Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

EDWARD ALBEE

ACT 1

SUMMARY

Act 1, “Fun and Games,” begins with George and Martha returning home after a university faculty party hosted by Martha’s father. Martha reveals that she has invited a younger couple, Nick and Honey, over for drinks, despite George’s reluctance. When Nick and Honey arrive, the conversation becomes increasingly tense as Martha openly criticises and humiliates George, portraying him as weak and unsuccessful. George responds with subtle hostility, and the arrival of the younger couple exposes the troubled nature of both marriages. By the end of the act, Martha begins revealing increasingly personal details about George, setting up the psychological conflicts and power struggles that dominate the play.

THEMES

games and war
illusion vs reality
the 'American Dream'
power and control

QUOTES

Ha, ha, ha, HA! Make the kids a drink, George. What do you want, kids? What do you want to drink, hunh?

Musical beds is the faculty sport around here.

Do you believe that people learn nothing from history? Not that there is nothing to learn, mind you, but that people learn nothing? I am in the History Department.

He was going to be groomed. He’d take over someday…until [Daddy] watched for a couple of years and started thinking maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all…that maybe Georgie boy didn’t have the stuff…that he didn’t have it in him!

CHARACTERS

GEORGE

George initially appears passive and unsuccessful, but his restraint and intellectual sarcasm reveal a more calculated form of power. His inability to achieve academic success makes him insecure, yet he compensates through psychological manipulation. He is therefore both victim and participant in the destructive “games” of his marriage.

MARTHA

Martha’s aggression and confidence conceal a deep sense of disappointment, particularly regarding her failed expectations of George. She uses humiliation and sexuality to assert control, suggesting that power is essential to her sense of security. Her obsession with appearances also makes her a representation of the gap between social performance and private reality.

NICK

Nick initially appears polite, attractive and successful, embodying the conventional image of the successful American man. However, his ambition and willingness to participate in George and Martha’s games suggest that his apparent respectability is not necessarily matched by moral strength. He therefore becomes a potential successor to George rather than simply his opposite.

HONEY

Honey initially appears passive and sheltered, allowing Nick to dominate their relationship and conversations. Her presence gradually suggests that she too participates in maintaining an illusion of marital stability. She can therefore be viewed as another example of how characters use avoidance rather than honesty to preserve their relationships.

LITERARY DEVICES

IRONY

Direct quote: “Fun and Games”
Example: The act is titled “Fun and Games”, yet the interactions between George and Martha are increasingly cruel and psychologically destructive.
Effect: The irony makes the audience question whether their “games” are actually a coping mechanism for deeper marital unhappiness.

SYMBOLISM - THE GAMES

Direct quote: “games”
Example: George and Martha repeatedly treat their arguments as games with rules and winners.
Effect: The games symbolise their dependence on conflict and illusion to sustain their relationship.

SYMBOLISM - ALCOHOL

Direct quote: “brandy”
Example: Drinking is introduced almost immediately and continues throughout the evening as conversations become increasingly personal.
Effect: Alcohol symbolises the gradual breakdown of social restraint, allowing suppressed hostility to emerge.

SYMBOLISM - CHILD

Direct quote: “our son”
Example: Martha and George's references to their son establish the child as an important part of their shared emotional world.
Effect: The audience becomes suspicious of the unusual secrecy surrounding him, creating anticipation for later revelations.

ALLUSION - NEW VIRGINIA WOOLF

Direct quote: “Virginia Woolf”
Example: The title transforms the children's rhyme Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? into an allusion to Virginia Woolf.
Effect: The Allusion associates the play with psychological complexity and the confrontation of uncomfortable inner realities.

ALLUSION - NEW CARTHAGE

Example: The university is located in the new fictional town of New Carthage, evoking the ancient city of Carthage.
Effect: The association with a civilisation destroyed by conflict subtly reinforces the play's atmosphere of social and personal collapse.

ALLUSION - GEORGE AND MARTHA WASHINGTON

Example: George and Martha's names evoke America's most famous residential couple.
Effect: The dysfunctional marriage becomes an ironic contrast to the idealised image of American domestic stability.

METAPHOR

Direct quote: “games”
Example: The marriage itself is metaphorically transformed into a series of competitive “games.”
Effect: This suggests that emotional honesty has been replaced by performance, manipulation and competition.

SIMILE

Example: George compares Martha to a cocker spaniel, reducing her sophisticated social persona to something childish and animalistic.
Effect: The comparison undermines Martha's authority and reveals how George uses language to regain power.

ANIMAL IMAGERY

Direct quote: “cocker spaniel”
Example: George's animal comparison contrasts sharply with Martha's status as an educated, socially powerful woman.
Effect: It exposes the primitive aggression beneath the characters' supposedly sophisticated academic world.

CHILDISH IMAGERY

Example: Martha's behaviour and the repeated references to children create a contrast between the characters' adult social status and their immature emotional behaviour.
Effect: The audience is encouraged to see their conflict as strangely childish despite its serious consequences.

REPETITION

Example: References to drinking, games, George's failures and Martha's father repeatedly return throughout the act.
Effect: The repetition makes their conversation seem cyclical, suggesting that George and Martha are trapped in patterns they cannot escape.

RHETORICAL QUESTION

Example: Martha repeatedly questions George about his career, masculinity and position within the university.
Effect: Her questions function less as genuine requests for information and more as attacks designed to force George into a defensive position.

HYPERBOLE

Example: Martha repeatedly exaggerates George's profession and personal inadequacies.
Effect: The exaggeration demonstrates that the characters construct their own versions of reality in order to hurt one another.

JUXTAPOSITION - GEORGE AND MARTHA

Example: George's restraint and intellectual sarcasm contrast with Martha's loudness and aggression.
Effect: The contrast initially suggests that Martha possesses greater power, but George's quieter manipulation complicates this assumption.

JUXTAPOSITION - GEORGE AND MARTHA & NICK AND HONEY

Example: Nick and Honey initially appear younger, more successful and more conventional than George and Martha.
Effect: Their presence creates a seemingly “normal” alternative to George and Martha, although Act 1 gradually undermines this distinction.

FORESHADOWING

Example: The repeated discussion of George and Martha's son prepares the audience for the importance of the child later in the play.
Effect: George's discomfort encourages the audience to suspect that Martha's version of events may not be completely reliable.

DRAMATIC IRONY

Example: Martha openly discusses subjects that visibly disturb George, while Nick and Honey initially fail to understand the significance of what they are hearing.
Effect: The audience becomes increasingly alert to hidden tensions and begins analysing what lies beneath the characters' words.

FOIL CHARACTERS

Example: Nick's youth, physical attractiveness and academic ambition contrast with George's age, perceived failure and insecurity.
Effect: Nick becomes a potential embodiment of everything George feels he has failed to become, making their relationship increasingly threatening.

VERBAL SPARRING

Example: George and Martha constantly interrupt, mock and challenge each other rather than communicating directly.
Effect: Their dialogue resembles a battle, making language itself a form of psychological violence and establishing power and control as a central concern.

ANALYSIS & PERSONAL RESPONSE

Act 1 suggests that George and Martha’s hostility has become a strange form of intimacy. Their insults feel almost rehearsed, implying that conflict has become one of the few ways they know how to communicate. The “games” therefore seem less like entertainment and more like a structure that allows their marriage to continue without confronting its deeper emptiness. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable as the boundary between love and cruelty becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish.

George’s apparent weakness is more complicated than it initially appears. Although Martha dominates the conversation, George’s restraint and sarcasm allow him to provoke her without openly challenging her. This suggests that power in their marriage is constantly shifting, with both characters using different methods to control one another. The audience is encouraged to question its initial judgement of George and recognise that his apparent passivity may itself be a form of control.

Nick and Honey can be viewed as a distorted reflection of George and Martha. While their marriage initially appears more conventional, Act 1 gradually exposes hints of dissatisfaction beneath this appearance. Their presence therefore suggests that the difference between a genuinely happy marriage and one that merely appears successful may be less significant than it seems. This creates suspicion towards Nick and Honey and prevents the audience from accepting their apparently respectable marriage at face value.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edward Albee was particularly interested in exposing the gap between social appearances and private reality. His writing often challenges supposedly stable institutions such as marriage, family and success, which is evident in George and Martha’s relationship. Rather than presenting their conflict simply as marital dysfunction, Albee uses it to question whether people can sustain relationships without constructing illusions around themselves.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

The play premiered in 1962, during a period when American society was increasingly questioning the optimism and conformity associated with the post-war era. The American Dream promised prosperity, success, marriage and family as markers of a fulfilling life, yet Albee exposes how these outward achievements can conceal dissatisfaction and failure. George and Martha’s marriage can therefore be viewed as a corrupted version of the American Dream: they possess status and social respectability, but lack the emotional fulfilment that these ideals supposedly guarantee. The names George and Martha also subtly evoke George and Martha Washington, allowing their dysfunctional marriage to become a symbolic critique of the nation’s idealised self-image.

PAST PAPER QUESTION

How, and with what effects, is the breaking down of self-restraint dramatised in the play?

How, and with what effects, does Albee create a sense of increasing dramatic tension and anticipation in the following passage?

9695/43/M/J/2014

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9695/43/M/J/2014

Discuss some of the dramatic effects of Nick and Honey’s participation in the games played by George and Martha.

9695/43/M/J/2015

Discuss some of the ways in which, despite not being on stage, Martha dominates the following extract. You should make close reference to both language and action.

9695/43/M/J/2015

Discuss the dramatic significance to the play of George and Martha’s imagined son.

9695/42/O/N/2015

With close attention to detail of both language and action, discuss Albee’s presentation of George at this point in the play.

Discuss some of the dramatic ways in which Albee explores different attitudes to education in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

9695/42/O/N/2015

9695/12/F/M/2026

Discuss Albee’s presentation of the relationship between Martha and George in the following extract.

In your answer, you should pay close attention to dramatic

methods and their effect