Monday, October 24, 2011
Response to Course Material #3
The past couple of weeks have been focused on Edward Albee's The American Dream. Its an amazing play. Albee layers meaning on meaning, without his message being overwhelming. On the surface it appears that he is just disillusioned with the new consumption based society. However the truth is much more complicated than that. Careful consideration of Mommy's characterization makes it plain to see that Albee is an anti-feminist. He sees Mommy's domination of the relationship as toxic, it has robbed Daddy of his masculinity and made it impossible for him too achieve satisfaction. However, this also makes it impossible for Mommy to be content because she desires a firm, manly, figure in her life, and leads her to achieve satisfaction through superficial commercial means, like shopping. Albee makes this evident through sexually charged dialogue, something that your average american would quickly recognize the significance of. Everyone understands the feeling of being "frustrated".
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I completely agree when you say "Albee layers meaning on meaning, without his message being overwhelming" because when you first read it yes you get some deeper meaning, but not all of it. To me Albee didn't seem like a total anti-feminist, but now that I look back yeah he sorta was, or maybe he just had bad experiences with women in his life.
ReplyDeleteHey Doug. Your response provided me with things I had never thought about in this play. I don't recall our class ever talking about his anti-feminist viewpoint, but now that you mention it, I can think of a few places in the text where this idea might be supported. It's clear that since you enjoy this play so much, you're learning a lot about how techniques used by the Albee propel his meaning.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first started discussing Albee's play, I did feel a bit overwhelmed with the many different opinions that people offered on the smallest-seeming things in his writing. However, upon looking even more indepth, I know what you mean about how he manages to layer the meaning without it being overwhelming. When one takes into account the central message of the play, everything else seems to fit around it. Good job using examples to really show your increased understanding for The American Dream!
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