Truth Illusion and the American Dream in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: 17 University of Kassel course: 20th Century British and American Drama language: English abstract: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf has become one of themajor works in American dramatic history (Roundane 42) and a huge career boost for Albee himself. This is not surprising as this masterpiece is considered to be revolutionary and ambitious as well as scandalous and highly controversial at the same time.The play which has been discussed so passionately gives us fouralmost unrelievably nasty people who for something like three-and-a-half hours [...] take part in a drunken orgy of backbiting bitchery humiliationverbal castration exposure and physical mauling (Hilfer 121).Not only wanting to entertain the audience but also including socialcriticism Albee makes use of essential themes which help to make people understand their situation and to make them realize the necessity to act in order to modify society.In the course of this paper I am going to attempt to illustrate theimportance of the American Dream and to establish a connection to the topic of truth and illusion which can be understood as the basis of Albee's concept.To start with I will exemplify different aspects of the American Dream and point out selected features of the characters that can be linked to the American Dream. In order to appreciate most of the professional criticism it is of the utmost importance to look at the issue of truth and illusion that is predominant in many parts of the play.Examining the subject matter of illusion I will concentrate on the imaginary son as well as the relationship between the guests Nick and Honey.In a last step I am going to explain the issue of truth in the play by examining the killing of the imaginary son and the confession of Nick and his wife.Examining selected scenes I will try to clarify the aspects Albee criticizes and explain the