Analysis+CMDA

=Themes:=

Love and Hate
Love and hate describes Martha and George’s relationship. Whenever George is good to Martha, Martha fights it. They are constantly playing games with each other with rules. Martha seems to never be happy. She likes it when George is good to her, but she is never completely satisfied. It’s like they enjoy competing with and yelling at each other. Their relationship is a good example of a love and hate relationship. They love each other, but yet they constantly fight with one another.

//Martha: “George who is good to me, and whom I revile; who understands me, and whom I push off; who can make me laugh, and I choke it back in my throat; who can hold me, at night, so that it’s warm, and whom I bite so there’s blood; who keeps learning the games we play as quickly as I can change the rules; who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy, and yes I do wish to be happy. George and Martha: sad, sad, sad... whom I will not forgive for having come to rest; for having seen me and having said: yes, this will do; who has made the hideous, the hurting, the insulting mistake of loving me and must be punished for it. George and Martha: sad, sad, sad… who tolerates, which is intolerable; who is kind, which is cruel; who understands, which is beyond comprehension…Some day…hah! Some night… some stupid, liquor-ridden night… I will go too far… and I’ll either break the man’s back… or push him off for good… which is what I deserve.”

George: “Oh. (Pause) You just hit younger men… and children… women… birds. (Sees that Nick is not amused) Well, you’re quite right, of course. It isn’t the prettiest spectacle… seeing a couple of middle-age types hacking away at each other, all red in the face and winded, missing half the time.”//

Games
The whole story is mostly about games the characters play on each other. George is the one who starts the games. The games humiliate each of the characters in the play. By the end of the play, each character’s story has been told and is out in the open. All the secrets have been told about each character. They played “humiliate the host” when George’s story was told of when his wife beat him at boxing. “Hump the hostess” was also played, when Martha and Nick necked in the kitchen. “Get the guests” was played which told the story of Nick and Honey’s marriage. “Bringing up the baby” was the last game that was played, where George told Martha that he killed their son because she mentioned him. Their son in reality didn’t exist, but just a made up character between George and Martha.

//George: “I’ve got it! I’ll tell you what game we’ll play. We’re done with Humiliate the Host… this round, anyway… we’re done with that… and we don’t want to play Hump the Hostess, yet… not yet… so I know what we’ll play… We’ll play a round of Get the Guests. How about that? How about a little game of Get the Guests?”

George: "You just grid your blue- veined lions, girl. (Sees NICK movin toward the hall) Now; we got one more game to play. And it's called bringing up the baby."//

Illusion and Reality
Illusion and reality is brought up in this play. The characters in the play aren’t sure all the time if someone lied or not. When reading the play, the reader is also never completely sure when someone is lying or not. The whole story about George and Martha’s son is an example of something that was made up. George, himself, is constantly making up stories within the play that he says are true. He keeps to his stories and never backs down on them not being true. When George gets caught in lie by Martha he says that she is lying, so there is never a clear view of the truth.

//George: “No? Well then, you must have made it in the sack. Yes? (He is breathing a little heavy; behaving a little manic) Yes? Someone’s lying around here; somebody isn’t playing the game straight. Yes? Come on; come on; who’s lying Martha? Come on!

Nick: “Hell, I don’t know when you people are lying, or what."//

=Analysis:=

Edward Albee writes this play to demonstrate the way in which marriage has different images in the public or in private life. By expressing Martha and George as a couple that constantly argues and bickers despite appearing perfect and powerful, Albee shows that there are public images of couples and the reality of their relationships. As the story progresses, Albee illustrates the idea of phoniness. In other words, he describes the way in which people project false images of themselves in the public, but only hide their problems and indiscretions to the world.