Academia Symbolism In Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

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What is a truth? One may derive a multitude of definitions for this vague word and may come up with many different truths; and this is no different from how one perceives what a single or several symbols possibly mean. However, one could make inferences or inductions to what a symbol may indicate due to the symbol's usage and context of a given passage. And as such, one would perceive academia, the games, and the baby in Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as having great symbolic relevance as they can be shown blurring the lines of reality and illusion. Academia symbolism is enveloped in this play has a major relevance to the setting as it establishes a context of which the characters fall under. Each of the protagonists has …show more content…
These actions are further supported as the characters become increasingly drunk as the night progresses. Although, as described above, George, Martha, Nick, and Honey have been fortunate to have been highly educated, their playing of the games bends what is real and what is not as these games in of themselves are not genuine in physical existence, they are only pretend; when children play freeze tag, those that become "frozen" stand still as if they are truly frozen, although they are not. Moreover, the rules of these games are important as they allow the flow of the game and label the boundaries of what is and what isn't legitimate. These rules also apply to the games in which the characters conduct themselves with, as one of the games they partake in, aptly named "Humiliate the Host," where Martha rips apart George by revealing to Nick and Honey the events that George wishes to bury; this is humiliating to George, the host. George follows with retaliation later in the play, specifically in part two Walpurgisnacht where George alone holds the power in a game he calls "Get the Guests" where he damages Nicks integrity in front of Nick's wife Honey. George accomplishes this by telling a partly fictional, but accurate retelling of Nick and Honey's past; this story which …show more content…
Taken itself, the play could be its own symbol, or a representation of a reality of a living family in the 1960s. However, due to being a play, and therefore not autobiographical or real, that the play alone, is a manifestation of the haze shrouding the differences between illusion and reality; only presented through smaller, but not any less relevant,

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