The Big Bad Woolf

Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is a play based on illusions. Each character lives their life behind some sort of illusion whether it’s based on their past, their marriage or their whole life.

Richard Schechner, the editor of the Tulane Drama Review, greeted Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? As a ‘persistent escape into morbid fantasy’. Maxwell, a member of the Pulitzer Prize advisory board, he found it a filthy play and indicted it for its ‘morbidity and sexual perversity which are there only to titillate an impotent and homosexual theatre and audience’. Who' s afraid of virgina woolf Topics Radio Drama, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Edward Albee, classic American play WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.

The play never tells us exactly what the title is supposed to mean, and no one named Virginia Woolf ever shows up within it. This all leads us to ask: just who is this Virginia Woolf person? What does she have to do with the play? Was Albee just being totally random? Probably not. Let's investigate.
Virginia Woolf was a writer famous for her stream of consciousness style. Woolf tried to show the emotional truths churning behind the eyes of her characters; she tried to get inside their heads and really show what it was like to be them. Also, Woolf, like Albee, was a product of the upper class. Her work often criticized and peeled back the layers of pretension that masked her social peers. The fact that Woolf was all about truth and layer peeling, leads some to think that Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is just another way of asking, 'Who's afraid to live without illusion?' Albee confirmed this in a Paris Review interview in which he said, 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf mean who's afraid of the big bad wolf…who's afraid of living without false illusions' (source).

A Bad, Sad Joke

Leonard Woolf

Albee goes on to note that the line, and how it makes a play on Virginia Woolf versus the big bad wolf, seemed to him 'a rather typical university, intellectual joke.' (source) And as we know from the play George and Martha want to be typical university, intellectual people. Of course, whenever it shows up in the play, the line is used more as ammunition than a funny ha-ha moment. Martha sings it to try and get a rise out of George. Later, George sings it to try and drown out Martha's barbs.
It's, uh, a very dark play, folks.

How Absurd!

We think it's also possible that the meaning of the title might represent a concept on which the play is based: absurdism. Absurdists believe that life has no meaning (at least not one that we can ever be sure of). Therefore, everything we do to create meaning in our lives is ultimately pointless or absurd.
So, what does that have to do with the title? Think about it: the title comes from a joke. It's a parody of 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?' from Disney's The Three Little Pigs. Some unknown person sang the parody at the party that the characters attended earlier, and it was apparently hilarious. Notice, though, that Albee never tells us in what context the little ditty was sung. It's like we're getting the punch-line to a joke, but not the set-up. Or maybe, it's the set-up without the punch-line.
In any case, the title is a joke whose meaning the audience doesn't know. The characters are up there laughing it up, while the rest of us are left wondering just what's so funny. Doesn't that kind of sum up the whole absurdist view of life? It's all a big joke, whose meaning is ultimately unknowable.

Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is a play based on illusions. Each character lives their life behind some sort of illusion whether it’s based on their past, their marriage or their whole life. Each illusion presents a view into their personal lives and either connects or tears apart relationships in each character’s life.

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George’s life is surrounded by illusions. He never was able to succeed in anything he attempts and Martha finds joy in attacking him emotionally for this.

He first wrote a novel which Martha’s father refused to publish. The storyline is first brought up through him telling Nick a story from his adolescence. It’s the story of his friend who kills both of his parents and ends up institutionalized. When it’s brought up in Act 1 by Martha, she presents it by saying “”Well, Georgie boy had lots of big ambitions In spite of something funny in his past… Which Georgie boy here turned into a novel… His first attempt and his last… ” (149) This makes the reader question if maybe his friend was actually him.

Regardless of who it was about, George is angry that Martha brought up his novel because it shows a weakness about him. The novel was one of his ways of escaping reality and even that was put down. He had hopes of his novel become a success and instead he has to live with Martha who insists on telling everyone that he is a “great… big… fat… FLOP! ” (93) The biggest illusion in George’s own life is the mystery behind whether the tragic novel he wrote was an autobiographical story or just a piece of fiction.

When Nick and Honey are introduced they seem young, vibrant and happy. Once Honey leaves the scene in Act 2 Nick tells George about an illusion that actually brought Nick to marry Honey. Nick tells George that he married Honey because she was pregnant and George questions him since he said earlier that he had no children. Nick tells him, “She wasn’t really. It was a hysterical pregnancy. She blew up, and then she went down. ”(104) Honey faked a pregnancy to make Nick marry her so their whole relationship is based on an illusion.

Who Is Afraid Virginia Woolf

He later reveals that Honey’s family had a good amount of money and that is good enough reason to stay with her. Throughout the whole play Nick is shushing and talking over Honey. He is embarrassed of her simple-mindedness but deals with her because he is stuck with her.. George and Martha’s son was a lie. George pushes her to talk about him and she glorifies him. Once she is done George shoots her down and kills him off using the same storyline as his novel. This shows the fiction and illusion behind their son.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf Script

She is so heartbroken after there illusion is exposed that she doesn’t know how to live without pretending she has a son. The illusion of their son gave them something to relate through. George was sick of pretending and realized that it was time to face the truth and begin actually living life without illusions. QUOTES “Isn’t tomorrow supposed to be his birthday or something? 76” “The one thing 241””Whose afraid of Virginia Woolf? I am257” Why do people live behind illusions? Does it make life easier or in the end does it make it hurt more? Who is Virginia Woolf?