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Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

by Edward Albee

1962

Drama

Tragicomedy

This violent, often powerful, drama is rich with symbols and black humor, using the apparently restrained world of the academic community to represent the emotional and philosophical turmoil in the United States of the early 1960's.

From the opening of the front door at 2 o'clock in the morning, to the final knock-down-and-drag-out battle hours later, the events of this play sweep the audience along in a maelstrom of savage humor and emotion.

George, a history professor in his 40's and Martha, his somewhat older wife, have returned from a party with her father, the president of the college at which George teaches. Nick and Honey, a young instructor and his wife, join them for after-party drinks. The rest of the drama centers on the confrontations that occur among these four characters.

There is much talk about George and Martha's son, who is to be twenty-one the next day. Eventually, however, it becomes clear that the son is fictitious, the product of a perverse game that George and Martha have played during the years of their turbulent marriage. It also becomes evident that although they quarrel violently, they are just as violently dependent upon each other. So, although Martha tries to cheat on George with Nick, and they are often cruel to each other, in the end they are tied by bonds that can be broken only by death.

Nick and Honey have their own secrets, including the fact that Honey trapped Nick into marriage. They are four hurt and vulnerable people, who wound each other because they have nothing better to do. As the four characters continue to drink and challenge each other, more protective layers are stripped away. Finally, each of them stands exposed and exhausted. The audience lives through the experience with them, reaching a kind of emotional catharsis at the end.

Albee has a powerful ability to manipulate the audience, unleashing a flood of conflicting emotions. Although the play is very derivative of August Strindberg, particularly The Dance of Death, it is one of the most powerful American plays of the second half of the 20th century. Albee has not lived up to the promise of this play, but it stands as a powerful vision of the inner chaos that many people see at the root of contemporary American society.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Albee, Edward. "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0593.
APA 7th
Albee, E. (2015). Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Albee, Edward. "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.