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

Allegory in Edward Albees The American ideateOur understanding of Edward Albees achievement in The American Dream (1960) has come a long way since 1961 when Martin Esslin hailed it as a vivid 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 know 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 mastered the techniques of theatrical absurdism, he has nevertheless shied away from comprehend 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 out of his senseless position in a world which makes no sense.4 But Albee nevertheless believes in the asperity of reason--t hat things can be proved, or that events can be shown to have decisive meanings.5 Structurally, the chief evidence for this claim is that Albees endures, including The American Dream, move toward resolution, cataclysm and completion rather than the circularity or open-endedness typical 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 comedy to which Albees play seems indebted in many ways. Ionescos title derives from the Firemans passing reference to the womanhood 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 plan poet. Richard E. Amacher implies that this comment was important in Albees turning to playwriting. (Edward Albee (New York Twayne, 1969), p. 19) Although Wilder is referred to negatively in Albe es Fam and Yam (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 rational and dramaturgical relationships between 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 fable to be drawn, and have the fantasy child the revolutionary principles of this country that we havent lived up to yet. Ibid., p. 230.