Nick and Honey keep a seemingly perfect house, but their inability to have children and their conflicting opinions on the topic as a whole demonstrate the deep divide between societal expectations and human expectations, while George and Martha’s creation of an imaginary child shows the societal pressure to raise a child and the comfort that it brings. In Albee’s eyes, many factors besides love can bring a child to bear, and the pressures which society creates to bear children can cause individuals to buckle. This pressure, as well as the other relationship problems found in the marriages of Nick and Honey and George and Martha, clearly demonstrate the failures of the American
George is a "blonde, spiritless man, anemic and faintly handsome" (Fitzgerald 29). George is a hardworking man as he immediately begins asking
This shows that despite how passionate her efforts are, she will always be discarded as a mere ‘entity’-a substance that nobody values. Consequently, her frustration is seen when she has an explosive outburst: “Think I like to live in that house alla time?” Such rhetorical questions imply that she is intelligent; being fully aware that the men will not answer but continues to taunt them, harnessing their guilt. Alternatively, it indicates her negative feelings towards the house since the emphasis on ‘that’ suggests the lack of love she possesses, and instead is resentful. Equivalently, she refers to it as a ‘house’, not a home. A house is a building with no emotional attachments to it, unlike a home.
His interactions and conversations depict how different he is from the rest of the wealthy crowd, as he stands out among them due to their difference in morals. At Gatsby’s party, it seemed as though Nick was the only person with the decency to greet the host, “This is an unusual party for me. I haven’t even seen the host.” (47). Nobody knew where Gatsby was when Nick asked around, which shows that he was not as materialistic as the rest of the guests. Emphasizing their different values, Nick’s discomfort with meeting Myrtle for the first time showed through in an attempt to distance himself, ‘“Hold on,” I said, “I have to leave you here.” “No you don’t,” interposed Tom quickly.
However, there are also elements of all three films that solidify gender conventions and the cultural performance of genders. This is evident in the way that the characters dress as well as behave. However, Meshes of the afternoon subverts this idea with the female lead dressing in what is deemed masculine clothing. Even though there is a hint of masculinity in females such as Ada from The Piano, Debbie from The Searchers and the female protagonist from Meshes of the Afternoon, the downfall of women is still evident and the only way a woman can be saved is by the help of a man, who according to Schatz is the hero (p.570). This is demonstrated in The Searchers and The Piano when Debbie is saved by Ethan and Ada saved by
“Am I a bad feminist?” “It seems that I am a ‘Bad Feminist.’ I can add that to the other things I 've been accused of since 1972, such as climbing to fame up a pyramid of decapitated men 's heads (a leftie journal), of being a dominatrix bent on the subjugation of men (a rightie one, complete with an illustration of me in leather boots and a whip) and of being an awful person who can annihilate – with her magic White Witch powers – anyone critical of her at Toronto dinner tables. I 'm so scary!” Atwood’s satirical description of herself here is remarkably similar to societal perceptions of Grace in Alias Grace. In the novel, Grace is considered to be this dark “murderess” who charms men, deceives them, then kills them though she may not go quite as far as to create “a pyramid of decapitated men’s heads.” She can be seen by readers as a dominatrix, weaving together a false story, alluring Dr. Jordan and thus, gaining power over him. In addition, similar to Atwood’s perceived “White Witch powers,” at the end of the novel, Jeremiah draws Grace into a trance and Mary’s voice speaks through Grace in a witchlike manner. It seems as if the societal opinions of Atwood influenced her creation of Grace.
Is George actually the submissive husband he appears to be? Is he also changing his masculinity by applying certain gender patterns that are specific for women? Martha’s behavior displays a high amount of vulgarity and aggressiveness. She constantly denigrates George telling him,
Albee develops pleasure within the characters through constant emotional gratification from the characters ' sadisitic tendencies and enjoyment derived from others ' pain. These tendencies and actions are inherently destructive for the marital relationship, leading to increased dramatic tension and cruelty as the night progresses. George criticizes Martha for sharing too much information about their relationship with their son: GEORGE. …about the apple of our eye…the sprout…the little bugger…(Spits it out)…our son…and if you start in on this other business, I warn you, Martha, it 's going to make me angry. MARTHA.
“I won’t put up with his abusive obscenities.” The king ordered that n one be so hold as to lay hold of Halli for all of this, “but it can be changed, it you think that another woman is more suitable to lie beside me and be queen - you hardly know how to hear your praise.” (Sarcastic Halli Page 356).I thought this was very strange because any husband would be mad if they heard someone say insulting things about their wife, but instead king thought it was funny and he was trying to explain to his wife. After reading all of these texts, I have came to conclusion that in their culture they don’t think about other people's feeling before they say something. They think saying insulting things about someone is a way to compliment them, but I think it is a bad manner to say such things to others. One other thing I noticed is that, they don’t feel ashamed of using the word “fuck” or asking each other to have sex for things. All of this text have one thing in common, it insulting poems.
Being an Absurdist, Albee believed that illusions often generate a false content for a person’s life and hence, should be abandoned ("Edward Albee: Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). The reference to Woolf is probably aimed at evoking the darkness and chaos, hidden behind seemingly stable relationships as depicted by Woolf in her novels and Albee also wants to convey that there are always different versions of reality. Albee’s jingle is significant in each character’s life and portrays the deep fear that each of them has in confronting the harsh realities in their lives. Honey, the seemingly devoted wife of Nick, is one such character that is terrified of