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Theme Of Alienation In Edward Albee's Plays

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2 Significance and Objective of the Research Throughout the ages, man has always been seeking alienation from his society, group, sect, religion or even his or her country for different reasons. This theme dominated the major works of great poets, novelists and playwrights, like Matthew Thomas Arnold, Daniel Defoe and many others. This study; therefore, aims at developing and extending our understanding of what alienation means in modern theater, and what the reasons behind the alienation of the modern individuals are. This study too aims at identifying the reasons why modern playwrights present such type of alienated protagonists, it also attempts to appreciate tragic plays which are concerned with people we can find among us. Being …show more content…

The study also reveals Albee's view of the theme of alienation. The study pursues some of Albee's plays for the purpose of examining his interpretation of the concept of alienation, and searching for the main reasons that push modern writers to deal with such a theme. The investigation will be extended to some of his distinguished plays to reveal how the writer depicts this own concept in modern …show more content…

In the same way, Bercovitch (1974: 220-238) exposes in his analysis of Mather’s biographies of John Winthrop in “Nehemias Americanus” proclaims the forward movement of redemptive history. As it representatives in the theocracy, the Hebrew stands not with but behind the Puritan” (Puritan origins 55). Albee consciously employed the Puritan rhetoric of crises and other codes like structures, and paradigms in his plays. Karl Keller (1969: 5-26) explains of another writer who was influenced by the “New England Mind,” “We do not need to think that Emerson believed in the assumptions of behind typology, for it was already the frame of his mind. Typology was not what he thought about, but the way he thought about things in general”. Albee’s views actually installed a topology of New England Puritanism and it became as a part of the American, he was influenced by the cultural legacy of Puritanism and through the works of other dramatists like Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder, respectively. As Rose Zimbardo (1962: 10-17) proposes, Albees The Zoo story, Jerry and the Dog reflect “a perfect model of most human relationships”. This means through their engagement, violence can be stopped. Baily believes that Albee creates a vivid moment of stage violence that will be stamped deeply on his audience. That’s mean he wants to show his

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