A Literary Overview on American Drama

Modern American Drama develops its eccentricities from the Modern European Drama in terms of the language, style, and structure; however, the characters in American Drama evolve psychologically on the notion based upon American Dream and Post World War mania. For instance, building upon Gatsby's character one can analyze that spending money extravagantly on parties and waiting for Daisy at the light post are two extreme ends that never match. Yet this character is created with an allusion that is psychologically disturbing for the readers to interpret. Where Modern European Drama indulge into the thoughts of absurdism, existentialism, and realism; American Drama procreates from the over-indulgence of characters into bawdry, rough and violent language and cynicism due to social and cultural change in America.

The relationship of Martha and George in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1961) is violent, abusive, destructive, and disrespectful. The communication between the couple is so vulgar that it makes their guest Nick and Honey uncomfortable. At the end of Act 1 ‘Fun and Games’, Martha says “…who’s married to the President’s daughter, who’s expected to be somebody, not just nobody, some bookworm, somebody who’s so damn… contemplative, he can’t make anything out of himself, somebody without the guts to make anybody proud of him… ALL RIGHT, GEORGE!”, it becomes so violent that it ends with Honey puking.  The language used in the play not only includes personal insults but the threat and abusive words. These are the words that otherwise than would not be used before the 20^th century.

The title in itself is an insult to the famous Feminist writer Virginia Woolf. Whenever George lost his control over Martha or was about to retain an argument with her, he’d start singing the song ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’. The 1950s America was all about the struggle to have equal rights for the poor, afro-American, and women. George could be hinting towards Martha that her feminist rights will not afraid him; and that she cannot exercise them over him, because he is equally exhausted with their marriage as her. This exhaustion is procured vehemently in the last section of the play which is “The Exorcism”. Albee here tries to delve the audience into the major discussion of “Truth and Illusion. Who knows the difference, eh, toots? eh”, as said by George.

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Martha and George here come out as schizophrenic personality who has been hallucinating about their son’s existence before their marriage. As the title is taken from the famous Disney song “Who’s afraid of Big Bad Wolf” which deals with the life of three pigs, Albee also designs the structure of his play in three sections. The wolf which Albee is trying to showcase to the audience is Martha and George’s illusionary son who dies in an illusionary death through an illusionary telegram with George singing “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.”  This death is important for the couple to move ahead in their life and to overcome the social expectation of the family of four.
Social expectations dominated most American Dramas as a major theme. Similarly in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, however Willy’s family stands in the societal norms of the nuclear family but their vision of American life makes them vulnerable to having one in reality. Willy is in an illusion of his misinterpreted version of the American Dream. The difference in Biff’s dream vis-a-vis Willy makes their relationship fall apart. Willy continues to force the achievement of the falsified American dream on his sons. In the end when Biff finally accepts that he is “dime a dozen” and “ I am not bringing home any prizes anymore, and you’re going to stop waiting for me to bring them home! it is the realization time for Willy about the reality of his son. He understands that he and his family are far off the American dream and thus ends on suicide. Miller deliberately lacks a tragic insight into his hero, as Biff says in Requiem that “He never knew who he was.” This deliberate attempt was to showcase the reality of Americans who were acting like a flock of sheep by investing blindly more than their income. It was an attempt to shadow the American audience of their extra indulgences and their consequences which are not to last forever.
The events in the play are the combusted thoughts of Willy’s past infused with the Present. The characters in the present are aware of the walls while the same moves freely on the stage in the past sequence. Modern American Drama was moving towards experimentalism where Miller adjoined the surrealist impact of joining the past and present on the same stage with the help of ‘red light’ on the characters. The tragedy of the play is not Willy’s death but the misinterpretation of the modern thought that every American is capable of achieving their dream. Willy turns his sons into a commodity and teaches Biff to sell himself not less than fifteen thousand dollars. Biff’s real dream of becoming a farmer is mocked by him as he says that life is in business. But he tends to forget that his financial condition deprives him of having one. His whole life is about paying investments of the commodities.
Willy’s own word comes to reality when he says “Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.” The audience realises the importance of this dialogue when in the end Linda in the Requiem says “… I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home. We’re free and clear. We are free.” The question of freedom is thus summoned whether Willy really died as a free man? Or whether the American dream is really a dream or a way of imprisoning Americans with the investments that they’ll never be able to cover?