ESCOLA SECUNDÁRIA ALVES MARTINS
Desde 1850 ao Serviço do Ensino Público em Viseu
Notes based on some research
Setting
PLACE
* a small college in the New England town of New Carthage
* living room of George and Martha’s house (Book+play)
* university campus, George and Martha’s house; garden; road; bar (film)
TIME
* 1960s
* from 2 o’clock on a Sunday morning till dawn the next day
Characters
George - A 46-year-old member of the history department at New Carthage University. George is
married to Martha, the college president’s daughter, in a once loving relationship now defined by
sarcasm and frequent acrimony.
Martha - the 52-year-old daughter of the president of New Carthage University. She is married to
George, though disappointed with his aborted academic career. She attempts to have an affair with Nick.
Nick has just become a new member of the biology faculty at New Carthage University. He is 28 years
old, good-looking, Midwestern, and clean-cut. He is married to Honey. With his many degrees and
boxing prowess, is an image of youthful pride. Nick can be seen as a younger version of George. He’s
ambitious and energetic.
Although George no longer has Nick's ambition or youthful energy, George began his time at the
University with similar hopes (as Nick mentioned earlier in the act). As Nick and Honey watch this
disenchanted, cynical, seemingly hopeless couple fight each other, they seem to recognize the potential
for the same in their own lives. This realization might be symbolized by Honey's need to vomit.
Honey is the petite, bland wife of Nick. She is 26 years old, has a weak stomach, and is not the brightest
bulb of the bunch.
Martha’s father - The really relevant unseen character is not the son; it is Martha's father, the president
of the college. It is he whom she idolizes and measures her husband against, it is his presence George has
to contend with in and out of bed. It is Daddy's power, symbolic in Martha, that keeps the visiting couple
from leaving, despite circumstances that would soon have driven them out of any other house.
Awareness—of this truth about Daddy, of multiple other truths about themselves and their world—is the
theme of this play: not the necessity of narcotic illusion about the son, but naked, peeled awareness.
Under the vituperation and violence, under Martha's aggressive and self-punishing infidelities, this is the
drama of a marriage flooded with more consciousness than the human psyche is at present able to bear.
Film Taglines
You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games.
The Violet-Eyed Venus Becomes a Boozing, Tired, Greying "Virago"
Drop in for Drinks and Brace yourself
Plot
Plot summary
The play involves the two couples playing "games," which are savage verbal attacks against one or two of the
others at the party. These games are referred to with sarcastically alliterative names: "Humiliate the Host", "Get
the Guests", "Hump the Hostess", and "Bringing Up Baby".
Act One - "Fun and Games"
George and Martha return from a faculty party, but Martha soon informs George that she has invited over guests.
These guests, Nick and his wife, Honey, are much younger than George and Martha. During the "after-party"
Martha taunts George. She stresses his failures brutally and drives him out of the room. Martha then tells an
embarrassing story about how she humiliated him with a sucker punch in front of her father. During the telling
George appears with a gun; he fires it and an umbrella pops out. Even after this joke, Martha's taunts continue.
Nick and Honey grow uneasy; George reacts violently. Honey runs to the bathroom to vomit.
Act Two - "Walpurgisnacht"
Nick and George are then alone. Nick talks about his wife and her hysterical pregnancy. George proceeds to tell
Nick a story about visiting a gin mill with a boarding school classmate. This friend had killed his mother
accidentally by shooting her. He was laughed at for ordering "bergin", killed his father while driving, and was
committed to an asylum shortly thereafter where he never spoke again. George and Nick argue. Eventually,
George calls Nick a "smug son of a bitch." Once the wives rejoin the men, Martha begins to describe (in the face
of a persistent protest from George) her husband's only novel, buried by her powerful and controlling father, a
work which turns out to be embarrassingly autobiographical. The culmination of George's violent reaction to
Martha's refusal to stop telling this story is to grab Martha by the throat and nearly strangle her. In his stage
direction, Albee suggests that Nick may be making a connection between the "novel" and the story George had
told him earlier.
George is quick to retort Martha's prior actions, in the next game, which he calls "Get the Guests." George tells an
extemporaneous tale of "the Mousie" who "tooted brandy immodestly and spent half of her time in the upchuck,"
and Nick's thoroughly drunk wife realizes that the story is about her and her hysterical pregnancy. She feels as if
she is about to be sick and runs to the bathroom again.
At the end of this scene, Martha starts to seduce Nick in George's presence. George reacts calmly, simply sitting
and reading a book. As Martha and Nick walk upstairs, George throws his book against the door chimes in
anguish; Honey returns, wondering who rang the doorbell and George comes up with an idea to get Martha, he
plans on telling Martha that their son has died. And the act ends as George tells an invisible Martha that their son
has died.
Act Three - "The Exorcism"
Martha appears alone in the living room, shouting at the others to come out from hiding. Nick joins her after a
while, recalling Honey in the bathroom winking at him. The doorbell rings: it is George, with a bunch
of snapdragons in his hand, calling out, "Flores para los muertos" (flowers for the dead, in a reference to a line
in A Streetcar Named Desire). Martha and George argue about whether the moon is up or down (possibly
a Taming of the Shrew reference): George insists it is up, while Martha says she saw no moon from the bedroom.
This leads to a discussion where Martha and George insult Nick in tandem, an argument that reveals that Nick was
too drunk to have sex with Martha upstairs anyway.
George asks Nick to bring his wife back out for the final game "Bringing Up Baby." George and Martha have a
son, about whom George has repeatedly told Martha to keep quiet over the course of the night, but now George
talks about Martha's overbearingness toward their son. George then prompts Martha for her "recitation", in which
they describe their son's upbringing in a bizarre duet. Martha describes their son's beauty and talents and then
accuses George of ruining his life. As this tale progresses, George begins to recite sections of the Libera me (part
of the Requiem, the Latin mass for the dead).
At the end of the tale, George informs Martha that the door chimes heard earlier was a boy from Western
Union who brought a telegram that said their son had died: "killed late in the afternoon ... on a country road, with
his learner's permit in his pocket, he swerved, to avoid a porcupine"—a description that matches that of the boy in
the gin mill story told earlier. Martha screams "You can't do that!" and collapses.
It becomes clear that George and Martha never had a son and George has decided to "kill" him. Martha broke their
rule that she could not speak of their son to others. Nick and Honey leave, realizing what has happened. The play
ends with George singing, "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to Martha, whereupon she replies, "I am, George... I
am."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Cultural References
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a reflection of its time. The interpersonal battles between the characters of
the play reflect the Cold War tensions that plagued America. It touches on everything from the death of the
American Dream to fears of nuclear holocaust.
* All of the play's characters are eventually revealed as being horribly dissatisfied – particularly in their marriages
and careers. Their disappointments and failures tend to make them bitter and seem to drive many of their actions.
The state of the characters is perhaps a comment on the growing dissatisfaction of many Americans during the
1960s.
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* The ‘60s saw a rise of divorce rate in America and if this couple is any indication of how couples might have
been in the ‘60s then there’s little surprise in that fact.
* The play stunned and pleased American audiences, seemed to provide a vital insight into American life. The
country was coming out of the 1950s, when Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower was a conservative, well-loved president
and television shows like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best were popular. The importance of a happy
family was emphasized by both politicians and popular culture. Many Americans considered success to be
measured by having one's own house, car, kids, and dog. By all shallow measures, the 1950s were a stable,
productive time for the United States of America. And yet, these shallow measures and the trappings of success
often hid real problems, which will eventually crop up in any human community. It is this raw, human truth
beneath the phony exterior that Edward Albee attempts to reveal in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
* George tells Nick that he thinks that the work being done on genes is terrible. He doesn't think that anyone
should be able to genetically engineer other people.
* In the 1950s and early 1960s, many social scientists argued that the professional competitiveness that men felt
was very destructive.
* Virginia Woolf was an English writer during the first half of the twentieth century. She wrote in the style of
stream-of-consciousness, which tried to mimic the thought patterns of her characters.
* From the relationship between Martha and George, it seems that women can be more caught up with the idea of
success than men. Martha is disappointed in George's professional failure, perhaps more than he is. One of the
reasons for this expectation and hope for her husband could be the fact that she wants to live through his
experience. Women had careers much less frequently in the 1950s and 60s than they do today, so Martha might
have felt limited.
* Berlin's symbolic power and the Cold War perception of it as an embattled site can be traced back to
geographical and historical realities. Berlin, of course, is the capital city of Germany. When Germany was
partitioned into two halves, to be administered by the Soviet Union and the Allied western powers after World
War II, Berlin was split in half.
Berlin, a site in which Communism and Democracy existed side by side, their coexistence held in check only by
violence and the threat of violence, understandably became a microcosm for the Cold War world ? divided along
Eastern and Western, Communist and Democratic, lines.
George, the battle-weary male protagonist of Edward Albee's 1962 play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
references this Cold War understanding of Berlin. In act one, George proclaims, "I will not give up Berlin!"
George's reference to Berlin, in the heat of battle with his braying wife Martha, not only reveals the influence of
the Cold War on Albee's play but suggests deeper and darker meanings for the symbol of Berlin than those
touched upon in Kennedy's famous speech. This reference to Cold War politics was intentional. Albee later
explained in straightforward terms the influence of the era on his play: "Here was a time when Russia was trying
to take Berlin, the Berlin blockade.
* Albee's play was clearly a product of its time. Indeed, the profanity and hateful words between George and
Martha that so shocked audiences in the 1960's now seem commonplace to an American public accustomed to
Jerry Springer and other television shows of that ilk. Such was not the case, however, in 1962 American, still
lingering in the halcyon days of 1950's optimism. This was a time before Vietnam, before Watergate, before the
Camelot era ended with Kennedy's assassination.
* Albee clearly intends for us to perceive Nick's (half-joking) plan as a threat. George's criticism of Biology's
ability to create a race of identical test tube babies all like Nick and Nick's ruthless willingness to take any means
necessary (including sleeping with factory wives) to get ahead reveals the absence of morality and frightening
uniformity in a future determined by science. What's more, in exposing seemingly virile Nick's impotence, Albee
demonstrates the underlying powerlessness of science and in George's perseverance, the unexpected staying power
of history.
Memorable Quotes
Martha: I swear, if you existed, I’d divorce you.
Honey: I dance like the wind.
Martha: Look, sweetheart, I can drink you under any goddamn table you want, so don’t worry about
me.
Honey: Oh, I don’t know, a little brandy maybe. “Never mix, never worry!”
George: Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?
Martha: Sure! “Never mix, never worry!”
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George: Why Martha! Your Sunday chapel dress!
Martha: I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can’t afford to waste good liquor, not on YOUR
salary!
George: All I said was that our son, the apple of our three eyes, Martha being a cyclops, our son is a
beanbag, and you get testy!
Honey: They dance like they’ve danced before.
George: It’s a familiar dance, monkey nipples, they both know it.
Martha: You make me puke.
George: That wasn’t a very nice thing to say, Martha.
George: Martha, in my mind you’re buried in cement right up to the neck. No, up to the nose, it’s much
quieter.
Nick: To you, everybody’s a flop. Your husband’s a flop, I’m a flop.
Martha: You’re all flops. I am the Earth Mother, and you are all flops.
Nick: I’m tired, I’ve been drinking since nine o’clock, my wife is vomiting, there’s been a lot of
screaming going on around here!
George: So you get testy, naturally, don’t worry about it! Anybody who comes here ends up getting
testy, it’s expected. Don’t be upset.
Nick: I’m not upset.
George: You’re testy.
Nick: Yes.
George: Martha is 108... years old. She weighs somewhat more than that.
Nick: Who did the painting?
George: Some Greek with a moustache that Martha attacked one night.
George: Martha, will you show her where we keep the, uh, euphemism?
George: Vanish!
Martha: I disgust me. You know, there’s only been one man in my whole life who’s ever made me
happy. Do you know that?
Martha: George, my husband... George, who is out somewhere there in the dark, who is good to me –
whom I revile, who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can
make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy. George and Martha: Sad, sad,
sad. Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest; for having seen me and having said: yes, this will
do.
George: You take the trouble to construct a civilization, to build a society based on the principles of... of
principle. You make government and art and realize that they are, must be, both the same. You bring
things to the saddest of all points, to the point where there is something to lose. Then, all at once, through
all the music, through all the sensible sounds of men building, attempting, comes the Dies Irae. And what
is it? What does the trumpet sound? Up yours.
George: I’m very impressed.
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Martha: You’re damn right.
George: I said I was impressed. I’m beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw
up?
Martha: [derogatorily, to George] Hey, swamp! Hey swampy!
George: Yes, Martha? Can I get you something?
Martha: Ah, well, sure. You can, um, light my cigarette, if you’re of a mind to.
George: No. There are limits. I mean, a man can put up with only so much without he descends a rung or
two on the old evolutionary ladder, which is up your line. Now, I will hold your hand when it’s dark and
you’re afraid of the ergen n and I will tote your gin bottles out after midnight so no one can see but I
will not light your cigarette. And that, as they say, is that.
Martha: Jesus.
Martha: Well, you’re going bald.
George: So are you.
Nick: [to Honey] We’ll go in a little while.
George: Oh no. No, you mustn’t. Martha is changing, and Martha is not changing for me, Martha hasn’t
changed for me in years. If Martha is changing, that means we’re going to be here for days. You’re being
accorded an honor, and you mustn’t forget that Martha is the daughter of our beloved boss. She is his
right... arm. I was going to use another word, but we’ll leave that sort of talk to Martha.
Martha: Aren’t you going to apologize?
George: Not my fault, the road should’ve been straight.
Martha: No, aren’t you going to apologize for making Honey throw up?
George: I didn’t make her throw up.
Martha: What, you think it was sexy back there? You think he made his own wife sick?
George: Well, you make me sick.
Martha: That’s different.
Martha: Hey!
George: Hark! Jungle sounds.
Martha: Hey!
George: Animal noises.
George: You’re a monster – You are.
Martha: I’m loud and I’m vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody’s got to, but I
am not a monster. I’m not.
George: You’re a spoiled, self-indulgent, ergen, dirty-minded, liquor-ridden...
Martha: SNAP! It went SNAP! I’m not gonna try to get through to you any more. There was a second
back there, yeah, there was a second, just a second when I could have gotten through to you, when
maybe we could have cut through all this, this CRAP. But it’s past, and I’m not gonna try.
Martha: I looked at you tonight and you weren’t there... And I’m gonna howl it out, and I’m not gonna
give a damn what I do and I’m gonna make the biggest god-damn explosion you’ve ever heard.
George: Try and I’ll beat you at your own game.
Martha: Is that a threat George, huh?
George: It’s a threat, Martha.
Martha: You’re gonna get it, baby.
George: Be careful Martha. I’ll rip you to pieces.
Martha: You’re not man enough. You haven’t the guts.
George: Total war.
Martha: Total.
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George: I used to drink brandy.
Martha: You used to drink ergen, too.
George: Did you really think I was going to kill you, Martha?
Martha: You, kill me? That’s a laugh.
George: Well now, I might some day..
Martha: Fat chance.
George: And that’s how you play “Get the Guests”.
George: Good. Better. Best. Bested.
Honey: I’m gonna be sick.
George: Ah yeah that’s nice.
Honey: I’m gonna die.
George: Good, good. Go right ahead.
George: Martha’s got money because Martha’s father’s second wife, not Martha’s mother but after
Martha’s mother died, was a very old lady with warts who was very rich.
Nick: She was a witch!
George: She was a good witch, and she married the white mouse with the tiny red eyes and he must have
nibbled her warts or something like that, because she went up in a puff of smoke almost immediately.
Poof!
Nick: Poof!
George: Poof! And all that was left, aside from some wart medicine, was a big fat will.
Nick: Your wife never mentioned a stepmother.
George: Maybe it isn’t true.
Nick: Who did the painting?
George: Some Greek with a mustache Martha attacked one night.
Nick: It’s got a...
George: Quiet intensity?
Nick: Well, no, a...
George: Well then, a certain noisy relaxed quality maybe?
Nick: No, what I meant was...
George: How about a quietly noisy relaxed intensity?
George: Now that’s it! You can take over a few classes from the older men, but until you start plowing
pertinent wives, you really aren’t working. The broad, inviting avenue to man’s job is through his wife,
and don’t you forget it.
Nick: And I’ll be your wife has the broadest, most inviting avenue of the whole damn campus.
Nick: Her father president and all.
George: You can sit around with the gin running out of your mouth; you can humiliate me; you can tear
me to pieces all night, that’s perfectly okay, that’s all right.
Martha: You can stand it!
George: I cannot stand it!
Martha: You can stand it, you married me for it!
Martha: A drowning man takes down those nearest.
Martha: Tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world sits too heavy on our tiny heads.
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Albee’s personal life influence on the play
* “Edward Albee grew up in a family deeply invested in projecting the perfect image of itself into social
situations. Albee was adopted by a wealthy family from Larchmont, an affluent suburb of New York
City, which was home to a rich, competitive social scene, of which his mother, in particular, was very
much a part. Through his youth, Albee resisted interacting with this culture, finding it hollow and
unsatisfactory.” We may find a reflection of Albee’s views on the representation of the play’s couple
Martha and George.
* Martha had a wild youth just like Edward Albee.
* Albee seems to be pointing out that one of the major problems in his society is that people measure
themselves against one another. All competition results from comparison.
* There’s no such thing as a perfect couple as they all have problems, fantasies and lack of
communication.
* Edward was raised in Westchester, New York in the lap of luxury. His adopted mother, Frances, did
her best to groom him into a respectable member of the upper class. Edward, however, had other plans.
From a young age he resisted the upper class social circle he'd been brought up in. Eventually he dropped
out of school and went to live the bohemian life in Greenwich Village.
Main Themes
fact vs fiction; emotional dependence; alcohol addiction (“Never mix, never worry”); marriage games;
verbal abuse; Is love a battlefield?; Can Love turn into Hatred?; words as character revelation; portrait of
the American family; public virtues vs private vices (the public and private faces of a marriage); illusion
of family perfection in social situations; personal humiliation vs self-respect; people used as pawns in a
deadly game; right to privacy vs personal exposure; fear of honest communication; professional
competitiveness / Rat Race; genetic engineering as a way to promote successful personal competition;
importance of Virginia Woolf; the intricacies of the human heart and mind; feminism; male vs female
power; sexuality significance; marrying into money; collapsing of conservative values, like family and
church; generation gap; parental power; Is / Was pregnancy a powerful female weapon?; Is perfection
just an illusion?; Catholic order vs pagan rituals; ripping off of masks as a means to achieve ultimate
freedom; desire for success in life as a means to destroy one’s self-esteem and individuality; Love hurts;
dysfunctional couples; Games and war; History vs Biology; The American Dream, The Christian
Allegory; Love and/vs Hate; vicious circle of violence; conformity vs non-conformity; Does our world
accept or reject condole civility?; lives of disappointment and regret; personality assassinations or
psychological manipulation?; the sadness and difficulties of the adult life; Is love nothing but deception?;
versions of reality; visions of America; power; dissatisfaction; The Cold War
Critical Reception
* “And yet even then it feels like the film has only scratched the surface of the complexities hidden
underneath the exteriors of these characters. There are certainly more things that could be said about this
film. There’s the decidedly absurd, almost postmodern, tone of the picture and the vulgar and bold
language on display. But these are the most obvious elements and the real meat of the film has less to do
with the style and more to do with all the subtleties hidden beneath it.” © 2010 James Blake Ewing
* “The searing film exhibited a fine sense of pacing, comic timing, and gripping buildup in a series of
emotional climaxes. The shocking content - the dramatic portrayal of the destructive, sado-masochistic,
and cruel battles in one couple's tempestuous, love-hate relationship during a late night (2 am) to dawn
brawling encounter while victimizing another young couple - was thought to be too vitriolic, frank,
explicitly blasphemous and foul-mouthed for the film screen. [It was the first American film to use the
expletive 'goddamn' and 'bugger'.] The MPAA ratings board gave the film a seal of approval after
Warner Bros. appealed and made a few cuts of the most extreme profanity (such as "Screw you"). It was
the first film to be released with a "Suggested for Mature Audiences" warning.
The black-and-white film, masterfully directed by Mike Nichols won five Academy Awards from its
thirteen nominations: Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor), Best Supporting Actress (Sandy Dennis), Best
B/W Cinematography (Haskell Wexler), Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. The other eight
nominations included Best Picture, Best Actor (Richard Burton), Best Supporting Actor (George Segal),
Best Director (Mike Nichols), Best Screenplay (Ernest Lehman), Best Sound, Best Original Music Score,
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and Best Film Editing. [The film became noted as the only one in Academy history up to that point to be
nominated in every eligible category. It was also the first film to have every member of its cast receive
an acting nomination.]” (Filmsite Movie Review)
* “Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a disturbing and powerful work. Ironically, it is
disturbing and powerful for many of the same reasons. As the audience watches George and Martha tear
savagely at each other with the knives of hurled words, sharpened on pain and aimed to draw blood, the
way in which these two relentlessly go at each other is awful to see, yet strangely familiar. Like wounded
animals, they strike out at those closest to them.” (Shirley Galloway)
* “The play was an enormous commercial success. Many audience members and critics lauded it as
revolutionary and as marking a new era in American drama. Within the decade, Albee became the
second most produced playwright, after Shakespeare, on college campuses.
Though it remains famous ? increasingly included in literature courses and still performed by theatrical
companies and on college campuses ? Albee's play was without a doubt the product of an era. With the
fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, that era game to an end, but the power of Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? lives on.” (GradeSaver)
* "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an impressive picture. Broadway director Mike Nichols chose to
film in black and white, probably not to save money but rather to emphasize the dialog and indicate the
colorless marriage of the older couple, played with aplomb by real-life couple Liz and Dick, who were a
hot item at the time (1966) both on and off screen. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler did a very
perceptive job with camera placement and lighting to indicate the changing emotional score in this two
hour battle of wits. Score by Alex North is not continuous but punctuates the key points of the film very
effectively. Editing by Sam O’Steen moves the viewer at a breakneck emotional pace between the few
locations, for example, when George says he is going to get the car in the next instant we see the car
rocketing along the darkened road to the sound of screeching tires. Similarly, when Martha commands
George to stop at the roadhouse, the edit shows a straining tire that immediately turns into a spinning
Honey on the dance floor. These breakneck changes of venue keep the viewer off balance and a sucker
for the body blows provided by the actors.
Acting, of course, is beyond reproach, with this film being Elizabeth Taylor’s finest hour, in my opinion.
Richard Burton is always on my A-list but he lives up to it here in spades with his mild mannered
appearing professor with a heart full of bile. George Segal and Sandy Dennis provide some vitriol of
their own and are worthy foils for the dynamic Liz and Dick.
All in all the film is not easy to take but is well worth the viewing for the emotional release it provides
the viewer.”
* “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? didn't go off without controversy, though. Some audience members
were shocked by its strong language and taboo sexual references. If you put the play on HBO today, it
would probably seem tame, but in the early '60s it was accused of being perverse and dirty minded. The
script won the vote for the Pulitzer Prize, but some thought it was just too controversial to be given the
prestigious award.”
*“Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was more than a huge theatrical success; it was a cultural watershed.
The play fulfilled the hopes of those eager for a rebirth of American drama, but also outraged many who
found the play obscene, morbid and decadent. It is one of the very few American dramas to fully
permeate American life” A Classroom Guide
Symbols
* George, with a bunch of snapdragons in his hand, calling out, "Flores para los muertos" (flowers for
the dead) quoted from “A street car named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. In western folklore,
snapdragons are believed to ward off evil.
* George begins to recite sections of the Libera me (part of the Requiem, the Latin mass for the dead) As
he chants, he marks the passing of his and Martha's fictional son. At the same time, he also imposes a
Catholic order on the night that had thus far been pagan and ritualistic. "Walpurgisnacht" is a term for a
pagan event. "Exorcism," too, is often connected to pagan traditions rather than those of an established
church. The evening of the play, therefore, has passed as a whirling, chaotic, pagan experience. George's
prayer, then, exorcises not only the phoniness of his and Martha's child but also the chaos of the night.
* George, whose first name echoes that of George Washington, represents the old American dream.
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George and Martha share the name of America's founding and most famous couple, George and
Martha Washington. If something is wrong with America’s founding couple, so something is definitely
wrong in the nation itself. The marriage of the first US President and his wealthy wife was a marriage of
convenience.
* Nick was purposefully named by Albee after Nikita Khrushchev. Decades later, speaking to a group of
Howard University Students, Albee explained, "I was having some fun writing this. It was written in
1962, and I named Nick after Nikita Khrushchev.”
* The alcohol becomes a symbol of people’s desire to mask their true emotions from each other and
themselves.
* Boxing match as representing a violent marriage.
* Red, the colour of Martha’s father’s eyes.
* Mouse representing Martha’s father+Honey, referred to as “mousey”
* Whereas a real child might bring parents together, their Dream child is tearing them apart. They each
want to be closer to this dream, to make it more theirs. Instead of joining together through their pain,
they fight each other.
* The "child" seems not only a desire for fecundity within their relationship, but also a projection
through which they express many of their personal desires, needs, and problems, and, in this context, the
child's subsequent "death" signifies a milestone in their understanding of their marriage and of
themselves. By the end of play, after much suffering and flagellation, George and Martha appear ready to
deal with their lives in a new way.
Thus, the "child" they invent is a symbol of many things for George and Martha. For both, the idea of
their own child symbolizes maturity and adulthood. It represents their desire to grow up and leave behind
the painful memories of their own childhoods' by becoming parents themselves. I believe it is also a
projection of themselves, of the inner child of each, that is still alive, hurting and trapped.
In these ways, the child becomes the projection through which they work through their conflicting
desires and feelings about themselves and each other. In a strange cathartic way, they use the child to
point out each other's bad points, the things they've encountered in each other that disappoints and
frustrates them, and, in the realm of fantasy, it represents their subconscious drives to try and make
childhood dreams come true. Though one senses the show they give Nick and Honey is one they have
replayed countless times, there is also the sense of a process at work, a process of catharsis, and it is
Martha's and George's underlying love for each other that gives them the strength to take the garbage that
they dump on each other, painful though it is.
the child was also a comfort, some way for them to believe they could produce something of worth,
something good that was untainted by their own painful experiences. To kill the child is to kill their
fantasy life, but it may be the only way something new can be born between them, something real that
they create themselves.
* Honey's need to vomit symbolizes the realization that they’re potentially going to be a second version
of Martha and George, a disenchanted, cynical, seemingly hopeless couple who keep fighting each other.
* Bean bag Whenever someone has a temporary moment of idiocy. They are a beanbag because they
have the IQ of a beanbag.
* Baby talk
* Animal imagery
* While the peeling of the bottle label is symbolic of her desire to reveal the truth beyond the surface,
she remains attached to alcohol, another symbol of removal and hidden emotions. Nick and Honey might
not be ready to tear down their illusions yet. In part, perhaps subconsciously, or perhaps incidentally,
George and Martha seem to be both warnings and guides to Nick and Honey. Though Nick and Honey
hold the potential of becoming another George and Martha, perhaps in seeing the example of George and
Martha they might be able to avoid that fate.
* George and Martha’s living room functions as a microcosm in which Edward Albee explores the
destruction of the American dream.
* Games of Life or Death in which George plays the role of ringmaster.
* Yelling – Is it a way of expressing love or hatred?
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Edward Albee in his own words
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"What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?"
"A usefully lived life is probably going to be, ultimately, more satisfying."
"Writing should be useful. If it can't instruct people a little bit more about the responsibilities of
consciousness there's no point in doing it."
"If you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly."
"That's what happens in plays, yes? The shit hits the fan."
"Creativity is magic. Don't examine it too closely."[
"Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short
distance correctly."
"All serious art is being destroyed by commerce. Most people don't want art to be disturbing.
They want it to be escapist. I don't think art should be escapist. That's a waste of time."
“I despise restful art.”
“And I would hope that every play I write shakes a few people up, asks a few questions that
people would rather not think about.”
“I think you can change the way people think about their consciousness- you can change just
about everything about them. You make them aware that they’re missing the boat, that they’re
not being fully alive.”
But there is always a great relationship between popularity and excellence. If you know that, you
can never be owned by public opinion or critical response. You just have to make the assumption
you’re doing god work and go on doing it. Of course, there are the little dolls you stick pins in
privately.”
“Each play is an act of aggression against the status quo. Too many playwrights let the audience
off the hook instead of slugging them in the face, which is what you should be doing.”
“The dramatist is always commenting on people, and the problem is to comment effectively and
make art out of it. You’re making a critical comment when you create the life of somebody. You
can only make propaganda out of it if you think somebody is entirely bad, entirely good. You
must expose both attributes. A character totally unworthy of sympathy or love would be totally
unworthy of attention – the author’s attention of the audiences.”
What’s in a title
The title comes from rewriting the words to the children's song, "Who's afraid of the big bad
wolf?" It comes up as a joke at Martha's father's party. The song is significant because it ties together the
themes of childhood and parenthood, reality versus fantasy, and career success. The couples in this play
do not have any children and remain tied to their parents. Martha and George rely on Martha's father for
his position and his paycheck. Honey and Nick rely upon Honey's father for the money that he left them.
This song, bastardized from a children's ditty, shows how all four characters in the play still function
more as children than they do as adults. The fact that the name is changed to "Virginia Woolf" is also
significant. In her writing, Virginia Woolf attempted to reveal the truth of human experience, emotion,
and thought: all of the things that the couples in this play try to cover up. When the couples sing the song
together, then, they are making fun of their own fear of the truth. George, who seems to want to get back
to some truthful interaction with Martha, only sings the song when he tries to overpower Martha's
disparagement of him, when Martha is necking with Nick, and when he tries to comfort Martha in the
end. If one looks closely at these three different moments, it is clear that George uses the song to stop
Martha from revealing truth about himself, to tease Martha for hiding from the truth behind an affair, and
to give her courage to live without the phoniness they are used to. The song is consistently tied to
moments in which the characters are projecting, or attempting to project, a false image. Finally, the song
also ties into the theme of academic competition at the unnamed college where George and Nick work.
Virginia Woolf is known to be a complex, difficult writer. Because she is an intellectual challenge, no
one competing to demonstrate intellectual power would want to admit to being afraid of not
understanding her writing. The song is a witty joke, but it also represents the very real, though also very
petty, fear so common in intellectual circles.
The film's title refers to Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), an influential British feminist writer who
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pioneered the 'stream of consciousness' literary style while examining the psychological and emotional
motives of her characters. [Perhaps the 'fear' of VW refers to the film's characters who are suffering
marital discord in the emotionally-draining film, and who may have 'known' that she suffered from
mental illness and ultimately went insane and committed suicide.] The title is also a parody of Who's
Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, a tune sung in Disney's Three Little Pigs (1933) animated short film.
Virginia Woolf. She was a brilliant writer and women’s rights advocate. In addition, she sought
to live her life without false illusions. So then, the question of the play’s title becomes: “Who is afraid of
facing reality?” And the answer is: Most of us. Certainly the tumultuous characters George and Martha
are lost in their drunken, everyday illusions. By the play’s end, each audience member is left to wonder,
“Do I create false illusions of my own?”
The title comes from rewriting the words to the children's song, "Who's afraid of the big bad
wolf?" It comes up as a joke at Martha's father's party. The song is significant because it ties together the
themes of childhood and parenthood, reality versus fantasy, and career success. The couples in this play
do not have any children and remain tied to their parents. Martha and George rely on Martha's father for
his position and his paycheck. Honey and Nick rely upon Honey's father for the money that he left them.
This song, bastardized from a children's ditty, shows how all four characters in the play still function
more as children than they do as adults. The fact that the name is changed to "Virginia Woolf" is also
significant. In her writing, Virginia Woolf attempted to reveal the truth of human experience, emotion,
and thought: all of the things that the couples in this play try to cover up. When the couples sing the song
together, then, they are making fun of their own fear of the truth. George, who seems to want to get back
to some truthful interaction with Martha, only sings the song when he tries to overpower Martha's
disparagement of him, when Martha is necking with Nick, and when he tries to comfort Martha in the
end. If one looks closely at these three different moments, it is clear that George uses the song to stop
Martha from revealing truth about himself, to tease Martha for hiding from the truth behind an affair, and
to give her courage to live without the phoniness they are used to. The song is consistently tied to
moments in which the characters are projecting, or attempting to project, a false image. Finally, the song
also ties into the theme of academic competition at the unnamed college where George and Nick work.
Virginia Woolf is known to be a complex, difficult writer. Because she is an intellectual challenge, no
one competing to demonstrate intellectual power would want to admit to being afraid of not
understanding her writing. The song is a witty joke, but it also represents the very real, though also very
petty, fear so common in intellectual circles. (Sparknotes)
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