Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?
Edward Albee was considered the chief playwright of the Theater of the Absurd when his first successful one-act experimental plays emerged. The Zoo Story, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung were all released during Albee's thirties between 1959 and 1968 (Artists 1-2). Edward Albee was born in the nation's capitol on March 12, 1928, and his career has brought him three Pulitzer Prizes over four decades, the first for A Delicate Balance in 1966 and the most recent in 1994 for Three Tall Women. While Albee's original works established him as a leading voice in America's Theater of the Absurd, his more mature plays were representative of traditional playwrights like Eugene O'Neill and August Strindberg.
Unlike many successful writers, the childhood of Albee was not one of deprivation. On the contrary, Albee was adopted at the age of two weeks by a millionaire family. From that point on he knew a life of wealth and privilege. He resided with his family in Westchester, New York. His childhood experience was quite remote from that of many writers who knew squalor and deprivation. As one magazine article said regarding his childhood years, "It was a time of servants, tutors, riding lessons, winters in Miami, summers sailing on the Sound: there was a Rolls Royce to bring him, smuggled in lap robes, to matinees in the city; an inexhaustible wardrobe housed in a closet as big as a room. Albee has never made any explicit comments about the happiness of his childhood. His father was believed, however, to be dominated by his wife, who was considerably younger than her husband and an avid athlete" (Biography 1). His grandfather was one of the major figures in the development of the razzmatazz of American show-business and the owner of a famous chain of vaudeville theaters. Albee was named after him and this lineage gave him a great deal of exposure to plays and theater people at a young age. Albee was not very adept at schoolwork though he showed promise as a writer from a young age. He dropped out of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, after a year and a half to pursue a writing career full time in New York. However, while at Trinity, Albee did gain theater experience by playing a variety of characters in plays produced by the college drama department.
Ray Bradbury, an American author was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. Ray is the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. In the fall of 1926 his family moved to Tucson, Arizona, only to return to Waukegan again in May of 1927. By 1931 he began writing his own stories on butcher paper. His childhood was very important to him because it was a constant source of intense situations, emotions, and feelings that generate great stories. As a teen he was most inspired by seeing "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." In 1932 his father was laid off at his job as an electrical lineman, the family moved to Tucson and again returned to Waukegan the following year. In 1934 the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles, California. Bradbury graduated from Los Angeles high school in 1938. From 1938 to 1942 he sold newspapers on the street corners of Los Angeles. All of his spare time was spent on a typewriter.
June 6, 1952, Harvey Fierstein, the American actor and playwright is birthed to Jacqueline Harriet and Irving Fierstein of Brooklyn, New York. Harvey Fierstein’s screen success came in a few highly acclaimed films: “Mulan”, “Independence Day”, and “Mrs. Doubtfire”, just to name a few. These lists of movies have captured the attention of many, but his initial claim to fame is his playwriting ability. The playwright turned actor began his writing career in high school, where he enrolled in creative writing. It was at this time his frankness for being gay was no secret. He performed in numerous drag events growing up. These events ultimately pushed him into his Broadway success and being an activist for the gay population.
When he was fifteen years old, his mother died from appendicitis. From fifteen years of age to his college years, he lived in an all-white neighborhood. From 1914-1917, he shifted from many colleges and academic courses of study as well as he changed his cultural identity growing up. He studied physical education, agriculture, and literature at a total of six colleges and universities from Wisconsin to New York. Although he never completed a degree, his educational pursuits laid the foundation for his writing career.
The Differences between Apollo and Dionysus are not difficult to see. Though both Gods are associated wi...
I decided to analyze the similarities and differences between the two gods: Zeus and his son Dionysus. Even though Dionysus is of the same lineage of Zeus, this does not mean they share all of the same characteristics of one another. They differ greatly in attitude, appearance and morals. Zeus is considered the king of all gods, and he proudly uses his powers for his own amusement and pleasure, often at the expense of others lives. Whereas, Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility and he uses his powers to bring both pleasure and an escape from the grief that plagues ones mind but this can come at a cost leading the consumer to become unpredictable and easily influenced through overindulgence and addiction.
Hermia went against her father and the duke when they both told her she had to marry Demetrius or be sent to a convent or executed, instead she ran away into the woods to elope with Lysander. Lysander stayed with Hermia and ran into the woods, risking being lost and possibly death, for a chance to marry Hermia. In Shakespeare’s 29th sonnet he explains how at times he wishes he had more; more beauty, more possessions, and more power, until he thinks of this girl, after that he feels confident and content with the love and the life he possesses, and he wouldn 't trade places with anyone, including a king. this he also shows is true love, undoubting, positive and forever supporting. The risk of a fallacious love for a chance of true love, is often considered worth it, however as humans we are surrounded by love but more often than not, its platonic instead of
How did people revere their gods differently among three civilizations? Did they worship with the same general intent? What were gods’ role(s) in people’s lives? A brief exploration into the religions of Egypt, Greece, and the Hebrew people may bring insight to these questions. Although the main idea of higher beings remains constant throughout societies’ religion, their form of presence in people’s lives varies. I will present the relationship between the leaders and the gods, as well as resemblance to monotheism and systems of government.
...s' immediate and lasting success was due to his having found an answer to the spiritual needs of his time. In the vision of Rome, he presented an ideal strong enough to win the devotion of his contemporaries, and in his belief in sacrifice and suffering he prepared the way across the centuries to those like Marcus Aurelius who asked that men should live and die for an ideal city greater and more truly universal than Rome. Once Vergilius had opened up a new vision of human worth and recast the heroic ideal in a new mold, he set an example that later poets could not but follow. We might not accept his interpretation of human destiny in all its details, but we might feel that he had marked out the main lines for epic poetry and that any new heroic ideal must take account of what 'he' says and does.
As in virtually every love story, Lysander and Hermia’s love story has a twist to it: Hermia's father demands Hermia to marry Demetrious. This is a very classical situation. In the past, parents had the rights to arrange their daughter’s marriage to whoever they please. Usually they would exercise their rights which is the very case in Hermia’s life. This creates a big problem and cause a tremendous pressure for Hermia and Lysander, as they love each other. In addition, the Athenian rule that governs father's right to choose groom for his daughter promotes the duke to warn Hermia to make a decision in very short period of four days that either she wants to be a nun for life or marry Demetrious.
A hero isn’t shaped by his strengths but by the values he possesses. Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, reveals the moral and ethical constitution of the ancient Greeks. Over time, certain cultures have grown to value a number of human characteristics. Those who acquire such values become respected heroes. After the fall of Troy, the protagonist of the epic, Odysseus, set sail for his home, Ithaca, where his faithful wife and son were waiting for him. Over the course of his journey, Odysseus faced some of the most ferocious opponents known to the Greeks. Even through this formidable journey, Odysseus and his family have stayed true to the diverse aspects of the ancient Greeks. The Odyssey exemplifies the human ideals of hospitality, loyalty and perseverance.
These early divinities soon no longer satisfied the imagination of the Greeks or their yearnings of religion. People wanted more actively involved gods to keep them company in their daily lives and to take a position in regard to their problems. The early gods evolved with Greek thought and the scepter of th...
Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York on October 17, 1915 (“Blooms Notes” 8). Miller and his family lived in upscale Harlem for the first fourteen years of his life (8). Then after a terrible stock market crash that affected the family heavily, they moved to Brooklyn, New York (8). He attended the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting (8). Besides writing plays he wrote radio scripts, and worked as a steamfitter in World War II (Gioia and Kennedy 1763). He began writing plays around 1936, but “It was the next play that secured his
When we first meet Hermia in the play called A Midsummer Night's Dream, written by William Shakespeare, she is a girl in love against her father's wishes. From the very start of the play we can see how much enamored she is with Lysander. We can also see that Hermia is a woman with her own desires, and does not liked to be forced to do things that she does not want. She does not want to marry the man that her father betrothed to her, even though it could mean her demise. Her choices of living in a nunnery and live the life of chastity was not an option for Hermia. She loved Lysander and all she wanted was to be with him.
The main conflict in the play and propellant for the action is when, Egeus, the father of Hermia has chosen Demetrius as the man he wants her to marry. His decision is most likely based on economic, political, and social factors. Egeus believes he is making a reasonable decision based on Hermia's future in their society. Unfortunately Hermia is in love with a gentleman named Lysander and vice versa. Her father may have made his decision with good intension to try and keep with the traditional customs of his day and even perhaps taking into consideration such things as attractiveness. However, he fails to foresee that his daughter might actually love someone else. Lysander, like many young men, shows little regard for the rules of society and is willing to break tradition and flee At...
Many playwrights drew from outside influences to compose their works. They would look the era they were living in, their personal lives, childhood experiences, and even ancient texts to acquire inspiration for their works and famous playwright, Eugene O’Neill, is no exception. Writing through two world wars, a great depression, and boom of the motion-picture industry, O’Neill certainly had much inspiration to choose from. Although not becoming nationally recognized until after his father’s death in 1920, O’Neill still managed to produce fifty completed works. Using influences from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Eugene O’Neill demonstrated how he used the era he was living in to help compose his works.