Edward Albee wrote his famous play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, during the peak of the Cold War. There is much symbolism of patriotism in Albee’s play, from George and Martha’s names alluding to George Washington and his wife Martha and George’s speech against altering chromosomes could be seen as a metaphor for the popular fear that communism would take over the world: “There will be a certain… loss of liberty...diversity will no longer be the goal. Cultures and races will eventually vanish...the ants will take over the world” (Albee 73). In her book Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Elaine Tyler May explores the direct link between “the suburban American dream and the international dynamics of the cold war” (153). In this book, she reveals that the idea of the “nuclear family” and the “American dream” were government tactics created to sway international voters away from the Communist party and to keep Americans “preoccupied with procurement” as a “safeguard against the threat of class warfare and communism” (157). My theory is that the big bad Virginia Woolf's metaphor in Albee’s play is infact the illusion of the American dream and displays this predominantly through the baby symbolism, focusing specifically on Martha.
Much of the play’s suspense revolves around George and Martha’s child. When Nick asks George if he has any children, George says “That’s for me to know and you to find out” (42) and in the middle of act 2, George and Martha argue back and forth about how the other was a bad parent to the child as he grew up. It isn’t until the climax of the play, when George reveals that the son has “died,” are the audience’s suspicions confirmed that the child was infact make-believe. This illusion ties back to the cultural and social ideals of the time involving the nuclear family: the new family model was the father (the provider), the wife (the housewife), and their children, as opposed to the extended family model where generations would live together in the “family home.” George and Martha failed as a couple to produce offspring, as revealed at the end of the final act:
NICK: You couldn’t have...any?
GEORGE: We couldn’t.
MARTHA: We couldn’t.
This made-up child was created by George and Martha, maybe at first as a sort of joke, a way to temporarily fill the absence in their lives. It is obvious, however, that the joke became a twisted reality when Martha has the very real emotional breakdown in the final act after hearing that George had “killed” the son.
Soon after the play opens, about nine lines in, Martha drops the reference to the Bette Davis film about a housewife who is unhappy with her life, alluding to her own unhappiness in her situation with George: “She’s discontent,” (7) Martha says of Bette Davis’ character, an understatement to the reality that Martha feels. Martha admits to Nick that she fell in love with George when they first met, but because of their inability to have a child, and ultimately the inability to have the “American dream” family, is why Martha grows resentful and hateful over their years together. Martha calls out George constantly on all his other failures, bringing him down because, in her eyes, he is the reason that she does not have a child. This also explains why George does not try harder for a promotion in the History department at the university. He does not have a child, so there will be no one to take over for him when he dies, as Martha wants him to do for her father. George sees Martha as the reason for their not having a child, referring to her multiple times throughout the play as a creature rather than a human, as in act 1 when George says “There aren’t many more sickening sights than you with a couple of drinks in you and your skirt up over your head, you know...your heads I should say…” (18) and then a few lines later, “Isn’t it nice that some people won’t come breaking into other people’s houses even if they do hear some subhuman monster yowling at ‘em from inside…?” (20). This is why the above block quote is significant: George and Martha say “we couldn’t” instead of “she” or “he,” breaking the illusions of blame and claiming responsibility as a unit.
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