FREE ESSAY ON EDWARD ALBEE, THE AMERICAN DREAM

EDWARD ALBEE, THE AMERICAN DREAM

Edward Albee's, "The American Dream"
Edward Albee is considered by many to be one of the most influential playwrights of the
seventeenth century. Albee wrote his plays around the typical themes associated with the
American drama. They were not just plays about family life; instead, they frequently
focused on family dysfunctions and the underlying motives of family structure. In his
works, Albee portrays many of the concepts of the absurdism movement that had begun in
Europe after World War II. This movement was a reaction to the many injustices brought
along with the war itself. One of the major motifs present is the idea that the
playwright possessed little or no concern for traditional play structure and form. A
second prominent trait of the absurdism movement is the lack of effective communication
between the play's major characters. Albee's play, "The American Dream," is an accurate
depiction of the popular trends associated with the movement's establishment in America.
As Albee quotes, "The play is an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the
substitution of artificial for real values in out society, a condemnation of complacency,
cruelty, emasculation and vacuity."
The first conclusion that Albee makes in reference to "The American Dream" is that it is
a portrayal of how artificial values have replaced real values in the American society.
This theme is apparent in the study of how the family replaces Grandma with the Young
Man. To Albee, Grandma represents the way life used to be, a time when real values and
self-worth mattered. Grandma is an overall depiction of how American's have not learned
from their past. Instead, they "talk past it" and ignore its existence. Albee teaches
that the past holds the truth to our future when he gives Grandma the ability to reveal
the truth for Mrs. Baker's visit, and the knowledge that the Young Man is the identical
twin of the family's first son. The family's ignorance of Grandma is obvious in analyzing
her comment to Mrs. Baker; "Oh my; that feels good. It's been so long since anybody had
implored me. Do it again. Implore me some more." Mommy and Daddy have become accustomed
to ignoring the old ways and looking for a new set of values.
Throughout the course of the play, Mommy and Daddy are looking for satisfaction. Daddy
says to Mommy, "That's the way things are today; you just can't get satisfaction; you
just try." They are not happy with the way things are, representing the real values, and
are trying to find satisfaction, or an artificial set of values. Mommy constantly
threatens Grandma with being sent away to a nursing home, however, she explains to Mrs.
Baker, "There's no such thing as the van man. There is no van man. We…we made him
up." However, when Grandma leaves, Mommy is deeply upset until she is surprised with the
presence of the Young Man. The sole purpose for the parents keeping Grandma around is
found in the fact that she represented the old set of values. They could not send her
away until she had been replaced, replaced with a new, artificial set of values. Albee's
ideas toward the new set of values is present when the Young Man replies to Grandma, "I
have no talents at all, except what you see…my person; my body, my face. In every
other way I am incomplete, and I must therefore…compensate." This new set of
standards revolves around the artificial qualities of looks, money, and power. 
Albee also extends to comment that the American citizens have become complacent and
self-satisfied. In the opening French scene, Mommy and Daddy are perfectly content
sitting around waiting on the guest to arrive. To Albee this is not seen as a sign of
laziness, but as a warning of the smugness to come. Also, throughout the play, Albee
allows his characters the ability to relay such harsh realities, with no fervent emotion.
As seen when Grandma explains the murder of the first son to Mrs. Baker, "What did they
do? Well, for the last straw, it finally up and died; and you can imagine how that made
them feel, their having paid for it and all." Mommy also goes on to ask Grandma, "How can
you be so old and smug at the same time? You have no sense of proportion." Grandma is
complacent in the sense that she knows her time has come. She understands that she has
"ran her course" in the family and accepts this to the point of ridding herself from the
family. Mommy and Daddy are most content in the fact that they want satisfaction for the
death of their child. Once they have been repaid, the tone of the play changes and the
parents are now satisfied with their "form" of satisfaction.
One of the minor themes Albee also touches on is the portrayal that Americans are cruel.
Albee depicts Mommy and Daddy as both physically and mentally cruel. The entire story of
the first son is the most obvious account of the cruelty of Americans. The parents have
an idea of how they want their son to act; when he defies them or acts "abnormally" they
resort to extreme measures to halt his behaviors. The cruelty is evident in the fact they
want to be repaid for their son's death, for which they were the direct cause. They
believe that they received a faulty "son" from the adoption agency and inevitably are
asking for a refund. Grandma describes their actions to Mrs. Baker, whose comments seem
just as cruel, "But first, they cut off his you-know-what." The parents also proceeded to
gouge out his eyes, cut off his wrists, and severe his tongue, all because he did not
meet their expectations. The cruelty of the parents is transposed to the cruelty of
Americans because they are willing to resort to extreme measure to get or alter things to
fit their ideals.
In "The American Dream," Albee also comments on the fact that American men have become
emasculated and powerless in today's society. Daddy is fighting a losing battle with
Mommy in the argument of who makes the decisions in the household. He finds himself
asking Mommy, "And masculine. Was I really masculine?" Throughout the beginning scene,
Daddy is merely an underlying voice, he accepts what Mommy has to say and will not
disagree with her. The weakening of men is also apparent when Mommy tells Daddy, "I have
the right to live off you because I married you, and because I used to let you get on top
of me and bump your uglies; and I have the right to all of your money when you die."
Albee states that American men have lost their identities in marriage and sex. In the
play, Daddy is a portrayal of men's need for woman's reassurance and acceptance. A second
example of the weakening of men's power in society is illustrated in the portrayal of
Mrs. Baker's brother. Initially he is described as ambitious but then it is realized that
he has fallen to "the chief exponent of woman love."