Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

In “A Room Of One’s Own” an essay by Virginia Woolf and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” a play by Edward Albee, both authors portray individuals, mainly women, who challenge the established values of their time by breaking conventions of the female role within a patriarchal world. “A Room Of One’s Own” was written in the late 1920’s in a post war period. During this time, the first wave of feminism was bringing about social change and feminist activity. Woolf was seen as a key figure in women’s literature and “A Room Of One’s Own” was an essay to be presented to an audience of young women. The text portrays the struggle for gender equality and openly challenges societal roles that framed the period. However, in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”,
Albee writes in a much more conservative context. He does challenge societal roles, however in the style of a play, these conflicts must be presented in a much more subtle approach. Written during the time of tension surrounding the Cold War and the delusion of the Great American Dream, Albee presents a dysfunctional stereotyped family unit and the struggle for gender equality in a more indirect style than allowed in the time of “A Room Of One’s Own”. Woolf challenges the values established within their own contexts by imaginatively using the textual form of an essay with the argument that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Dealing with the issue of economic independence for woman, Woolf does not follow the conventional structure of a standard essay but includes personal stories to explore her opinions, “sitting on the banks of a river a week…ago” and rhetorical questions to challenge her audience, “How should it be otherwise?
(p87)” Woolf also creates a fantasy setting to form her argument, “Oxbridge is an invention; so is Fernham.” Using these fictional settings, Woolf is able to freely explore the established values of the 1920’s and not be restricted to the expected structure of an essay. Woolf is able to challenge society’s constructs at the time and uncover the truth that women had become suppressed and constricted against voicing their own
opinions.

In “A Room Of One’s Own”, Woolf imaginatively portrays the challenging individual through both real people and make-believe characters. Woolf alludes to Jane Austen, an author who “wrote as women write, not as men write (p75)”. Woolf portrays Austen as the individual female writer, challenging the writing styles of men and not conforming to them. The metaphor, “to hold fast to the thing as they saw it without shrinking,” refers to the strength Emily Bronte also had, against the controlling patriarchal dominated realm of literature. The ‘thing’ does not only symbolize creative practices but also the status of women economically and their freedom, which Woolf believes to be ‘shrinking’ due to the overpowering presence of men in literature and in society. By creating a fictional character, Judith Shakespeare to contrast to the real William Shakespeare, Woolf is able to display further struggles women would have faced if she defied the traditional norms of her time. Judith “cried out that marriage was hateful to her, and for that she was severely beaten by her father (p49).” Defiant against the idea of marriage, symbolic of woman’s duty to their family, Judith suffers as her father, representing the controlling male presence within the lives of women, beats her, which again relates to the freedom of women ‘shrinking’. Imaginatively using both real authors and fictional characters, Woolf highlights the suppression of women in their lives and in their ability to create works of fiction.

Albee also uses the textual form of the play, in “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf” to portray the individual who challenges the conservative principles of the 1960’s. Albee imaginatively uses profanity and sexual themes to communicate his ideas of gender equality and truth. Using stage directions, “her hand is moving up and down his leg (p86)” Albee presents confronting circumstances to his audience and highlights the deceptiveness of human nature as Martha uses Nick to hurt her husband, George. The fast paced fight in Act Two between George and Martha, “Liar! (p64)”, “Shut up, Martha! (p65)” is used by Albee to bring to the forefront the truth that is hidden privately beneath the faultless exterior that is presented to the public. When discussing the idea of marriage, George says to Martha, “That is a desperately sick lie, (p80)”, imaginatively using the marriage between the couple as a symbol for society, Albee emphasizes the shallowness and superficial ideals dominating his era, seen in the Great American Dream.

Albee exposes the Great American Dream as a façade and that a functional family, wealth and success were not easily obtainable.
Albee rips apart the concept by using George in order to reveal that the ideal American life is an illusion. The ‘imaginary son’ is used to represent society’s model values and when George metaphorically destroys this symbol, by killing the son, “There was a car accident, and he’s dead (p124),” he challenges the established stereotype of the ‘perfect family’. By confronting this value, Albee uses George to exposes the truth about the superficial and constricting society in which he lived. Albee also uses the character Martha, who betrays the stereotype of the typical housewife by adopting a stronger, more dominant male role. Using language as a weapon, “You’re certainly a flop,” she degrades George and humiliates him in front of their guests, Nick and Honey. Demanding George to constantly “Make [her] a drink (p3)”, suggests that women also have the ability to control men if they challenged their submissive societal role. Martha challenges the subdued stereotype of women by using brash language, “You bastard! (p31)” to attack the other characters. Using such language not only shows her confidence but could also be used as a mask, hiding her vulnerability and fear of the norms she must conform to. Through Martha, Albee openly confronts personal issues publicly, “I’ll talk about any goddamn thing I want to (p14),” which would cause concern in the
otherwise conservative society of the 1960’s where private problems were contained and suppressed. By using George’s courage and Martha’s flamboyant personality, Albee imaginatively portrays an individual, which challenges the values upheld in his society such as the Great American Dream and the subservient position of women.

Therefore both authors, Virginia Woolf and Edward Albee, imaginatively portray the challenging individual by manipulating textual forms, of an essay and a play, and expressing the established values of the time periods of the 1920’s and 1960’s respectively, through both fictional and non-fictional characters that defy or conform to these values in order to show the flaws within society.