his only chance. However, a greater concern of his is
to destroy the illusions that have become almost a reality for them, so much so that
Martha cannot even distinguish fact from fiction. This is seen when she responds to
George's apparent cruelty. She implies that she had always wanted to "hold on" to that
story and that sometimes she forgot whether or not it was real or a lie. In fact, by
destroying her most prized illusion, George has ushered her into the world of the living. He
does not want her imprisoned by her own fantasies.
Nick and Honey leave after Nick realizes the extent of their game playing and the severe
implications what has happened that night has on this couple. Quietly they leave and
George and Martha remain to pick up the pieces of their lives. Although Martha attempts
to ask George whether or not they could find another fantasy to latch on, he cuts her off.
Although they are pathetic and weakened from the overwhelming turn of events, they can
now at least begin to build a relationship that is divested of illusion and builds on honesty
and communication. In the last line of the play Martha, the apparently stronger character,
is the one who answers the play's title question, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with a very
weak, "I am." Now, with no illusion to look forward to there is hope for a renewal of the
relationship.
The play ends with the revival of human contact. George and Martha confess their
misguided ways and have freed themselves from their delusions. The story that began past
midnight comes to an end at the break of the next day. This is significant in heralding the
illusion-free life the two are left with. With dawn comes a look at reality in all its
nakedness. There is no darkness but only light.

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS
In this play, Edward Albee presents a set of characters who are supposed to have received
the best that modern education can offer. However, this very civilized and cultured lot
behaves in an extremely uncivilized manner. This is an important irony in the play.
George
George's role in the play is at first seen to be passive and complacent. He is pushover
compared to his wife Martha, who appears to rule the roost. Trapped in a marriage with a
demanding and cold wife, who in turn is influenced by her powerful father, George
appears effete and ineffectual. He has not lived up to any of the expectations that both
Martha and her father had for him. He is a terrible disappointment.
He, like Martha, has had a traumatized past. His story about a school acquaintance killing
his mother and father in an accident can be seen as possibly autobiographical. At one
point Martha claims that it was George who killed his parents exactly the same way as the
boy in the story did. Her caustic remarks about the book he wrote and her accusation that
he is a "murderer" provide more evidence that George's story is indeed his own. If so, his
actions and behaviors, as well as his fear of life would all make sense. George is in retreat
from the world. George camouflages his feelings better than Martha, yet he is as equally
vulnerable and confused as Martha, but unlike her, he has a firm belief in how to play by
the rules of the games they set up.
In his marriage with Martha, George has compromised a great deal. He is strong-willed but
weak at heart. As a safeguard to avoid confrontation he finds solace in books. He is almost
a shadow of a self so withdrawn is he into the world of illusion he has created with
Martha. She knows him well when she remarks that he has indeed married her for the
behavior she inflicts on him. This way, she says, George would at least be able to blame
somebody for his failures. This implies that he is so weak that he cannot take
responsibility for the state he is in.
Though George is embarrassed at Martha's revelation of his failures and incompetence, he
continues to bear the insults. He also knows that they help justify her own life. He does
retaliates when his manliness is challenged by Martha and by Nick but it is more because
of his sharp wit and intelligence that he can ward off attacks, not any intentional malice.
Yet he eventually consents to the abuse that Martha dishes out. The father figure, which
Martha had always been searching for in him, is not in him. George is different from other
men. He has a strong dislike for hypocrisy, but lacks the courage to disown it. He also has
a broad sense of history and a philosophical outlook to life. He tends to see his demise
within the larger scope of society. He fails Martha as society has failed him.
Along with Martha, he is accountable for the fictional world that they have created and he
wanted to maintain it as much as she. They both suffer the "collectively inability to accept
reality." George, however, due to his fear that their illusion will end up destroying Martha
as well as make a public scandal of their lives when the news that they have "created" a
son becomes public, succeeds in detaching himself from their illusion. In fact, it is George
who takes command of the task of divesting their illusion although he does it in a cruel
manner. Still, he helps Martha rid herself of this imaginary world of self-deception. It is
because of his efforts that the illusion ultimately is expelled from their lives. Therefore,
despite his apparent weaknesses, George becomes a mighty force of change in this play,
ushering in a new stage of their marriage that will hopefully be more honest and genuine
than the previous one.
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At the end of the play he triumphs despite how the pain that he and Martha undergo in
confronting the horrible reality of their lives. Even though he still may be weak,
unambitious and unsuccessful, he at least has salvaged their relationship. Although he
lacks her father's shrewdness and success, he does have qualities that are devalued but
just as important: understanding, thoughtfulness, sincerity, a moral stand and a very firm
belief in "humanistic principles."
Martha
The play describes Martha as a "large, boisterous woman, 52, looking somewhat younger."
She is perceived as a loud, vicious- tongued, domineering woman who is angry, frustrated
and unfulfilled. George calls her destructive and satanic and treats her as a demonic and
perverse woman. She is at once a vixen, who attempts to seduce younger men (and
succeeds as is the case with Nick) and a shrew, bent on degrading her husband in public.
Psychologically, Martha is an estranged and distraught woman. Though superficially she is
projected as malicious, she is in fact a profoundly troubled person. The minor details
given in the script point to these characteristics of hers. Her mother died when she was
just a child and her father married an extremely wealthy old lady, who never loved or
cared for her. However, her father looked after her and she in turn adored him even
though he managed to dissolve her first marriage because he did not approve of the boy's
class. When George came into the picture, he saw him (George) as an ideal husband for
Martha and a suitable heir to his position. As time passed he was proved wrong since
George lacked the drive to achieve success. With this, his relationship with his daughter
became a little cold and reserved. In George's words her father does not care "whether she
lives or dies." With her feelings wounded by such an influential figure, she is left bitter
and hurt and tries to drown her sorrow in alcohol. Gradually she becomes addicted to it.
Her wailing under the spell of liquor, "I cry all the time too, Daddy. I cry all the time; but
deep inside, so no one can see me," indicate her insurmountable grief.
Other than his position as college president, no information about Martha's father is given,
not even his name. The audience only gets two differing portraits of him. One is the
glorified version provided by Martha and other is the less kindly portrait that George
creates. To George, he is a mouse with red eyes, invoking a laboratory experiment. He is
one of many ambitious people on the rise in American society. He wants his piece of the
pie and will do anything to get it. Regardless of his lack of values, he dominates Martha's
life, denying her care and affection, and causing her to see life through his vulgar eyes.
In retaliation for her "abandonment," she lashes out at another male figure in her life who
represents all that her father reviles. George thus becomes her victim. In rebuking and
ridiculing him for his inadequacies, she appears as a "castrator of a defenseless and
emasculated husband." Furthermore, her sterility is also a cause to aggravate her
repressed feelings. She refuses to surrender herself to reality. The "son-myth" becomes her
greatest distraction. She wallows in this disillusionment. It seems so colorful and real that
she can talk endlessly on the subject of her son, from his birth to his metamorphoses as a
twenty-one year old lad. She creates every moment of living with her imaginary son.
As the party comes towards an end, simultaneously, the harsh and terrifying realities mar
the sustained illusions. In the end Martha tries to turn away from a life of fantasy, in order
to lead a life, troubled with the ups and downs of reality. She is the character who had
started off as being aggressive and powerful and is left as one totally dependent on her
husband to face the glare of a life without illusions. Her descent into feebleness is seen in
her response to being afraid of Virginia Woolf. At the beginning of the play, she was
braying this nursery rhyme cum joke with all the bravado of her person, but now she is
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cowed by it and reveals her entrenched fear of life. In a sense, she and George have
reversed roles.
Nick
He is a young instructor at New England College and participates in the games that George
and Martha play, not realizing how dangerous they are until the end. As a professor of
biology, he stands for modern values and the ascent of the sciences in learning. He is the
future. Although he appears to be well intentioned, he is quite shallow, obsessed with his
good looks and is ruthlessly deceptive underneath. He is too polite to refuse Martha's
invitation, though he is aware that it is a very late hour for a party to begin. In his
conversations with the host he exposes himself at some points as somewhat obtuse but
cunning. He is never sure of the exact rules of the games, nonetheless he continues to
participate in them. He is competitive and ambitious.
Martha reveals late in the play that it had been his eagerness to make a mark in his
profession that had prompted him to succumb to her seduction. He knows she is the
president of the college and that through her, he may be able to curry favors as well as
promotions. This reveals Nick as a downright opportunist. The fact that he had agreed to
marry Honey partly due to the money that her corrupt father had left her, suggests how
his life revolves around money and success. It is no surprise then (as he himself expresses
it), that there is no passion in their marital life. He also treats her like a child and
constantly attempts to shield Honey from George's cursing and sexual innuendo. Yet at the
same time he is reviled by this older couple, he also wants to ingratiate himself to them
and tries to prove his manhood by going along with Martha's advances. This only leads to
him feeling impotent and angry as he ends up unable to satisfy her.
Albee projects him as a character pursuing the 'American Dream' in pursuit of professional
and monetary success yet his underhandedness undermines the values associated with
acquiring success. He is a total contrast to George as he represents unscrupulous
professional ethics. His attitude is diametrically opposed to George's effort to maintain
morals in life. As a professor of history, George stands for protecting the past and Nick
serves as a symbol of the future. He also signifies the decline and decay of human virtues.
Albee does not provide Nick with any family history. His childhood memories are related to
Honey and their "doctor games." Some information about him is dropped here and there
throughout the play: he is a good boxer and has earned a master's degree at the age of
nineteen. The play portrays him as an intelligent, manipulative and shrewd individual,
only absorbed in promoting his own interests. He lacks a conscientious attitude, which is
so strikingly apparent in the character of George, and wants only to progress up the ladder
of success.
Honey
She is the pallid, slim-hipped wife of Nick, a submissive, doll-like figure. Her nave childlike talk induces other characters to recount their stories yet she remains unaffected by
the verbal dueling erupting in the play. Her own anxieties and fears act as a deterrent to
having a meaningful relationship with Nick and make her impervious to the cantankerous
bickering around her. Their marriage had been a hastily arranged ceremony, motivated by
her hysterical pregnancy. Right from the beginning it was one of deception and betrayal.
She is apprehensive of having children. Her way of filling this void is to eschew
responsibility by acting like a child. She appears absolutely ignorant of the problems in her
life and refuses to take a hint from George that her husband is engaged in adultery in the
kitchen. She does not grow much from being "a wifey little type who gargles brandy all the
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time" but she does seem to change during the course of the play, announcing that she
wants a child after Martha regales them with stories of her son.
The hysterical pregnancy that Nick speaks about is an important indication of Honey's
delusion. This along with her constant nausea, her headaches and her constant "whining"
as George figures out does not arise from her habit of excessive drinking. Probable reasons
could be that she has gone through an abortion, fears the responsibility of mothering, or
she could be using birth control methods to prevent any pregnancy at all. The way she
behaves such as sucking her thumb, lying in a fetal position, and participating in her own
little world indicate her refusal to accept the responsibility that comes with parenting. As
opposed to Martha who represents an "earth mother" who nevertheless is sterile, Honey is
the "eternal child" who can have children but refuses to do so.
However, she emerges a changed person at the end of the play and displays her courage to
reject the apprehensions and illusions governing the lives of the other characters. Her
cries, "I want a child. I want a baby" illustrate this. George and Martha's confession acts as
a corrective for Honey and Nick to retrace and reassess themselves and their lives within a
more realistic perception.
PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS
The play is divided into three acts, which all have titles-- "Fun and Games",
"Walpurgisnacht" and "The Exorcism".
In the first act Albee begins to probe the lives and the values of his four characters. The
conflict between Martha and George is revealed as well as the secret that binds them to
each other. To spite her husband, Martha breaks the code of secrecy and exposes their
imaginary child. They use this rupture of their illusion to hurt each other. The guests and
their hosts - Nick and Honey indulge in playing games with them, not understanding the
magnitude of these oddly constructed battles.
The title of the second act - "Walpurgisnacht" is an allusion to the German legend.
According to the legend, on the eve of May Day the witches held an orgiastic Sabbath on
the heights of the Broken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains. This act continues the
games from the previous act, only the action reaches a climax as all the characters act in
ways that are extreme versions of themselves. The drinking is increased, stories and
secrets are revealed, sexual proclivities occur between Martha and Nick, and George
decides to play the biggest game yet called "Kill the Kid." There is a sense of these people
being out of control and directed by their most basic instincts and desires.
The third act marks a climax as George and Martha's fantasy child is killed. It is called "The
Exorcism" as George decides that Martha has to be purged of the cherished illusion she
holds and that he once held in order for them to be whole again. Moreover, Honey
confesses her desire to have a child despite the pain that she fears. This act indicates that
the characters are on the path to recovery and shows both Martha and George as being in
similar positions, the power structure has been leveled and they must start life anew. This
is the denouement of the play.

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THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

Major Themes
Albee's main concern in this play is to present the hollow nature of American ideals of
success and question the American way of modern life that devalues compassion and
equality while elevating success and ambition as the pinnacle of achievement. It shows
how this prevailing ideology can have destructive and alienating effects as well as harmful
social consequences. All of the characters are portrayed as well-educated, middle-class
people who should be ideal citizens who represent the best of American culture. Yet their
descent into barbaric behavior during the course of the night reveals how the prevailing
ideology of the times has tainted even the most privileged sector of society.
Though Nick is a relatively minor character, he is significant in illustrating this theme. He
has decided to employ unscrupulous means to get his way up the professional ladder. He
represents a young ambitious professional who is out to get what he wants at whatever
cost. He treats his wife as a child and she complies by behaving in a child-like manner.
The relationship between the two couples is especially significant. Both depend on
illusions to keep their marriages intact. George and Martha have to even depend upon an
imaginary son in order to be able to have a meaningful communication. The entire matter
of the son in fact is supposed to remain a private affair between them. Even when they do
communicate otherwise, Martha never treats George as an equal. In the first part of the
first act, the audience is shown the different ways in which Martha devalues him. First she
remarks "You make me puke," indicating how intolerable she finds him and then almost
immediately she demands "a great big sloppy kiss" from him. This hints at the fact that she
also wants him to be her lover but nothing else. In fact as George later implies, she either
sees a man as a "flop" or a "stud" depending on how he can perform in bed. This itself
shows the warped scale of values that Martha upholds.
The fact that they use games in order to entertain and indeed derive entertainment from
their guests is an indication of their abnormal attitude. George is constantly scheming
ways to avenge Martha's insults. She in turn wonders aloud that George is always catching
up with her new rules (of the games that she plays) just as soon as she changes them.
Games have become such an important part of their lives that they cannot exist without
them.
George is also not quite human in his behavior. He deploys absurd practical jokes like
aiming and firing the popgun at Martha that have a violent edge to them. On the other
hand he resorts to violence when he cannot handle her harsh indictments. In fact, as
Martha herself suggests, he probably puts up with her because he is a masochist.
Moreover, it is indicated that he requires someone like her so that he can have someone
else to blame for all his failures in life. This type of behavior is again absurd.
Honey is another character who behaves abnormally. She giggles out of place and indulges
in eccentric activities like lying on the bathroom floor and peeling the labels off the liquor
bottles. She does not share an intimate relationship with her husband and pretends to
ignore George's hints about the adultery that his wife and her husband are committing in
the kitchen. Her hysteric pregnancy, if considered as a fact, is an important indication of
her abnormal personality. Sucking her thumb, sleeping in a fetal position and other
tendencies point to her unwillingness to accept herself as an adult. She is obviously afraid
of bearing a child and her paranoia takes the form of her habit of throwing up. In the end

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though there is a significant change in her, when she is moved by George and Martha's
account of their son and announces her decision to have a baby.
An important turning point for George is Martha's apparent seduction of Nick. It is quite
unusual that a woman over fifty years can seduce a man under thirty. Although she has
played the game of "Hump the Hostess" for years, she has never actually gone this far.
That George, who should be protesting, calmly continues with his reading, is a sign that
their relationship has reached a point of uncaring detachment. Indeed there is not single
relationship in the play that is portrayed to be healthy and stable.
Minor Themes
The play also questions the modern way of American life that succumbs to illusions rather
than confronts reality, and the unwillingness to face facts and accept them, however
unpleasant they may be.
The creation of George and Martha's son embodies their desperate need of illusion in a life
whose reality is either too bitter to digest or too bland to bear. The deliberate intention
to confuse and intimidate their guests with insidious games show how George and Martha
have traded a sane reality for an illusory one. The details that the two relate surrounding
the birth of their son convince the audience that their illusion is so extended and
complete that it has moved into a realm close to madness.
Indeed a climactic event is the realization by George that they cannot subsist on illusion
for long. The need to revert to reality, however intolerable or dreadful, is imperative.
This translated in the need to "kill" the son, who has been a source of hope of survival for
much of their married life. This is suggested by the important metaphor of peeling off the
label, or the skin, as George suggest, until one reaches the marrow of things and there is
nothing else to be explored. This is when he manages to bring Martha face to face with
reality. Of course he is aware of the hurt that this will bring her; however, he is doing it
for a greater good. He realizes that if he and Martha continue to live in this delusional
world, they will not be able to leave the vicious circle that will eventually bring them to
the brink of madness.
The presence of the name Virginia Woolf in the title of the play brings to mind the famous
novelist. Virginia Woolf did suffer an imbalance of mind and committed suicide, probably
because she could not face life as it was. This idea is echoed in her characters who
become detached from reality because of an intolerable life. Similarly, in this play, the
main characters, George and Martha resort to fantasy, as they cannot bear their reality.
However, it is George who realizes the danger of indulging in such extreme fantasies. He is
horrified to find that at a point, Martha cannot even distinguish between truth and
illusion. This is a play about the shattering of illusions. During the course of the play, for
instance, Martha realizes that George is not as inadequate as she supposed him to be.
Indeed, he is the one who provides her with the physical and emotional comfort that she
requires. No one can take his place; this is reflected in her disappointment with Nick. In
the end of the play, Martha is divested of her fantasy of being a mother and admits for the
first time that the reality scares her. She has realized how stark a life can be without an
illusion to furnish it.

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OTHER ELEMENTS
THE "GAMES" IN THE PLAY
Game playing evolves as the central metaphor of the play and the variety of the games
suggests the numerous ways one can shield oneself from reality. They are spread over all
three acts yet as the play progresses, the games become more serious and less fun. Act
One offers "The Blue game" as well as a series of practical jokes such as the shooting of
Martha with a gun that emits a parasol. Act Two involves games that humiliate and
degrade such as "Humiliate the Host," "Get the Guests," and "Hump the Hostess." The Third
Act has meaner and more twisted games, such as "Snap the Dragon" "Bringing up Baby" and
"Killing the Kid." As the play proceeds the games no longer entertain but are directed
towards the guests as well as the hosts to insult, abuse, and expose their most hidden
desires and secrets.
Besides these games, there are also guessing games such as when Nick asks George
whether he has any children and he says, "It's for me to know and you to find out," sporting
games as Martha's story about the boxing match reveals George's lack of physical prowess,
and games of wit that are verbal sparring matches. The title itself stems from a nursery
rhyme and sets up the play as one where its characters play innocent enough sounding
games that end up being deadly serious.
Whereas most of the games are meant to keep illusions in tact, the last game and the one
that proves most damaging is "Bringing up Baby" and "Killing the Kid." This focuses on
George and Martha's most compelling secret and the glue that binds their marriage, the
formation of an imaginary child. He forces Martha to participate in the game even though
she knows the consequences will be quite drastic. This game starts by narrating the events
of their son's birth and ends with the surprising death of him. This is the ultimate game
they will play and puts to rest their incessant playing with truth and illusion.
BLACK HUMOR
Humor implies a comic utterance or mode of behavior evoking laughter. It is often
harmless and purely comic. Unlike wit or satire, which serve as a weapon against a person
or society, humor denotes pure entertainment.
Because the Second World War had thrown the world into a turmoil and chaos of far
reaching proportions, a deep sense of skepticism and insecurity pervaded much of the
world. The magnitude of death, besides the sinister implications of the various techniques
of wartime upheavals, left an indelible scar on the minds of the people. The everyday
realities now appeared absurd and hostile to them. Existentialism, the leading philosophy
of the day, purported that the individual had little power and is forced to conform and
that human communication was impossible. Intellectuals and people alike began to ponder
this new perspective. With the backdrop of such events, literature also incorporated these
ideas. Humor reflected in 1950s and 1960s literature was given a new garb.
The literature related to this period provokes a kind of "sick" laughter, mocking and selfdeprecating. It is a product of rage and bitterness that professes a cynical outlook on life.
This kind of humor was referred to as Black Humor. The name was coined by Andre Breton
in his Anthologic de l'humour noir in 1939 and was prompted by the "debasement" and
"dehumanization" of man, most notably seen in the rise of fascism and dictatorships as
well as the concentration on technology and progress over humanism. A rising lack of
moral values resulted in a humor that laughed at the irrationality of the world. Illogical
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and grotesque behavior constituted the substratum of these writings. The "perverse",
"sadistic" and "sick" vices of society were projected through these works.
The writers placed their characters in a "nightmarish" modern world. The chaos, cruelty
and senselessness of human lives were laid bare. The materialistic dreams and the mad
rush to achieve the desired goals in a short span of time were also part of the focus of
these writings. With people shedding their inhibitions and stooping to any level in
accomplishing their objectives, a new set of "morals" had come into prominence. Black
humor sneered at these feats.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? carries shades of this humor. All the characters of the play
are outlandish in their behavior and isolated in their deluded worlds. Albee scorns their
sardonic and sadistic pleasure in inflicting wounds on each other. In her anguish, Martha
tears apart George's self to shreds. Throughout the play she is portrayed as a woman
deriving sadistic pleasure by insulting her husband. Equally pathetic is Nick and Honey's
relationship. Nick ponders over various measures to reach the heights of success and
Honey is scared of human contact and takes pills to avoid pregnancy. All the games in the
play are gruesome and bitter. Besides, the humor is sickening. The parable in which a boy
kills his parents and laughs over their death; Honey's untimely and frequent giggles, and
Martha's sinister laughter reveal the cynical humor of the play. The play is based on an
image of contemporary mores and values that are intolerable and must be laughed at.
Intoxication (through liquor) serves as an aid to escape reality and occupies an important
place in the lives of the characters.
Albee has presented this mood, behavior and manner of life through his play. The
hollowness and the "glossy emptiness" of the American culture is highlighted in this play.
VIOLENCE IN THE PLAY
The play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, simmers with potential violence and brute
force. The enraged characters declare their motivations and intentions in a fierce abusive
fashion. A sense of coarseness and brutality pervades the play.
The incident of George aiming a gun at Martha's head, and declaring that someday he will
kill her with a real gun, stands out as an example of the potential cruelty he harbors as
well as his growing frustration with their relationship. In fact, after pulling the trigger he
announces "You're dead! Pow! You're dead!" This also reflects on his past and his need to
re-enact his parents' death at his hands. His feelings of responsibility come out in a
warped show of faux-violence.
In the second act George speaks of various ways to battle Martha. He can only think of
guerrilla tactics where the opponent is injured. The parable of the boy, who kills his
parents and laughs maniacally over their death, serves as a pointer to the genesis of
violence. He cannot come to terms with his mother's violent death at his hands.
There is also a mention made of the actual physical boxing fight between Martha and
George encouraged by Martha's father. Quite significantly, Martha wins the match. Thus
their relationship is not only characterized by verbal battles, but it also culminates in an
actual combat through this fight. This further implies the contest- like quality that is
embedded in their relationship.
Whenever George is unable to check his wife's vicious tongue, he threatens to punch her in
the mouth and rip her to pieces. Moreover, she is manhandled by him twice. He can only
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respond to her violently when she emasculates him in public. He warns her that she
cannot withdraw from a game whenever she has gotten her share of "blood." This again
indicates the gruesome quality of the play.
Martha relies on her venomous tongue when she announces that she will "finish" him some
day. She also fears that perhaps one day in a drunken state she might either break his
back or push him off from a height. She is so obsessed with violence that she sees brutality
even in the flowers that George brings for her -- "Pansies! Rosemary! Violence!"
"Violence! Violence!" is Honey's exclamation and reaction as she watches George choke
Martha. It is like another one of the games they play.
From the beginning to the end, the play focues on violence as one of the few ways that
people can communicate with each other. It becomes an integral part of the drama that
seems to be a battle of wills, all of them suffering from their own failures, shortcomings
and perverse minds.
SYMBOLISM AND ALLUSION IN THE PLAY
The play employs different symbols, allusions and metaphors to convey various messages
related to the characters, their nature, their behavior and also the setting.
In the first act George alludes to a variety of literary and therefore fictional places such as
Illyria, Penguin Island, Gomorrah and Carthage.
New Carthage is the town where the action of the play takes place. Carthage derives its
name from the ancient city that was founded in the ninth century B.C. and was located in
the north of Africa. Dido and Aeneas' love story took place with this city as the backdrop.
According to legend, Dido ended her life by throwing herself on a flaming pyre to avoid
marrying the king of Libya after Aeneas abandoned her. Carthage was later destroyed in
the Punic Wars. It was robbed of all its riches and aristocracy and was referred to as a city
of "unholy loves." George's allusion refers to the conquered city of Carthage due the
irresponsible and deadly behavior of Dido and Aeneas.
Another allusion he makes is to Illyria, the idyllic seacoast setting of Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night. In this play, Shakespeare explores the terrain of love, which is often delusional and
full of game playing. George's allusion may refer to the games the characters play in order
to outwit the other or add to the delusional qualities that are intrinsic to love. Also, much
drinking is imbibed by several of the lower class characters in the play.
Gomorrah is a city mentioned in the Bible that was destroyed by God because of its sexual
licentiousness. Penguin Island is an allusion to Anatole France's novel, Penguin Island that
deals with civilization as reality and illusion.
Martha's father, the President of the college, expects his staff to be loyal, devoted and
dutiful. As George puts it, he wants them to be like ivy, clinging to the building. Ivy here
symbolizes subdued and vulnerable subordinates of the college who need support to form
an identity of their own and who, in course of time, become a part of the land and the
landscape. As they age and become feeble they too will drop dead like the withered ivy
plants. He is alluding to himself and the concessions he has made.
The short-barreled gun symbolizes George's strength and power to retaliate, however, at
the same time the parasol that stems from the gun signifies his internal weakness. He is
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emasculated by Martha's wrath and must act in a manner commensurate to her own in
order to salvage himself as well as his identity.
The history department that Martha keeps referring to stands for the past and all that is
old and petrified. She also uses words like "bog", "fen", and "swampy" to address George.
They all signify decay, rot and decomposition. She thinks that like all these things her
husband's existence is inconsequential and hidden. He does not stand out as an individual
but has become a nothing.
In another incident, in the second act, Nick extends lip service to George about Martha's
trenchant behavior. George understands his cold gesture. In a very dramatic way he
expresses that his (Nick's) compassion towards him makes him weep "Large, salty
unscientific tears!" George is referring to Nick's inhuman attitude. He knows that Nick's
sympathies are neither genuine nor humane but that he is an opportunist who is pandering
to him. In total contrast to this, George still values sentiments. For a biology professor
who studies the functions of life, tears only convey a human function, a physiological
response to pain. For George, tears are a sign of communicating emotions. George points
out that the progressive world attaches little relevance to them, as they are "unscientific."
In the same act, Nick is advised by George to be careful about the ways he is trying to
reach his goal. He refers to the "quicksand" that will suck him and drag him down. Nick
holds that his career is of supreme importance to him and he cares little for the methods
he chooses to achieve success. He ignores any risk involved in it. George points out that
his means may jeopardize his career totally. The term "quicksand" is suggestive of how
easily it is to fall asunder when one is pursuing unscrupulous goals.
In the third act Martha talks of their tears being crystallized into ice cubes. Their futile
bid to trace and join the missing link in their marriage results in further frustrations. The
disappointments take the form of ice cubes that have been recycled from their tears. Here
she reveals how their constant drinking has been a substitute for revealing their emotions.
The imaginary son signifies the empty relationship of George and Martha. In the last act
they speak of bringing up their imaginary baby. It is an illusion upon which they try to base
their marital relationship. The growth of the son is again symbolic of the developments in
their relationship and its inability to be anything more than the delusions they have
brought to it. They also make a reference as to how their relationship ran into some rough
times. Their son's fracture episode signifies this. Martha discloses that their son grew to
walk "evenly between" them, protecting them from their own weaknesses. She hints at
how the illusion tried to bridge their relationship.
Albee uses these figures of speech to present the hollowness of life, with its characters
isolated from each other, and devoid of the warmth of love.

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