Albee's The American Dream As an Absurd Play
Edward Albee is one of the most influential dramatists of the twentieth
century. He wrote a number of plays that are considered landmarks in the history
of the American drama; such as, The Zoo Story, The American Dream, Tiny Alice,
and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In his works, Albee portrays many of the
concepts of the absurdism movement that came into being in Europe after the
Second World War. Albee is labeled by the critic Martin Esslin as an absurdist
playwright. According to Esslin, Albee is the primary American playwright of the
Theatre of the Absurd. Esslin sees that Albee "comes into the category of the
Absurd precisely because his work attacks the very foundations of American
Optimism" (1969, p. 302). The American Dream helped establish Albee's
reputation as an absurdist.
Albee's The American Dream tells the story of an American family
that constitute of Mommy, Daddy, and the old Grandma. Mommy is a
manipulative dominating wife, Daddy is a weak emasculated character, and
Grandma is the wise member in the house, but she is the victim of Mommy's
mockery and assault. Mommy is constantly threatening to put Grandma away.
Because of their cruelty and mistreatment, Mommy and Daddy killed their
adoptive son, "bumble of joy", long years ago. At the end of the play, they get
his twin, the Young Man, as a son. Thus, they can achieve "satisfaction".
The American Dream is a comedy about the absurdity of contemporary
America. It is a criticism against the social values in America. The play is seen
as the beginning of American absurdist drama. Esslin considers The American
Dream as one of the "promising and brilliant first examples of an American
contribution to the Theatre of the Absurd" (1969, p. 268). He adds that The
American Dream is Albee's first drama that "clearly takes up the style and
subject-matter of the Theatre of the Absurd and translates it into a genuine
American idiom" (1969, p.267). Nicolas Jr. Canaday, also, labeled the play as
America's "best example of what has come to be known as 'the Theatre of the
Absurd" (1966, p. 28). Albee announced in the preface of the play that it is "an
examination of the American Scene," and an attack on the wrong artificial
values in the American society (See Albee, 1963, p. 53-4). A subtle dramatic
investigation of The American Dream will explore that the play is a kind of
condemnation of the modern empty life in a materialistic world.
In The American Dream, Albee criticizes the bourgeois American lifestyle and
standards. To Albee, Grandma is the representative of old truthful values and
morals; she always tells the truth. But Mommy and Daddy are ignorant of
Grandma's real value; they want to send her away to a nursing home. They replace
her with the Young Man, who is just a "type", void of any values or feelings. The
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Young Man says to Grandma, "I have no talents at all." This action explores that
Mommy and Daddy get tired of the old values and search for new set of values.
These new standards revolve around the artificial qualities of looks, money, and
power. The title carries the reference to the new set of ideas and feelings associated
with the American Dream.
Albee sees that the lack of communication, the state of isolation, and the
absence of emotions constitute the frame of the American society. Thus, he deals
with these issues in The American Dream. Concerned with the absurdity of the
human condition, Albee shows how life is purposeless and empty. Throughout the
play, life seems meaningless because of the failure of both persons and society.
The meaninglessness of life is reflected in the play as characters sometimes forget
what was just said, or fail to remember what they should be doing. When Mommy
walks through the boxes, Grandma warns her against stepping on them, crying
"The boxes…the boxes". Daddy asks if Grandma means Mrs. Barker has come
over the boxes, Grandma does not know, though that is not what she thought she
meant. Grandma explains that what she intends to say might not record with what
she means. Another example exists during the visit of Mrs. Barker when Daddy
after some time finds himself unable to remember the name of Mrs. Barker, saying
"what's-her name".
In The American Dream, Albee also deals with the theme of the lack of
effective communication between the characters. The enormous difficulty that
human beings find in communicating with each other is a prominent trait of the
Theatre of the Absurd. In the play, we see all the characters are unable to have a
conceivable conversation. They fail to deal with each others. The absence of
mutual speeches results of the breakdown of family unit. When partners
consistently fail to communicate well, they slowly become strangers.
As for style, it is obvious that, like most of the absurdist plays, The
American Dream revels in an unconventional way of writing. It lacks any
conventional notions of character, plot, action or setting. The play takes place in a
sitting room that can be found in any house. Its plot is unusual: it does not consist
of a beginning, middle, and an end .In addition, it has no conflict to be solved at
the end. The action of the play is absurd, reflecting the absurdity of man's situation.
The absurdity of action is clear in The American Dream in many situations; the
first situation is the story of Mommy' new hat; it is a kind of satire against the
character of Mommy. The second is that the characters' ignorance of Mrs. Barker's
work or the reason of her visit seems absurd; Grandma fails to recognize her, and
both Mommy and Daddy are ignorant of what she does. Furthermore, the
absurdism of the action is greatly embodied when Daddy looks for Grandma's
television, blind Pekinese, and her room, and fails to find them because Grandma
has hidden everything.
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For characterization, the characters are static; they have no development. As
an absurd play, The American Dream has characters that do not have names, or
background. The major characters are Grandma, Mommy, Daddy, and the Young
Man. They do not have specific names as they serve as types of the American
family; they have functional roles. The characters are symbols and representative
figures. Mommy is the dominant figure in the house. She is a manipulative
character. She emasculates daddy all the time, mocking his aims, and repeating his
words in a patronizing fashion. She also treats Grandma violently. She interrupts
Grandma when the latter tries to speak to Mrs. Barker, or to give her opinion.
During the visit of Mrs. Barker, Mommy silences Grandma many times; declaring
that the old people have nothing to say, and if they speak, nobody listens to them.
Daddy is emasculated naive character. He lost his identity because of
Mommy's power and domination over him. His weakness is clear in the play when
he obeyed Mommy's orders and went to open the door for Mrs. Barker. His rule is
reduced to be just a repeating speech or an echo of Mommy's words. Grandma is
the wise character in the play. She is the only character that tells the truth. She
symbolizes the real old values that began to disappear after the calamities of the
Second World War. Albee creates the character of Grandma in order to be his
mouthpiece. The family is the embodiment of the American system. The cruelty of
Mommy and Daddy against the first adopted son refers to the inhumanity of the
American people.
The Young Man is just a personification of the American Dream. He is
described as "a clean-cut, Midwestern farm boy". He is a "type". But he has lost all
feeling and desire after the murder of his twin from which he was separated as a
child. He announces that he is ready to do anything for money. This announcement
makes it clear that he will be ready to be a member of the family. Albee uses the
character of the Young Man in order to discuss the idea of the American Dream.
On the language level, the language of The American Dream is full of
clichés, repetitions, and slogans. It suits Esslin's conception of "the devaluation of
language" which is a characteristic of the Theatre of the Absurd. For example,
When Mrs. Barker makes her arrival at the house of Mommy and Daddy, they at
first seem to try and make Mrs. Barker comfortable, but as time goes, the
conversation becomes more and more unusual.
Mommy: …Are you sure you're comfortable? Won't you take off
your dress?
Mrs. Barker: I Don't mind if I do. (She removes her dress)
Mommy: There. You must feel a great deal more comfortable.
Mrs. Barker: Well, I certainly look a great deal more comfortable.
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Daddy: I am going to blush and giggle.
Mommy: Daddy's going to blush and giggle (1960, p.79).
Moreover, the characters often borrow some words from television or book of
the mouth club selections. Albee makes language as a method to reflect the
violence of society. The American Dream shows a world where characters
communicate horribly with each other. Mommy, in particular, all the time talks to
Grandma and Daddy in a violent manner. For Grandma, social intercourse is
violently fatal: old people die as a result of the way people talk to them. She says
that the scornful way of speech with the old makes them want to die or prefer
deafness. Moreover, characters tell stories and lies against each other in the course
of their conversational battles: Grandma admits that Mommy is a deceitful
character as she married Daddy only for his money; she plans all her life to be
married to a rich man. Grandma also warns Mrs. Barker not to trust anyone in the
house.
In conclusion, Edward Albee's The American Dream is an absurd play in which
the author tackles the issues of contemporary world: the lack of communication,
isolation, and the emptiness of feelings, the issues that prove the meaningless of
man's life in modern world. Furthermore, it is evident that the play is dispensed
with traditional plot, characters, action or setting. It has a straightforward plot,
static symbolic characters, and action full of absurdity. The language of the play is
full of repeated words and phrases.
Works Cited
Albee, Edward. The American Dream and The Zoo Story. Signet, 1960
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The American Dream and The Zoo Story. New York, 1963.
Canaday, Nicolas, Jr. Albee's The American Dream and the Existrential Vacuum"
South Central Bulletin, 1966.
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd.3rd ed. New York: Penguin Books,
1969.
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