Gender Roles in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Essay

Though usually viewed as a violent play about turbulent marriages, Edward Albees Whos appalled of Virginia Woolf? should be regarded as an proterozoic feminist text. Bonnie Finkelstein writes that the 1962 play portrays and analyzes the damaging effects of traditional, stereotypical gender roles, particularly for women the play serves to stopover out how unrealistic, useless and extraordinarily damning they ultimately are.Finkelstein notes that the 1963 publication of Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique unofficially began a re-evaluation of gender roles in the United States (Finkelstein 55). Friedan explores the idea that women motif more fulfillment in their lives than can be provided by the drudgery of childrearing and housekeeping. The book also carefully lays out what society has determined to be the nonesuch gender role requirements for womenThey could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity. Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and encompass their toilet traininghow to dress, look, and act more womanly and make marriage more excitingThey learned that truly feminine women do not pauperism careers, higher education, political rightsAll they had to do was perpetrate their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children. (Friedan 15-16)And, more specificallyThe suburban homemakershe was healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only about her husband, her children, her home. She had found received feminine fulfillment. (Friedan 18)Albee echoes this, noting by contrast what the ideal men and women in 1962 should be. In other words, his characters have failed at living up to gender roles and the play shows us how this quest has destroyed th... ...s flawed, proof that these gender roles are impossible to emulate. As Finkelstein notes, all four characters are afraid of Virginia Wolf, because she is, in 1962, the only icon of womanly equality society had. (Finkelst ein 64)Works CitedAlbee, Edward. Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York Atheneum House, 1962.Finkelstein, Bonnie Blumenthal. Albees Martha soulfulnesss Daughter, Someones Wife, No unmatchables Mother. American Drama (5) no. 1, Fall 1995. pg. 51-70.Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York WW. Norton & Company, 1963.Julier, Laura. Faces to the Dawn Female Characters in Albees Plays. Edward Albee Planned Wilderness. Interviews, Essays and Bibliography. ed. Patricia De La Fuente. Edinburg, Texas Pan American University Print Shop, 1980.Vogel, Paula. How I Learned to Drive. New York Dramatists Play Service, 1998. Gender Roles in Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? EssayThough usually viewed as a violent play about turbulent marriages, Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? should be regarded as an early feminist text. Bonnie Finkelstein writes that the 1962 play portrays and analyzes the damaging effects of traditional, stereotypical gender roles, particularly for women the play serves to point out how unrealistic, useless and extraordinarily damning they ultimately are.Finkelstein notes that the 1963 publication of Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique unofficially began a re-evaluation of gender roles in the United States (Finkelstein 55). Friedan explores the idea that women need more fulfillment in their lives than can be provided by the drudgery of childrearing and housekeeping. The book also carefully lays out what society has determined to be the ideal gender role requirements for womenThey could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity. Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet traininghow to dress, look, and act more feminine and make marriage more excitingThey learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rightsAll they had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children. (Friedan 15-16)And, more specificallyThe suburban housewifeshe was healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only about her husband, her children, her home. She had found true feminine fulfillment. (Friedan 18)Albee echoes this, noting by contrast what the ideal men and women in 1962 should be. In other words, his characters have failed at living up to gender roles and the play shows us how this quest has destroyed th... ...s flawed, proof that these gender roles are impossible to emulate. As Finkelstein notes, all four characters are afraid of Virginia Wolf, because she is, in 1962, the only icon of female equality society had. (Finkelstein 64)Works CitedAlbee, Edward. Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York Atheneum House, 1962.Finkelstein, Bonnie Blumenthal. Albees Martha Someones Daughter, Someones Wife, No Ones Mother. American Drama (5) no. 1, Fall 1995. pg. 51-70.Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York WW. Norton & Company, 1963.Julier, Laura. Faces to the Dawn Female Characters in Albees Plays. Edward Albee Planned Wilderness. Interviews, Essays and Bibliography. ed. Patricia De La Fuente. Edinburg, Texas Pan American University Print Shop, 1980.Vogel, Paula. How I Learned to Drive. New York Dramatists Play Service, 1998.