A Play Concerned with the Tension between Illusion and Reality: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In what way is ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’ a play concerned with tension between illusion and reality?
When reading ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’ it is important to understand the difference between an illusion and reality as the play deals with the modern way of American life that succumbs to illusions rather than confronts reality, and the unwillingness to face facts and accept them, however unpleasant they may be. An illusion is defined as, “something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality” whereas reality is defined as, “a real thing or fact”.
We are first introduced to George and Martha, a couple whose verbally abusive relationship and disjointed sense of reality seems to be clear to the audience. We see a small peek into their illusion when they are constantly referring to “the bit” and “the thing” leaving the audience curious as to what they are talking about. The illusion of George and Martha’s imaginary child is then brought up once again when George talks about him to Honey and Nick. Initially in the statement George says that, “There are very few things in this world that I am sure of…national boundaries, the level of the ocean, political allegiances, practical morality…” The list of things which George says that the is ‘sure of’ are, in reality, very difficult to measure as they are constantly changing, therefore showing us that George is not really that sure of anything but lives in the illusion where he thinks that he does. He then goes on to say, “the one thing in this whole stinking world that I am sure of is my partnership, my chromosomological partnership in the…creation of our…blonde-eyed, blue haired…son.” There is an ever changing ambiguity with regards to the child as initially when mentioned, he seems real to the audience, but as the foundation of George and Martha’s lie breaks, we start to see the truth behind the illusion. This is a key moment at which the audience begin to thee that it is all an
When reading ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’ it is important to understand the difference between an illusion and reality as the play deals with the modern way of American life that succumbs to illusions rather than confronts reality, and the unwillingness to face facts and accept them, however unpleasant they may be. An illusion is defined as, “something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality” whereas reality is defined as, “a real thing or fact”.
We are first introduced to George and Martha, a couple whose verbally abusive relationship and disjointed sense of reality seems to be clear to the audience. We see a small peek into their illusion when they are constantly referring to “the bit” and “the thing” leaving the audience curious as to what they are talking about. The illusion of George and Martha’s imaginary child is then brought up once again when George talks about him to Honey and Nick. Initially in the statement George says that, “There are very few things in this world that I am sure of…national boundaries, the level of the ocean, political allegiances, practical morality…” The list of things which George says that the is ‘sure of’ are, in reality, very difficult to measure as they are constantly changing, therefore showing us that George is not really that sure of anything but lives in the illusion where he thinks that he does. He then goes on to say, “the one thing in this whole stinking world that I am sure of is my partnership, my chromosomological partnership in the…creation of our…blonde-eyed, blue haired…son.” There is an ever changing ambiguity with regards to the child as initially when mentioned, he seems real to the audience, but as the foundation of George and Martha’s lie breaks, we start to see the truth behind the illusion. This is a key moment at which the audience begin to thee that it is all an