Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by

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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by  Edward Albee

How a Couple Denies Reality by Escaping into a World of Fantasy

INTRODUCTION

Edward Albee’s account of the strange relationship between George and Martha was an award-winning Broadway play and a cinema classic. As a drama, it succeeds on all levels. But like all great dramatic works, it is much more than  an absorbing story.To understand their mutual cruelty and their failure to accept the world around them, we must understand why they are what they are. The following examination of the leading characters  and the drama’s underlying themes will help us understand  the root causes and motivations for their actions and also the means the couple use to escape from reality.

     One way to escape from reality is by playing a series of games. Games abound in the play. Several are mentioned explicitly: humiliate the host, hump the hostess, get the guest, bringing up baby. For the last game ,it is George who invents the rules. Martha is a build on mother whose George invented the attributes, the behaviour toward the child.

        The Imaginary son has  both a negative and positive aspect. It is positive because the couple share a common  secret and negative because the couple claim ownership of this fantasy, as for example ;when they fight for their son’s eye colour. It is negative because they used the child in a rivalry game. This game is used  by George to humiliate Martha. He said (l.126)”The kid grow up neurotic ,with Martha here carrying on the way she does: sleeping till four o’clock in the afternoon ,climbing over the poor bastard.” The same game is used by Martha to blackmail George (p19 act 1).Martha says: ”I will start in the kid if I want to. George replies: “just leave the kid out of this “Martha replies :”he is mine as much as yours. I will talk about him if I want to.” The child is the pretext that allow the couple to destroy each other. They play the game of the victim and the victimise.

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          The positive aspect of the child’s game is that it create a complicity in the couple, It fills in their loneliness. Their child is like a load that is used to put all their problems on it In fact George and Martha create the child in order to overcome their problems, they have resorted to the illusion that they are not alone ,that they have a child who loves them and “unify” their wedding. The couples can be seen as representative of a modern relationship that  feel the abandonment brought on by our modern world. ...

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