Pagan Elements in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf Essay -- Whos Afraid

Pagan Elements in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf I am preoccupied with narrative George observes in Act I (p. 50) of Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. But his relationship with his wife, Martha, counts to argument almost towards anthropology. Pagan social and ghostly elements in Albees work seem to clarify and enhance the basic themes of the play. Pagan trappings adorn the alone structure of the play the prevalence of alcohol, the goddamn Saturday night orgies (p. 7) Marthas father throws, Marthas naming as the only true pagan on the eastern seaboard... who paints grungy circles of woad? just about her things (p. 73) or the Earth Mother (p. 189), or Georges injunction, in senile Testament language, to just gird your blue-veined loins, girl (p. 205). The stage seems set for religious ritual. Even the act titles have pagan religious significance. Fun and Games be of course the prelude to many a religious event, even in the Christian Easter and Christmas. Walpur gisnacht or St. Walburgas Night is the eve before may Day, when Christians claim witches and nightmares are on the roam. But May Day and the evening before is also the pagan Beltaine, a day of fertility rituals as the idol and Goddess bring vitality and passion to Nature -- a maypole signifies manful fertility the flowers about it show feminine vitality (flores para los muertos? (p. 195)). And The eviction is a banishment of the spirit of evil, in the sacrifice of the imaginary boor who has become a whipping boy bearing all George and Marthas sins. Martha tries to wield her author like an old-style matriarch, saying I wear the pants in this mob (p. 157) and controlling Nick as a houseboy (p. 1... ...avior by sweeping by its very foundation, by changing her beloved son into the pagan scapegoat who bears past all the twisted, hateful history they have both constructed around him. The pagan elements in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? strengthen the main themes and plot of Albees play. Marthas boisterousness and gender make her a sort of pagan priestess, but one pin down by the myths and illusions she has constructed in her worship. But Georges Latin burial service at last banishes the restless spirit who had so haunted his relationship with Martha, and it bears away much of their tortured past, making a fresh slate. Samhain has been fulfilled the God and Goddess begin again, to build a new, more fertile relationship amid themselves for the new year. Page numbers for Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are taken from the 1984 atheneum edition.