Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? skillfully portrays the brutally realties of a marriage falling apart. Husband and wife, George and Martha, display their emotional exploits in front of two seemingly innocent bystanders. Directed by Mike Nichols and released in 1966, the film is based on the play of the same name, written by Edward Albee. Both the film and the play express the fears of being destroyed and self-destruction. George and Martha act irrational and childlike because they are afraid of their own madness. The most demonic of the four characters is Martha; she is unequivocally discontent with her life. She plays “games” to make her husband just as miserable as she. From the moment she first appears onscreen until the final flash of film,

The theme of the horrid dissatisfaction within marriages and lives is something that many audiences can relate with. This film shows how disappointments in careers and unions led people to become bitter and dissatisfied with the lives their leading. Martha deals with her dissatisfaction through her childlike behavior. She wants changes and she tries to achieve them by acting out and playing mean games like a child would. Once Martha realizes that she is not going to get what she wants, she and George develop an imaginary child in order to save their marriage. Many married couples do outlandish things in order to keep their marriages intact, but creating an imaginary child is quite disturbing. This is when Martha truly seems the maddest. She is trying to test George’s emotional boundaries and once he has developed an intense emotional attachment to their “child” she now has another twisted way to mess with him. This is when the movie turns fully into a battle of wills between the two main characters. They are both mulling over the meaninglessness of their livelihood together but neither is confident enough to walk away from the

But in looking back over the film, it’s clearly hinted that children are at the center of Martha’s enteral unhappiness but it’s never explicitly revealed. However, by the end of the film, the audience cares very little about why Martha is the way she is and simply wants there to be some form of release. Despite the lack of release for Martha, the film ends on the best possible outcome for the two. George tells Martha that he has killed their imaginary son. The son was one of the only things that the two shared and now that he is gone maybe they can stop their absurd games and let go of one another. There are finally no barriers separating George and Martha and they can no longer hide from the problems left in front of them. They have stripped away every part of their lives and relationship and consequently have nothing left to give. Martha has destroyed George and now has nothing left. Her games are over and there is no