In the dramatic play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Edward Albee, not only do the characters go to war, but so do the concepts of fantasy and fiction. Written in 1962, the work makes commentary on the absurdity of the perfect American family that was socially expected at the time. To do this, Albee shifts tone from Act I to Act III to accentuate the four main characters regression throughout the evening spent together. As George and Martha, and Nick and Honey spend more time together, the tone of the work shifts from mocking to wrathful to show the reader how the mood of the evening changes. Immediately Albee starts the work in an amusing, mocking tone to exemplify that although the characters are antagonizing one another it is not from a hateful place. Both couples have just returned from a party so the arguments seems more drunk and absurd rather than spiteful. When Nick and Honey first come in Martha shouts, “Ha, ha, ha, HA! Make the kids a drink, George. What do you want kids? What do you want to drink hunh?” (19). George and Martha …show more content…
Honey lies on the bathroom floor wailing and sucking her thumb like an infant while Martha cries and shows her first sign of defeat. The men both argue until George gets to the point where he no longer desires to appease Martha. Martha says, “ I mentioned him…all right…but you didn’t have to push it over the EDGE. You didn’t have to…kill him” (262). The tone leads to Nick realizing along with the reader that the son never existed. Rather, it was an illusion or game that helped George and Martha hide from their marriage and their failures. The wrathful tone serves to impact the final theme of the work about secrecy. The tone puts an emphasis on the difference between how one tries to appear to the public and their hidden realities, and on the contrast line between telling a secret and telling as
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
Woolf’s pathos to begin the story paints a picture in readers minds of what the
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
characteristics are sometimes found in abundant quantities or limited amounts in each of his short stories. However, no matter what short story Washington Irving wrote, the Age of Romanticism and its defining characteristics are found in each of his selections. So, too, do each of the author’s short stories present a unique study about the author’s intentions for creating his work. In Washington Irving’s selection “The Three Kings of Bermuda”, the author portrays tone in a way that he changes it often throughout his writing to help the reader understand the emotion and atmosphere taking place during this short story. He brings his readers almost on a rollercoaster of tone by giving different points to look at what is going on. Washington Irving gives many insights and key points by doing this. This blend of both Romanticism and this particular one of the author’s many purposes for writing this work will enrich the reader’s understanding of this selection. It will also make the reader aware of the author’s other works and their meaning/ themes. Using both the characteristics of Romanticism and a significant idea about the story, Washington Irving creates an interesting and meaningful selection for his readers’ enjoyment and learning.
By exploring the various queer references in The Hours, I have untangled some, but hardly all, of the queer references that Cunningham wove into his novel by adopting, and adapting, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway for his own purposes. He was able to transform the reader’s view of literature and of queer narratives by reviving an old work and giving it a modern spin – replacing World War I with AIDS and exploring the sexuality of Mrs. Woolf, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Dalloway through their respective eras.
3 Woolf, Virginia: A sketch of the past , Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 , sixth edition
The extensive descriptions of Mrs. Dalloway’s inner thoughts and observations reveals Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” writing style, which emphasizes the complexity of Clarissa’s existential crisis. She also alludes to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, further revealing her preoccupation with death as she quotes lines from a funeral song. She reads these lines while shopping in the commotion and joy of the streets of London, which juxtaposes with her internal conflicts regarding death. Shakespeare, a motif in the book, represents hope and solace for Mrs. Dalloway, as his lines form Cymbeline talk about the comforts found in death. From the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway has shown a fear for death and experiences multiple existential crises, so her connection with Shakespeare is her way of dealing with the horrors of death. The multiple layers to this passage, including the irony, juxtaposition, and allusion, reveal Woolf’s complex writing style, which demonstrates that death is constantly present in people’s minds, affecting their everyday
Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer is a one-act play with a cast of colourful characters ranging from the eccentric Violet to the troubled Catherine. One individual, George Holly, is more minor than others, and as such might get overlooked. However, the Fictional World method of analysis uncovers new insight into his nature. By analysing George’s character in the Social World of the play specifically, we get a better understanding of how traumatic and powerful the climax really is.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
George is an intelligent character and his education shoes when he speaks. His intelligence is displayed with his eloquent way of speaking.
Virginia Woolf is often categorized as being an aesthetic writer. Most of her works played largely on the concept of suggestion. They addressed many social issues especially those regarding feminine problems. Woolf was acutely aware of her identity as a woman and she used many of writings as outlets for her frustrations. According to her doctrine, the subjugation of women is a central fact of history, a key to most of our social and psychological disorders (Marder 3). The two works I will focus on is A Room of One's Own and "A Society" from Monday or Tuesday. They are both works that challenge the roles of men and women.
"I am preoccupied with history" George observes in Act I (p. 50) of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. But his relationship with his wife, Martha, seems to lean almost towards anthropology. Pagan social and religious elements in Albee's work seem to clarify and enhance the basic themes of the play.
Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. A. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2005.
Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen, in 1882. She suffered immensely as a child from a series of emotional shocks (these are included in the biography of Virginia Woolf). However, she overcame these incredible personal damages and became a major British novelist, essayist and critic. Woolf also belonged to an elite group that included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot. Woolf pioneered in incorporating feminism in her writings. “Virginia Woolf’s journalistic and polemical writings show that she made a significant contribution to the development of feminist thought” (Dalsimer). Despite her tumultuous childhood, she was an original thinker and a revolutionary writer, specifically the way she described depth of characters in her novels. Her novels are distinctively modern and express characters in a way no other writer had done before. One reason it is easy to acknowledge the importance of Virginia Woolf is because she wrote prolifically. Along with many novels, she wrote essays, critiques and many volumes of her personal journals have been published. She is one of the most extraordinary and influential female writers throughout history. Virginia Woolf is an influential author because of her unique style, incorporations of symbolism and use of similes and metaphors in her literature, specifically in Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves.
Clurman, Harold. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Edward Albee: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. C.W.E. Bigsby. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall 1975. 76-79