Discovering Albee: An insight into a legend.

Edward Albee’s two earliest plays The American Dream and The Zoo Story give audience an insight into the author’s writing strategies. Albee according to his supporters has always been a critical thinker about all the social changes that go on in a society, and it is usually reflected in his plays. On other hand his critics criticize him for using the same strategies over and over again which making his plays much more expected.

In both his plays, Albee uses the theme as a tool to force audience to think about the same social issue – American’s possessiveness with money and material world. Both the plays move forward along with two important character roles, one character who is completely obsessed with the worldly things while the other who is totally un-materialistic. The latter is mostly one step ahead of the other in all its thoughts and actions and is aware ‘materialistic’s’ materialistic nature. On the other hand, the materialistic character is portrayed to be somewhat relatively ignorant. In The Zoo Story, the materialist character is played by Peter while the stoic one is by Jerry. Initially when Jerry tactfully inquires Peter about his lifestyle by asking “You have TV, haven’t you?”, Peter answered “Yes we have two”…then the conversation went on revealing more about Peter’s luxurious lifestyle, his two daughters, two cats, two parakeets, a good job. But when asked about his income, Peter reluctantly said, “Now look here!” which showed his initial reluctance to answer but which surprisingly changed into pompousness as he continued “…I make around eighteen thousand a year…but I don’t carry more than forty…in case you’re a hold up…ha, ha, ha” This shows that Peter was relatively well off according to his own time and more importantly that he knew about it, and was proud of it. Same thing is further reinforced when Peter said that he had ‘two TVs, one for kids as well’, even though he wasn’t asked about the number of his TV’s. On another situation when Peter commented on Jerry’s living space as “doesn’t sound like very nice place”, Jerry reacted by comparing his life standards with that of Peter by mentioning “well, no;…It isn’t an apartment in the east seventies but…I don’t have one wife, two daughters, two cats, two parakeets” and then he further went on to describe his inferior living standards. This contrasts the situations of the two characters…the ‘materialistic’ with almost of everything, a good salary, a good house, a good family…while the ‘un-materialistic’ one with just a handful of valueless possessions and a subordinate quality of life.

Similarly, in the American Dream the ‘materialistic’ role is played by ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ while the ‘Grandma’ is shown to be indifferent to all these pleasures. Grandma, in her last dialogue said that “…so let’s leave things as they are right now…or everybody’s got what he thinks he wants”. The word ‘think’ signifies that the important position grandma held in the play as she viewed everything from a level above all other characters and understands what they feel. American Dream is rather a more abstract play. Mommy and Daddy, according to me represent the American’s then emerging lust for more of the material world…the mention of the ‘Beige Hat’ by Mommy and grandma’s comments about Mommy wanting to marry an old rich man when young…and latter Mommy confirming this, “We were very poor! But then I married you, Daddy, and now we are very rich” and “…I have right to all your money when you die” all signify Mommy and Daddy’s obsession with money and the material world. The character of Young Man – The American Dream is abstractly the “Material World” in human form…while his twin, whom Mommy and Daddy had killed, represented the “emotional” part of the American dreams, the part of love and happiness. By showing Mommy and Daddy’s kill the emotional side of the American dream, Albee signifies the fact that how the modern Americans had changed their dreams into something emotionless, only wanting the material benefit, something which only money could buy. The young man said “(I can be help)…if there is money in it”…and later “…I have no talents at all, except what you see…” supporting Albee’s belief that the materialistic things are of no actual value, and all the benefits are nothing without the ingredients of emotions and love in them; luxuries are only superficial.

Another interesting part of Albee’s writing style is the way he takes both the plays forward. The common strategy used by him to catch the reader’s attention is the concept of suspense. The very first dialogue in The Zoo Story, “I’ve been to the Zoo…Mr. I’VE BEEN TO THE ZOO”, does the initial job of getting audience mind entrapped into the play as one gets curious over what actually Jerry is referring to. Later on Albee introduces the main suspense into the story, the zoo story. During the play, Jerry keeps on mentioning to Peter that something interesting happened at the zoo and hints him that he is willing to share it. Peter naturally felt inclined to hear it …Suspense was further injected into audience mind when Jerry said things like “You’ll hear it in the news” or “Do you know what I did before I went to the Zoo today? I walked all the way up fifth Avenue from Washington square..”, even though he didn’t live there. All these vague statements made Peter more interested in listening to the Zoo Story…which Jerry on the hand prolonged as much as he could by mentioning other stories unrelated to the Zoo, like the one of him and the dog and his neighborhood. Audience been watching all the play from Peters view get equally involved with the suspense along with Peter…always getting more and more eager to know what the actual Zoo story is.

Albee uses the same strategy in The American Dream. The initial suspense injected into the audience mind was what were Mommy and Daddy waiting so eagerly for in the start. The play started with Mommy’s words “I don’t know what can be keeping them..”, and then both Mommy and daddy discussed how angry they felt because of someone they were expecting so eagerly was late. This initial suspense isn’t lifted when Mrs. Barker enters the scene as the expected guest, but furthers deepens as the question simply changes from ‘Who?’ to ‘Why?’ Now Albee leaves audience minds in confusion that why Mrs. Barker was invited. Even Mrs. Barker didn’t know the reason of her being invited and continued to make lame guesses about it. She first thinks that she might be there for boxes…as she asks, “can we assume that the boxes are for us?” and then later said “…I can think of one of my little activities in which we are in habit of receiving baskets”… “we might receive boxes, though…”. As at that time, the reason why boxes were there was still not clear in readers mind so Mrs. Barker’s idea seemed a likely possibility to the audience. All four characters then go on to discuss irrelevant things…making the audience more anxious and irritated for the mystery to reveal itself. Throughout the time Mrs. Barker remains equally anxious, repeatedly reminding the hosts that she is a very busy woman and should be dealt with quickly. Even when Grandma, at last finding herself alone with Mrs. Barker vaguely tells her the reason why she was invited, the suspense still didn’t unwind. Albee makes grandma’s words so vague and full of personifications like ‘man very much like Daddy’, ‘woman very much like Mommy’ and ‘bundle of joy’, that the audience curiosity about the hidden message of the play increases even further. But unlike the Zoo Story whose suspense is suddenly lifted in the climax where a series of sudden surprises are unveiled, American Dream is much more abstract and doesn’t end up at clear cut climax. So Audience suspense remains alive till the last word of the play and even after that when one may gather all his thoughts and then deduce the true nature of the message intended.

Another strategy one may find consistent in both of Albee’s plays is the use of a controlling character. In The Zoo Story, this character can be thought of as Jerry while in The American Dream it may be the Grandma. Jerry is portrayed as an excellent planner, one who controls all the orientation of the play. Since the start, Jerry directed the story the way he wanted. He had to get Peters attention…and so he did by making Peter increasingly curious about ‘what happened at the Zoo’. There are certain indications from the play that Jerry had planned whatever he was going to do that day. Like when asked by Peter ‘Why do you just stand there..?” He replied “I’ll start walking around in a little while, and eventually I’ll sit down.”, and this is exactly what he did. He further continued to say “Wait until you see the expressions on his face…”, and also mentioned “You’ll read it in the papers tomorrow, if you don’t see it on your TV tonight”. Later on while dying, Jerry confessed that he had planned everything, that he knew what ever was going to happen. He said “Could I have planned all this? No…no, I couldn’t have. But I think I did . . . . . And now you know all about what happened at the Zoo . . . . And now you’ll know what you’ll see in the TV, and the face I told you about . . . . my face”. Jerry had voluntarily interrupted Peter, found out more about his life and then materialized the actual ‘Zoo Story’ by giving up his life. On another occasion Jerry said… “sometimes a person has to go a long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly..”. Now when we look at how Jerry dealt with Peter, we may find the same strategy applied by Jerry. He went all the way far in order to gain Peter’s attention and his trust, by telling him more about his life and probably making a fake but interesting story about him and a Dog, and then came back all the way back to his original objectives.

Similarly, Grandma in the American Dream is a controlling character. If we analyze all her acts and words throughout the play, we may realize the cleverness and intelligence hidden behind the old woman. And as was the case with Jerry, Grandma too watched everything else from a level above everyone and planned each and every move quite intelligently. For instance, let’s take the issue of the boxes. No one knew what they actually were, except Albee and the Grandma. Guessing from all her irrelevant actions and words one may have thought that the boxes were just another kind of an ‘old persons’ foolishness. But was it really like this? No, Grandma actually knew whatever she was doing. She had packed all those boxes in the start because she knew she had to leave the house in the end. Throughout the course of discussion, Grandma never let Mommy and Daddy realize her plans. Her emotional style of talking and saying things like “When you get old you can’t talk to people (65),…that’s why old people die…”, and “Old people make all sorts of noises…they whimper, cry, belch” (69) and then “How do you expect someone as old as I am to remember a thing like that?” (Albee 70) reinforced the belief that Grandma was a normal ‘old person’, who had lost all her thinking senses. She acted voluntarily like she was ‘dumb’ to give Mommy and Daddy an impression that “grandma doesn’t know what she means” (Albee, 65). For instance, when Mrs. Barker entered the room Grandma acted in a way that she was completely unaware of everything, like when said hello, she replied “I don’t see them” (Albee 76) and later on interrupted the trio’s talk by suddenly saying “Are they still there?” (Albee 76), but when Mrs. Barker was alone with her and inquired her about the reason she was invited, all her dumbness vanished and she cleverly told everything to her without even breaking the honor code (Albee 96). This shows that Grandma was not actually as ‘stupid’ or ‘unaware’ as all others thought; she was just pretending to be so, she had actually planned all this. In the end, she just took her already packed boxes and left the house, as planned.

Through his writing, Edward Albee wants audience to realize how they are slowly getting so obsessed with money and are undervaluing the importance of love and happiness in their lives. He aims to orient peoples thinking and make them look at themselves from above and judge them themselves. In both his plays he has cleverly used his theme to bring out his intended message, but the lack of variety in his writing strategies has a negative effect in what he hopes to achieve. Two plays when analyzed together were almost the copy of each other in all regards but had different superficial images. Albee’s writing gets so much expected that the audience interest in his work is compromised. Given his consistent strategies, someone in the middle of play can easily guess how the play will move forward. Moreover the use of the controlling character also somehow hurts Albee’s objective by weakening the audience interest in the play. The controlling character can orient play in any direction regardless of what is going on or what has happened already; even a complete u-turn can be expected in the end which weakens the connection between the climax and the rest of the body. Controlling character’s mental image is hidden from the audience until the very end and so, depending on what writer wants, any kind of surprise can be expected. This eventually polarizes the audience interest more towards the end lessening the power of rest of the play. Thus, it can be said that although Albee’s aims and his efforts in orientating peoples thoughts towards social issues is quite commendable, his sternness and consistency in writing strategies is a big hurdle for him in fully achieving those objectives.