Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

In “A Room Of One’s Own” an essay by Virginia Woolf and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” a play by Edward Albee, both authors portray individuals, mainly women, who challenge the established values of their time by breaking conventions of the female role within a patriarchal world. “A Room Of One’s Own” was written in the late 1920’s in a post war period. During this time, the first wave of feminism was bringing about social change and feminist activity. Woolf was seen as a key figure in women’s literature and “A Room Of One’s Own” was an essay to be presented to an audience of young women. The text portrays the struggle for gender equality and openly challenges societal roles that framed the period. However, in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”,
(p87)” Woolf also creates a fantasy setting to form her argument, “Oxbridge is an invention; so is Fernham.” Using these fictional settings, Woolf is able to freely explore the established values of the 1920’s and not be restricted to the expected structure of an essay. Woolf is able to challenge society’s constructs at the time and uncover the truth that women had become suppressed and constricted against voicing their own
Albee rips apart the concept by using George in order to reveal that the ideal American life is an illusion. The ‘imaginary son’ is used to represent society’s model values and when George metaphorically destroys this symbol, by killing the son, “There was a car accident, and he’s dead (p124),” he challenges the established stereotype of the ‘perfect family’. By confronting this value, Albee uses George to exposes the truth about the superficial and constricting society in which he lived. Albee also uses the character Martha, who betrays the stereotype of the typical housewife by adopting a stronger, more dominant male role. Using language as a weapon, “You’re certainly a flop,” she degrades George and humiliates him in front of their guests, Nick and Honey. Demanding George to constantly “Make [her] a drink (p3)”, suggests that women also have the ability to control men if they challenged their submissive societal role. Martha challenges the subdued stereotype of women by using brash language, “You bastard! (p31)” to attack the other characters. Using such language not only shows her confidence but could also be used as a mask, hiding her vulnerability and fear of the norms she must conform to. Through Martha, Albee openly confronts personal issues publicly, “I’ll talk about any goddamn thing I want to (p14),” which would cause concern in the