Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1. Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Author: Edward Albee By: Patrick Maynard

2. Basic Information on the Author • The author of Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is Edward Franklin Albee III. • Albee was born on March 12, 1928 in Washington, D.C. • About two weeks after his birth, he was adopted by Reed Albee and his wife. • He grew up in Westchester County, New York.

3. Basic Information on the Author Cont. • He also fell in love with theater at a very young age. • Reed Albee was a multi-millionaire because he owned a chain a theaters, so therefore Edward Albee grew up in a mansion and the lap of luxury. • He has openly expressed his homosexuality to the public.

4. Basic Information on Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? • The name of the play came from “Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Woolf” from the Three Little Pigs. • It was Albee’s first smash hit. • It premiered on Broadway on October 13, 1962. • It was directed by Alan Schneider. • It won a Tony for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

5. Basic Information on Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cont. • George and Martha are the two main characters who instigate every thing that goes on in the play. • Nick and Honey are the two unsuspecting characters in the play. • The book is about a married couple, George and Martha, who invite the new faculty member at the local university and his wife to their house. When Nick and Honey, the new people on campus arrive Nick and Martha’s, they start acting strangely. That’s when the book really gets going on its rollercoaster of events.

6. Important Points in the Play • A major point I saw in the play is that if you break the rules or laws you will be found out and you will suffer the consequences. • Ex: George found out Martha broke the rules and she had to suffer the consequences. • Another major point the play conveys is that it is acceptable to have an affair with your spouse. • Ex: Martha and Nick had a sexual relation during the play.

7. Important Points in the Play Cont. • Another point I saw conveyed in the play is that you only look out for number one and run over anybody to get what you want. • Ex: George wanted to destroy Nick and Honey’s relationship because his own relationship with Martha was going down the tube.

8. Themes of Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? • The common theme in all of Albee’s works is death. Death always shadows in Albee’s works. • Another theme in the play is that life is a game, because the George and Martha are always playing their games with the guests such as Humiliate the Host, Get the Guests, and Bringing Up Baby.

9. Themes of Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cont. • One of the major themes in the play is that George and Martha try to exploit their marital problems by trying to run Martha and Honey’s relationship into the ground. • Another important theme in the book is the idea of phoniness. In the play George and Martha pretended to be something that their not in front of their guests and they were completely different in private.

10. Personal Review • I personally liked the play, I thought it was a very humorous work in my opinion. Just the way the author portrayed his characters and the way they acted is what made the play so good, he portrayed each character as having very differing personalities from each other. Also I like that he kept the number of characters to a minimum, there were only four characters and I think that it made he play easier to keep up with. Over all I like the play and I think you should read it if you want a good laugh.

11. Works Cited • Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. 2006. SparkNotes LLC. 17 Apr 2007. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/afraidof woolf/section6.rhtml>. • Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 15 April 2007. GNU Free Documentation Licensor. 17 Apr 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_afrai d_of_Virginia_Woolf>.