Allegory in Edward Albees The American Dream Essay -- Edward Albee Am

Allegory in Edward Albees The Ameri support conceive ofOur understanding of Edward Albees achievement in The American Dream (1960) has come a long way since 1961 when Martin Esslin hailed it as a brilliant first example of an American contribution to the Theatre of the Absurd1 and 1966 when Nicholas Canaday, jr. labeled it Americas best example of what has come to be known as the theatre of the absurd.2The shrewdest assessment of absurdism in Albee is by Brian Way, who shows convincingly that, although Albee has successfully get the hang the techniques of theatrical absurdism, he has nevertheless shied away from embracing the metaphysics that the style implies.3 That is, Albee knows that Theatre of the Absurd is an absorption-in-art of certain existentialist and post-existentialist philosophical concepts having to do, in the main, with mans attempts to make sense for himself come out of the closet of his senseless position in a world which makes no sense.4 But Albee nevertheless believes in the validity of reason--that things can be proved, or that events can be shown to have definite meanings.5 Structurally, the chief evidence for this claim is that Albees plays, including The American Dream, move toward resolution, denouement and completion rather than the circularity or open-endedness characteristic of Theatre of the Absurd.6In regard to content, Ways point may be extended by contrasting the implications of the titles of The American Dream and Eugene Ionescos The Bald Soprano, an absurdist drawing room frivolity to which Albees play seems indebted in many ways. Ionescos title derives from the Firemans passing reference to the woman who always wears her hair in the same style.7 She is not a character in the play, nor is she ever referre... ...ampshire, where Wilder was a mentor and Albee was an aspiring poet. Richard E. Amacher implies that this comment was important in Albees turning to playwriting. (Edward Albee (New York Twayne, 1969), p. 19) Althou gh Wilder is referred to negatively in Albees Fam and yam plant (along with Miller, Williams and Inge), that may be because he represents the dramatic establishment that a new playwright like Albee must challenge, rather than because Albee dislikes him or his drama. The intellectual and dramaturgical relationships betwixt Albee and Wilder would make an interesting study.24. Michael E. Rutenberg, Edward Albee Playwright in Protest (New York Drama Book Specialists, 1969), pp. 230, 232. Albee adds, There might be an allegory to be drawn, and have the hallucination child the revolutionary principles of this country that we havent lived up to yet. Ibid., p. 230.