Summary+CMDA

=__Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?:__ Summary=

**Act One:Fun and Games**
The play first starts out with the introduction to the two main characters, George and Martha, on their return back home from a faculty party that was held at Martha's fathers home. George works at the college in the history department and works for Martha's father. Martha is constantly grilling George about how he is not running the history department and he says that it is hard working for her father. They both arrive home at two o'clock in the morning and Martha announces to George that they will have company over. George is stunned that people will be coming over so early in the morning. Martha says that they are the new man in the math department and his small wife. She also says that her father asked for them to entertain the new couple, but George said that they could have done it some other time. Before their guests show up Martha brings up a joke they had earlier which was, "Who's afriad of Virginia Woolf?", which is suppose to be like "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?",but the name of Virginia Woolf was used to show or say that who's afraid of living "without false illusions".

The couple finally arrives and we meet Nick and Honey. Before they answer the door George reminds Martha not to bring up the kid and we are not sure what he means by that at this point. They start out by having a drink and Martha starts singing "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?...". Martha fancied her father's party and makes that public and following that George starts to insult her father. Martha gets mad and decides to show Honey the house. Nick notices how rudely George and Martha treat each other and doesn't like it. He and George talk for a while as Martha shows Honey the house. They talk about their fields of work and it is revealed that Nick works for the sience department not the math department. When Honey comes back she says that Martha told her about her son and George seems to get mad that Martha slipped.

Martha then returns having changed into a different dress and starts to sort of flirt with Nick and is constantly praising him and defending him andd his field of work when George starts saying how he doesn't like the biology department. Marthat tells a story of when she and George were boxing and how she knocked him out. As she tells the story George comes out with a gun and points it at Martha, Honey gets really scared and they all believe it is real until George shoots it and a parasol comes out. After that they continue with their drinking and all get drinks. Now that they are getting drunk Honey asks when their, Martha and George's, son is getting home and they make it seem like they heard nothing and ignore her question. George leaves the room and starts to tell the story of how she and George met and how he has continually disappointed her.

**Act Two:Walpurgisnacht**
(Page #s from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Atheneum College Ed.)

The word "Walpurgisnacht" refers to the night before the first day of May where, according to pagan myth, witches are supposed to gather and cause chaos. As the story progresses, the tension between the couples begins to rise and the consumption of numerous glasses of brandy and bourbon only added to the incessant quarrels. These quarrels ensue between Nick and George, George and Martha, and at times some words between Nick and Honey. It becomes more and more evident that there is an intention to humiliate each other especially between George and Martha as they spend most of the novel bickering and revealing intimate secrets about each other to their guests who have no choice but to witness it all. The topics of conversation range all the way from Honey's constant vomiting to George and Martha's son. Nevertheless every topic causes some sort of altercation between those involved in the discussion.

The act begins with Nick and George talking while Honey is recovering from being sick in the previous scenes, all the while, Martha is in another room making coffee. Because of the way Honey gets sick, George questions Nick about her health and as Nick reveals that Honey often get sick, the question of pregnancy arises. Nick eventually tells George that when he and Honey first got married they thought she was pregnant which turned out to be a false alarm. By him saying that, George automatically assumed that the "pregnancy" was the only reason they got married, "Oh. No, of course not. Things are simpler with you...you marry a woman because she's all blown up..."(p.102) but Nick would later reveal that there were other reasons for his marriage to Honey. One of them being that she came from a wealthy and powerful family. On that same note, George talks about how Martha's father is rich due to his frauds against the school and the money he obtained from his second wife, who was a very wealthy woman. The conversation becomes heated as Nick talks about Martha as a very powerful woman because she's the daughter of the president of the university,"And I'll bet your wife's the biggest goose in the gangle, isn't she...?Her father president, and all."(p.114) This statement being the result of George saying that men like Nick, blonde, athletic, and good-looking, sleep with powerful women in order to get further in their careers, "All the faculty wives, downtown in New Carthage, in front of the A&P, hissing away like a bunch of geese. That's the way to power--plow 'em all!"(p.114)

As the act progresses, Honey and Martha return to the main room and the conversation of Honey's tendency to get sick continues and evolves into a new discussion about George and Martha's son. Martha begins to talk about her son would sometimes also get sick because of George. He reluctantly joined in the conversation due to Martha blaming him for their son's problems and he quickly turned the blame onto Martha especially when the boy ran away, "...the real reason our son used to throw up all the time...was nothing more complicated than that he couldn't stand you..."(p.120) The conversation finally cools down as George and Martha cease their bickering and Honey suggests they put on music and dance. There was no longer any more arguing but tension did persist as the only people dancing were Nick and Martha, and in a very sexual manner. Honey and George just looked on as George comments that sort of occurrence as being "old ritual", referring to the manner in which young men tried to woo the powerful women of the university. As the dancing continues, Martha and Nick start to converse and she begins to reveal more and more about George and the novel he tried to publish. The novel was about a young man who accidentally killed both his parents but was shut down by Martha's father as he considered it trash despite George's attempts to claim it was a true story about himself. George becomes increasingly angry and finally attacks Martha. When Nick tries to defend her, George begins to get hostile towards Nick and Honey and commenting on how they both got married under the impression that Honey was pregnant. Honey becomes upset with Nick because he revealed their secrets and runs out of the room to throw up once again.

Later on as George goes to get ice for Honey who is currently lying on the bathroom floor, Martha and Nick are left alone and promptly begin to neck and kiss on the sofa. George returns and sees them and the only thing he does is sing "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" As the groping and seducing relocates into the kitchen, Martha and Nick begin to knock things over, the most noticeable items being bells which echo throughout the house to the point where even Honey is awakened. When Honey returns to the main room where George is sitting and drinking, she inquires about the bells and half-asleep and still sick she describes a dream to George.She tells him that in that dream she saw children and said she didn't want them and was scared. George then comes to the conclusion that she gets rid of her pregnancies by constantly getting sick,"How do you make you secret little murders stud-boy doesn't know about, hunh?...You got a secret supply of pills?..."(p.177) and when he asks Honey about them she becomes angry and wishes to speak to her husband. When she hears the bells once again George decides to create a false story about how the bells were actually the doorbell ringing and bringing someone who would tell George that his son had died. As the act comes to an end, George revels in the story by laughing and crying.

Act Three:The Exorcism
The Exorcism started out with Martha talking to herself. Nick walks in and thinks that she has gone crazy. Martha and Nick begin arguing about their experience together from earlier. Martha wasn’t satisfied with Nick’s performance. Nick blamed it on the fact that he had been drinking all night. Martha then confesses to Nick that there is only one man in her life that has made her happy, and it is George. She says, “ 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 is always good to Martha, but Martha is constantly fighting him.

The door then rings and Martha told Nick to answer the door. Martha called Nick the houseboy and expects him to do what she says. Nick answers the door to see George standing there with a bouquet of snapdragons. George goes on by saying that he picked the flowers in the moon light for Martha tonight and for their son’s birthday tomorrow. Martha didn’t believe him that he picked the flowers in the moonlight because she saw the moon go down. George claimed that the moon went back up and told a story of when he was sailing past Majorca when he witnessed it happen. Even though Martha knew the story wasn’t true it amused her.

George now wants to play one more game. Nick goes to get Honey from the bathroom. Honey is drunk and was found on the floor in the bathroom peeling a label off of a bottle of brandy. Once Nick and Honey reenter, George starts playing the “bringing up baby” game. George goes on by telling the story of their child. He claimed that their son didn’t like his mother. Martha claimed that it was his father that their son didn’t like. George concludes by saying that their son was killed in a car accident when he swerved to avoid a porcupine driving straight into a large tree. Martha tells George that he doesn’t have the right to decide these things. George admitted he killed their son because Martha went against their rules by telling someone about their son. The play then ends with Nick and Honey leaving Martha’s and George’s house.

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