Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Read this after seeing Rachel Amber from the videogame Life is Strange: Before the Storm read it! I now own a large collection of Edward Albee's plays!

This review is of the Cliff Notes by Cynthia McGowan and James Roberts of Edward Albee's modern American classic play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Beginning with a brief look at the life and background of Albee, McGowan and Roberts provide an excellent 12 page section on "Edward Albee and the Theater of the Absurd," developing the similarities and differences between his plays and those of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet and Arthur Adamov. This section would be very useful to anyone teaching or studying these playwrights and the Absurdist tradition. After covering the setting, the significance of the title and the four characters, we have the main portion of this book, the Critical Analysis of the play itself. Unlike most Cliff Notes volumes, McGowan and Roberts do not separate their analysis into summary and commentary sections, choosing to combine the two elements instead. After covering the significance of the titles of the play's three acts, they conclude with an analysis of the four characters. Again, this is a departure from the standard practice of these Cliffs Notes volumes, which usually end with analysis of specific literary themes. So while the introductory essay is excellent and the analysis is more than adequate, you need to be aware that there is a sense in which this book is not as user-friendly as most Cliffs Notes volumes. However, I fully admit that I have a preference for having students learn how to work with the critical vocabulary, so I appreciate those Cliffs Notes where such terms are laid out as clearly as possible. Bottom line: there is a lot here that will help teachers and students with this great play on both the micro and macro levels.

A play in three acts, a very simple setting, and only four characters who live in a small, university town in America: a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. And a "young and innocent" couple, Nick and Honey. They all meet in a room, in Martha and George's house, very late one night, for a nightcap. And then...all hell breaks lose.The play tears apart both marriages: the middle aged couple, who seem to hate each other and in the end turn out to be much more devoted to each other as it would seem. The young, seemingly perfect couple, who turn out to have lots of problems of their own. In three heart-breaking scenes, using dialogue that cuts like a knife, Edward Albee has written a masterpiece. He manages to give a clear-cut, honest picture of the reality of marriage, the reality of love, and the fears that go hand in hand with love and intimacy. At some point, in act three, Martha talks about her husband- and it's probably one of the best pieces of literature I've read:"...George who is out somewhere there in the dark...George who is good to me, and whom I revile; who understands me, and whom I push off; who can make me laugh, and I choke it back in my throat; who can hold me, at night, so that it's warm, and whom I will bite so there's blood; who keeps learning the games we play as quickly as I can change the rules; who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy, and yes I do wish to be happy, George and Martha: sad, sad, sad."What more can I say? just read the play, and if you get the chance, watch it performed in the theatre, too.

Looking past the rough language and the slew of verbal insults, one can see a sheer literary masterpiece. It wonderfully shows the struggle of George and Martha trying to come to terms with the reality they have created for themselves. When George discloses the secret of their son's nonexistence, he is forcing he and his wife to forfeit their mind games and live as functional human beings. By the way, in rebuttal, the title is absolutely perfect. Anyone with literary knowledge knows that Virginia Woolf was a realist who tried to present life as it truly is. Martha, at the end, is afraid of Woolf, or the symbol of life without pretenses.

This was Albee's first three-act play. It was also made into a film with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis. A cocktail party given by an unsuccessful history professor (George) and his wife (Martha) for a new instructor (Nick) with his wife (Honey) turns into a long session of arguments, verbal abuse, revelations, and catharsis. There are several references to George and Martha's 21-year-old son who we later discover to be nonexistent. The younger couple, who are having a child, turn out to have a sterile marriage as well, albeit for different reasons. This play won the 1962-1963 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. This play is filled with great dialogue: witticisms, verbal abuse, sorrow, and even compassion. It is easily one of the top dramas of the twentieth century.