Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

Anonymous Was a Woman
For the overwhelming majority of human history, women have been viewed as subservient beings whose foremost functions were child rearing and homemaking. Until recently, it was widely accepted that a woman’s place was in the home; financial responsibility for the family fell exclusively on the man’s shoulders. Recently, the distinct line distinguishing gender roles has become blurred and it is not uncommon for the woman to be the provider and her husband the homemaker. In the era immediately preceding the modern feminist movement, many individuals advocated women’s rights and encouraged women to be fiscally and personally independent. One such advocate was the Victorian writer Virginia Woolf. During the era in which she
Martha, the hostess wife, is depicted as a woman dependent on the aid of men. Before meeting her husband George, Martha lived under the support and guidance of her father. Even when she became an adult, her goal was not to find success, but rather to find a man whose success she could live through. The thought of personal sustainment was a fleeting one, if one at all. After knowing her guests, Nick and Honey, for a mere few hours, Martha drunkenly divulges to them intimate details of her life. When recounting her early adulthood, Martha says, “So after I got done with college and stuff, I came back here and sort of … sat around, for a while. I wasn’t married, or anything... I was a hostess for Daddy and I took care of him… and it was…nice. It was very nice.”(Albee 85-86). Although she attended college, Martha never intended the fruit of her education to be applied professionally. While most college graduates might seek employment upon graduating, Martha had no such aim. Instead, she passively allowed herself to be pushed down the path that society had cleared for her. As with countless women before her, Martha’s life was controlled by the men in it; until she married George, Martha was preoccupied with the care of her father. One man was seamlessly replaced by another and the hesitation in her speech suggests that she was less than satisfied with
After deciding she would like to secure her legacy at the university which her father runs, she concludes that the best and only way to accomplish this is by marrying into it. Instead of trying to become an active component herself, Martha relies on her relations with men, as she historically has, to solidify her fate. When she marries George, Martha expects that he will be able to rise to an authoritative position and will eventually replace her father as president; to her immense disappointment, George reveals himself as a “flop” and stands no chance of promotion (Albee). Throughout the play, Martha harps on George for his lack of professional accomplishment, but it is more than likely that some if not all of her disappointment in him stems from an even deeper dissatisfaction with herself. By continually matching wits with her husband, Martha proves to be a competent and cunning woman. Unlike Woolf, however, she refuses to channel her intellect productively. Due to the impeding decisions that she repeatedly makes, Martha becomes the enslaved woman that Woolf so fervently