Edward Albees play, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf is just as much a scathing commentary on sixties American society, and

the cultural decline Albee witnessed at the time, as it is a dark comedy meant to entertain and amuse its audience. Throughout the play, Albee uses black humor very aggressively to mock 1960s culture and give insight towards the truth behind the faade. This keeps the audience interested and engaged while Albee presents his message. Black humor specifically used to ensure that the humor fit with Albees feelings towards the time period, which, like the humor, was very dark. The use of black comedy in this play may also have been Albee's personal defense mechanism. Using laughter as a shield against what he believed to be an unbearable social climate. (Landon, Phil) Another reason Albee uses black humor, is to criticize American culture, alcoholism, and infidelity. He explicitly wanted to use it to reveal the harsh truth of American society, despite all of these issues being condemned and metaphorically swept under the rug by the public eye. By creating laughter towards the issues that were deemed too serious to talk about discuss civilly, the seriousness would be stripped away and they could be openly scrutinized. Albee knew these social issues would be better brought to light through black comedy, and would allow the audience to come to the same conclusion that he wanted them to, now that their social restrictions had been abolished by the comedy. (Bob, Tammy) The first example subtle dark humor can be found simply by looking at the names of the characters. The names of the older couple, George and Martha, are an obvious reference to George and Martha Washington, the original American first-family. The humor is created through the irony that the characters and their dysfunctions are the complete embodiment of everything the Washingtons are considered to be the opposite of. Another example is Nicks name which is an

allusion to that of Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian premiere during the 1960s. ( Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Teacher Guide.) An educated reader would find this humorous as throughout the play it is broadly proclaimed by George that Nick is going to take over the world with biology. This is a reference to the American fear that the Russians were attempting to do the same through eugenics programs. It also is worth noting throughout the entire play, none of these characters ever refer to each other by name except George and Martha. This shows that each character is living in their own self-centered world and dont truly care about anyone else. Its laughable because the characters often seem to talk without caring what the others say. An example of this is after Nick explains something to George, George states he wasn't even listening. Albee has a subtle but strong sense of humor in choosing the title of its acts. The first act Fun and Games is humorous because it is ironic. It is ironic for a few reasons. The fun is in the form of abuse and the games are the form of who can better humiliate the other. For a play built on verbal assault, this title doesn't seem very fitting. Another example is the old saying, It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The characters do start getting hurt in the second act, Walpurgisnacht. Walpurgisnacht is considered to be the night when witches arrive to scheme and cause trouble. This is extremely fitting of the atmosphere of the act, where the Fun and Games have stopped and actual sadism and cruelty has begun. The final act, The Exorcism is significant because the truth finally comes to light and the illusions of the characters have been exorcized as if they were demons. The humor here can be found in the irony and the deeper meanings behind the titles. The black humor more obviously appears through the characters a harsh words, cruel actions and vulgar remarks towards each other. Every insult comes off as a joke, which is extremely important as this is where most of the humor portion comes from. Sometimes its subtle, sometimes it isnt. The first and most obvious examples are the constant insults hurled around between Martha and George.

With George tending to be more subtle, and Martha being more audacious, the dark humor flows freely between them, almost always at each others expense or that of their guests. Throughout the play they humiliate and mock each other, failing to even try to hide it from their guests. The swearing and insults flow freely between all the characters, making the serious matter of a lackluster marriage humorous. However, these two characters are not the only two who try to destroy another. Each character has their own way of torturing the others, and this contributes to the dark humor of the play. Martha gains sadistic pleasure from belittling and breaking down her husband George in the most vulgar and audacious ways possible. She is also constantly cursing and drinking, even in front of her house guests, something completely unheard of for a housewife in the sixties. George prefers to take subtle and precise shots at all the others using scathing wordplay and sarcasm. George tends to be the primary source of the darkest and most biting humor in the play. Nick doesnt often actively attempt to attack anybody but instead primarily serves as a tool used by both Martha and George in their attempts to destroy each other, as well as his and Honeys marriage. Honey herself tends to be a rather two dimensional character with very little dialogue or characterization but still manages to maintain a self-centered manipulative attitude, especially towards Nick. All of these characters abuse each other verbally in a multitude of ways, humorously fighting to destroy the others and come out on top, as if the entire night was one big game. Ordinarily one would see such verbal abuse to be abhorrent but Albee manages to make it funny and allow us to continue watching without feeling uncomfortable in the slightest. Rather, we laugh instead. We continue to laugh all the way to the end of the play. Throughout the night, a multitude of notable comedic events occur. For instance the play revolves around the rampant alcohol use by the characters who are constantly drinking at the early hour of two in the morning. For instance, George claims to have found Martha's liquor glasses all over the house, even in the freezer. While initially this

may seem like a mild poke at Martha's expense, it is actually a brutal mockery of her constant state of drunkenness. This is a reference to the overuse of alcohol in American society, and despite the negative connotations many people of the time associated with heavy drinking,. This is even referenced in the play when George mentions that he has to tote [Martha's] gin bottles out after midnight so that no one will see them. The outside world, the one that would be judgmental, has been closed off from the interior of their home. The real outside society was just as well ignorant of the rampant drinking that went on behind closed doors. George and Nick's man to man talks that occur in the play are also sources of dark humor. George twists words and logic around Nick to try and confuse and belittle him. He openly confides to Nick that he is suspicious of him and biology. That he is fearful Nick is going to take over the world and make everyone into a race of test tube bred super men. The way George outlines Nick's plan is completely outrageous. Something to the effect of Nick, a biology professor at a small New England college, is going to sterilize the entire world by himself and rebuild it in his image. This could be a reference to the belief by many people that the Russians were going to do the same, but with no evidence, it was all just a shaky cold war society looking for things to be afraid of. George represents the paranoid American public in this case. Albee is making fun of American fears using George as an example. These talks between the two later come back to harm Nick, after Martha humiliates George by mentioning his failed novel. In retaliation George uses Nick's story of Honey's false pregnancy and possible abortion to humiliate Nick in what he calls a game of Get the Guests. George brings this story out into the open calling it his second novel thereby trivializing the events of Nick and Honey's life while at the same time damaging their relationship by bringing to light Nick's breach of privacy. This story is very dark, bringing up events such as marrying for money, marrying because of

pregnancy, and possibly abortion. All dark social taboos that Albee felt a need to address using black humor. Another event is George pulling a fake novelty gun on his wife. All are initially fearful in believing this gun to be real, likely think Martha finally pushed George too far having humiliated him with an embarrassing story. The idea of George even considering shooting his own wife in the back of the head is extremely dark, especially for the time period. This is a prime example of the failure in their marriage. Marriage was considered to be the most sacred of all unions and here is George, the upstanding husband, seemingly ready to put a bullet in his wife's head. This is Albee's method of criticizing the failure of marriages that society forced its victims to hide away. The dark humor here is making light of this failing marriage. Failing marriage is again mocked by Martha's infidelity using Nick. Martha commits full out adultery on her husband in her own home, with George and Nick's wife there, with George knowing full well exactly what she is doing. The only reaction George chooses to give is almost none at all, simply reading a book and responding dismissively to her. While on the inside he is angry, it is not taken as seriously as it would've been in reality. Instead it is lightly treated by George's humorous responses. The black comedy is used by Albee to criticize the lethargic approach American society took to infidelity, ignoring it instead of addressing it. In the end, that's the entire reason for Albee's use of black humor, and for writing the play itself. To address these issues in a manner better received by the populace. Humor disarms its audience and makes them more readily acceptable to taking in new viewpoints and making decisions based on that. The black humor breaks down the social taboo and allows Albee to connect with his audience and tell them where he stands and bring to light the underlying issues of the society he lived in.

Works Cited Bob, Tammy. "Black Humor." Black Humor. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013. Landon, Phil. "Black Comedy." University of Maryland, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Teacher Guide. Alley Theater, 2003. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.