Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf :: Whos Afraid Virginia Woolf Essays

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf For this book talk, I read an Edward Albee's play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." I saw the movie version of this book, which I found excellent, so it inspired me to read the book. The book begins when George, who is an associate professor of a New England college, and Martha, who is the daughter of the college professor comes home after a faculty party. Although it is well after midnight and they are heavily drunk, Martha invites another couple, Nick who is a new and young professor in the college, and his wife Honey. The two couples continue drinking at the living room of George and Martha's house, and Martha starts complaining about George. She reveals George's failure to advance in the college even if he has an advantage as the son-in-law of the president. George tries to revenge by telling Martha's weaknesses to the guests, and the fight becomes impossible to stop making the new couple who tries to stay detached also become caught up in it. As the fight goes on and they become more drunk, Martha comes to mention about George and she's imaginary son, who has been a secret between them and a forbidden topic to tell others. Nick also tells their painful secret that he married Honey because she thought she was pregnant but that it turned out to be false. When everyone is tired and humiliated as a result, George, who was very angry about Martha's mentioning his son to the guests, he decides to tell something that will change their lives forever as a final revenge, and then the party comes to an end. The main theme of the book is the sadness and difficulties of the adult life. In the story, George and Martha cannot have a child because either of them is impotent, so they had to make up an imaginary son. Here's a quotation about their son form Martha. QUOTATION(p219) Martha's this description about him shows how much they cared for him and wanted the real one. Furthermore, they constantly fight with each other for trivial subjects even though they really want to communicate more seriously and understand deeper. The difference between their view of life also worsens their marriage because Martha always expects George to be more ambitious while George does not