Who’s Afraid of Virginia WoolfLAYERS AND ILLUSION

Key context/big ideas 1. Theatre of the absurd – life is a big joke with a punchline

that we don’t understand

2. Title – Virginia Woolf, existentialism, outer and inner lives,

truth, illusion

3. Conformist USA society – conservatism, gender, political –

society built on a lie (G and M Washington.) -

4. History vs Science – feeling versus logic, binary opposition of

characters

5. Audience – manipulated by writer, societal views

6. Schaudenfraude – we misjudge people, we don’t like way

we’re drawn in, like reality TV

Key themes

1. Truth and illusion

2. Relationships

3. Isolation

4. Sex and Power

5. The American Dream is a lie

6. Impact of history on future.. Past, present and future – changes

7. Memory and time – one night in which the past is exorcised and the future is

looked at – structure of flashback conversations and discussions of future

8. Dissatisfaction – alcohol, escapism,

George – do we like him or not? 1. Protagonist OR Antagonist or both? -

1a) Describe – 5 adjectives – why and a quote as proof

2. Discuss how he changes and is developed through the play – and our perceptions of him as well

3. Language changes – truth and illusion, history, games, talks like a lecturer

4. Symbolic of history, failure, disillusionment, patriarchal society and

5. Game master/Puppeteer

6. Use of Requiem

7. Relationship – with Martha, Nick, Honey , audience

8. Staging- getting drinks, up and walking but rarely drinks – why?

9. Masculinity – when is he emasculated but is he?

Revise – key quotes across the acts for him

Martha

1. Describe in 5 adjectives and why, quote

2. Symbolic of the disillusionment of women in a

patriarchal society – driven and bright and assertive

but has to live through Daddy and George

3. Failure of ‘messy house’ and no kids

4. Protagonist and antagonist? –

5. Social Hostess

6. Alcohol, and Sex – escapism, G & M

7. Emasculates the men – relationships with G and

Nick

8. Honey – irritated by her as she is weak and passive

Nick and Honey

1. Functional Role – as a foil, seemingly normal YOUNG couple and perfect according to society. Often on sofa and Nick dominates her and has no respect for his own wife.

2. Nick symbolises the patriarchal society more than George, Success measured by job and seemingly perfect life

3. Who is brighter? Nick or Honey ? The fact we judge them is a criticism of us

4. Honey is like us on stage – things revealed that doesn’t want to hear.

5. Phantom pregnancies or abortions,

6. Their relationship more broken at end

7. Honey dancing, singing – her need for freedom, irony that G is using a song that rips away illusion to not hear what M saying (truth)

8. Nick – constructs him to be hated, symbolises the perfect man that men hate and unsympathetic, intolerant. Rarely finishes sentences – lacks control in this enviroment

Key dramatic devices/symbols

1. Names of Acts – language used on Acts links to that

2. Alcohol – broken bottle, portable bar, peeling label,

3. Daddy – is like another character, overwhelming influence, symbolic of authoritarian, judgemental, control, expectations = society’s expectations

4. Son – is another character, it, bit, derogatory language, history of son that competes,

5. Flowers –

6. Bells

7. Simultaneous dialogue on stage – G and M = hearing and not hearing

8. Noise and silence on stage – do a time/narrative graph

9. Flashbacks – history as illusion and forms our identity –if one based on other and is illusion then both are

Narrative structure

Relentless with moments of

Cartharsis

Moments of quietness

Freytag- is the end a catastrophe

OR denoument

Challenge traditional theatre

narrative

Car crash story

Past, present, future

Language

1. Everyday common language –

2. Repartee

3. Requiem – religious, Gomorrah, poor lamb, easter pageant, ultimate pagan, dead being a recurring feature

4. Ellipsis

5. History language – ‘New Carthage’ – might empire destroyed and forgotten about, barren, history written by victors is an illusion

6. Sexual innuendo, Vulgar - double entendre – context of reception –much more shocking

Turning Points in the play

1. Don’t talk about bit about the kid – goes from witty repartee to threatening

2. Martha yelling at him as he won’t open door –‘screw you’ – funny

3. Nick and George ‘bonding’ moment

4. Martha emasculates G just after this – malicious –makes us uncomfortable as we voyeurs.

5. Act 2 – Martha sees reality, party and sees G as not really there – total war

6. George hatches plan and makes Honey complicit?

7. Honey’s pregnancies and talks to G

8. killing of the Kid – Martha begs for restoration

9. Beginning and end of each act – transition moments

Writing/Questions

1. Passage Questions –

locate the passage, why

chosen? What do you

know about the passage. Why important

structurally? Symbols and

devices used. What big

idea does it linked to?

DRAMA

Essays

Q: Explore the ways in which Edward Albee’s construction of ‘Fun and Games’ creates dramatic tension in Act I of the play.

Humorous yet disturbing, intensely captivating, Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of

Virginia Woolf’ draws the audience into a world of endless conflict and extreme

discomfort. The four characters in the play are a microcosmic representation of a

lifeless society wherein man is trapped within the constructs of the twentieth

century. As they recognise that life is devastatingly meaningless, these people

resort to alcohol and so-called “games” to escape from the realisation that they

exist in a cyclical prison of battle and illusion. It is also these games that builds

dramatic tension in the first act and foreshadows the later tragedies of the play.

Possible Question

What, for you, is the significance of the play’s title/name of a

specific Act?

How does Albee use irony in the play?

Discuss the presentation and significance of character X in the play

as a whole

Essay questions

What, for you, is the significance of the play’s title/name of a specific Act?

How does Albee use humour in the play?

Discuss the presentation of (theme/emotion) and its significance in the play.

‘key quote on a character’. To what extent would you agree with X’s view of Z?

What, in your view, is the role and dramatic significance of X in the play?

Discuss the writer’s dramatic presentation of ideas about (key theme or idea).

‘key quote’. Discuss the writer’s presentation of [key theme] and attitudes towards it in the play.

How satisfying do you find the last Act/last scene of the play as a conclusion to the play’s action and themes?

Discuss the presentation and significance of character X in the play as a whole

‘key quote’. To what extent do you sympathise with this view of X?

How does the writer use dramatic irony throughout the play?

Discuss the presentation and significance of X’s relationship with X in the play.

Passage questions How does the writer make this scene [select a potential passage] dramatic?

With close reference to both stage directions and language, discuss the dramatisation of conflicting attitudes in this passage.

With close reference to detail, discuss the significance of the following scene at this point in the play.

With close attention to language and tone, discuss the writer’s dramatic presentation of character X at this point in the play.

With close attention to the detail of the following passage (including stage directions), discuss your reaction to character X at this point in the play.

How, and with what effects, does the writer present the relationship between X and Y at this point in the play?

With close reference to language and action, discuss the dramatic significance of the following scene.

How might an audience react to the writer’s presentation of character X at this point in the play? You should make close reference to details of both language and action.

With close reference to language and action, discuss the effects created by the writer’s handling of dialogue in this scene.

With close reference to the passage, discuss the significance of this passage to your understanding of X’s character and motives.