Structure In Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

Structure in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The action in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is divided into acts and French scenes. In this play, acts signify large shifts in action, while the French scenes show smaller shifts in action. For example, one of the early French scenes occurs when Martha and Honey exit to go to the bathroom. The exit of Martha and Honey shifts the action from the couples getting to know each other to George and Nick having their first session of alone time. The action shifts again when Honey enters, and George is now focused on getting Martha to the living room. The French scenes keep the action in the story moving, but, individually, they do not build much tension. The acts combine the French scenes to build the train of action to its highest possible point of tension and then breaks the action to start a new build of tension. If the act did not shift, the play would stall because there would be no logical way to shift the action and start a new

is simple. George, who is the main character, never undergoes a recognition and reversal. At each of the major climaxes, George never realizes anything about his own behavior. He reacts to whatever behavior Martha portrays. In the first climax, Martha attacks George until he breaks down. The break down does not cause George to reflect on his own actions or the state of his marriage. Instead, it prompts anger and leads to the second major climax of George physically attacking Martha. The second climax also does not prompt George to look at his behavior or to see any issues with his physical assault of Martha. George uses Martha’s reaction to the assault to fuel his anger and his desire to win the game, which leads to the third climax. After George kills the baby, there is no reflection on any part of the game, their lives together, or any of his behavior up to this point. George simply moves forward into life without the baby and does not look