plotsummmarry

The play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? takes place in a living of a house on the campus of a small, New England college; it begins with George and Martha returning home from a party, held by her father. After arriving home at 2 a.m. Martha invites a new professor and his wife to their house- Honey and Nick. Although George and Martha are in love with one another and have been married for quite some time, chaos has shadowed their relationship, turning it upside down. In order to keep their life upbeat and enjoyable they turn to drinking and ruthless verbal and physical abuse. "As they peel away each other's pretenses and self-respect, George and Martha use Honey and Nick as pawns, transforming their guests into an audience to witness humiliation, into levers for creating jealousy, and into a means for expressing their own sides of their mutual story." [wikipedia]Throughout the play they argue over useless and nonsensical things- such as the line Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and their "son." Because of their lack of maturity everyone's secrets are revealed and they are left with a shattered marriage.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
"The play's title, which alludes to novelist Virginia Woolf, is a parody of the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from Disney's animated version of The Three Little Pigs. It is revealed in the first few moments of the play that Martha coined the phrase earlier on in the evening at a party."[wikipedia] Virginia Woolf is an influential British feminist writer who pioneered the 'stream of consciousness' literary style while examing the psychological and emotional motives of her characters. It is believed that the fear of Virginia Woolf refers to the play's characters who suffer marital animosity in the play, and who probably knew that she suffered from mental illness and was insane and committed suicide. The names of hte two amin characters are derived from the names of the first U.S. president and his wife. In Virginia Woolf's writing she depicted the truth of human experience, emotion, and thought, all of which were reveals in the play.

By singing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Martha and George are emphasizing their fear of truth.

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