Many critics perceive George and Martha’s relationship to be a disastrous one, filled with hate, fury and savage revenge.
However, some readers like myself can detect a ‘positive core of feeling’ in their relationship that belies the superficial bitterness.
In this essay my aim is to explore there two different critical perspectives of George and Martha;s multifgaceted relationship and to come to a conclusion whether the statement is true. Is their relationship a disastrous one, filled with hate, fury and savage revenge? Or is it possible that some readers can detect a ‘positive core of feeling ‘between their couple, which keeps their love alive?
At the beginning of the play in Act One, you can detect that their relationship is a disastrous one. As the couple have came home from a night out and already the arguments start. It is constant battle between them, both trying to get a victory over one another. Martha starts talking to George and becomes infuriated with him as he doesn’t know their answers to her questions.
“George: Chicago! It’s called Chicago….”
“Martha: Good grief! Don’t you know anything?”….
“George: … Do you want me to go around all night braying at everybody, the way you do?”
“Martha (braying): I DON’T BRAY!” Here Edward Albee uses capital letters, to define her anger at George. Throughout the play there is a lack of communication, as the shouting between them both symbolises this. Even when they do communicate, 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 facts that she also wants him to be her lover but nothing else.
As you can distinguish the arguments between George and Martha, shows the kind of relationship they have. It indicates also that a quarrelsome tone is habitual between them and that they criticise each others faults without restraint.
Furthermore, at the beginning of Act Three, Martha tells Nick about her true feelings for George, despite appearances, he is the only man who has ever made her happy. “There is only one man in my life who has ever …made me happy? Do you know that? One!”
Some critics would refer to this part of the play as a moment of Martha’s weakness, confiding in Nick with her true feelings for George, being the only man for her. However, you can also conclude from this point that there is a positive core of feeling in their relationship, as Martha’s confession shows that she really does love George. This can be seen as a turning point in the play, as it may come across to the reader that their ‘fun and games’ are over, and that the war has ended between the couple.
On the other hand Nick doesn’t believe what Martha is telling him, about George being the only man who has ever made her happy. Martha accuses Nick of always dealing in appearances, and begins to turn against him. She says to him that he does not see the mind within George.
“…Yes… and you don’t see anything, do you? You see everything but the goddamn mind; you see all the little specs and crap, but you don’t see what goes on, do you?”
This is evidence to show that Martha’s feelings for George are true, as she is now on George’s side by insulting Nick, like George did earlier on in the play.
As the play progresses we learn more about the characters and how Martha looks up to her father very highly, almost as a god-like figure. She’s tries to impress her “Daddy” as she doesn’t want to be seen as a failure in her father’s eyes.
“My daddy built this college… I mean, he built it up from what it was… it’s his whole life. He is the college.”
This point proves total admiration for Martha to get at George, because he is NOT the history department. It also shows that Martha likes to brag about her father, and believes that nobody will ever compare to him. She makes George feel resentful of her father, as he is more successful.
“Well, I’m tired…. If your father didn’t’ set up these goddamn Saturday night orgies all the time…”
Again this is another quote that shows that George is resentful of Martha’s father, as he feels second best to him.
Martha’s father is like the third party in the marriage and George is always being compared to him constantly.
“MARTHA: Because Daddy said we should be nice to them!”
It is also clear that Martha’s father dominates their life, and George is defeated as Martha reminds him of his powerless. Martha also likes to think of herself as “daddy’s” little girl.
Martha begins to flirt with Nick to make George jealous. Later on in the play Martha and Nick dance together, which they do, with increasing intimacy.
“MARTHA: You look like you still got a pretty good body now, too… is that right? Have you?” This indicates where their flirting has started for Martha.
“MARTHA: Hey, you must be quite a boy, getting your Masters when you were… what?… twelve? You hear that, George?”
This quote illustrates that Martha is flirting and is complimenting Nick, in front of George to undermine him.
In Act Two, George suggests a further ‘game’, called ‘Hump the Hostess,’ referring to Nick and Martha’s flirtation. Martha goes out into the kitchen, to make love with Nick. However, when she leaves George gets furious, and shows how he really feels by flinging the book away.
Their following source from the play supports George’s true feelings.
“(He laughs. Briefly, ruefully…rises, with the book in his hand. He stands still…then, quickly, he gathers all the fury he has been containing within himself…he shakes…he looks at the book in his hand and, with a cry that is part growl, part howl, he hurls it at the chimes. They crash against one another, ringing widely.)”
This source shows that the game has gone on long enough that George allows Martha to flirt with Nick, but when Martha is not around, he no longer plays the game, as his true feelings come out.
There is one ‘game’ in particular that truly affects their marriage of George and Martha. The ‘son’ they invent is a symbol of many things. For both, the idea of their own child symbolizes maturity and adulthood. Some critics may think it represents their desire to grow up and leave behind the painful memories of their own childhoods by becoming parents themselves. The child may even be seen as the projection through which they work through their conflicting desires and feelings about themselves and each other.
