Edward Albee's Martha and George: A psychoanalytic interpretation of a dysfunctional couple

Abstract

This paper ponders and reflects upon the troubled personalities and traits of the dysfunctional couple (Martha and George) portrayed in Edward Albee's ' Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' through a Freudian lens. There is a separate analysis of both the characters individually followed by a comprehensive evaluation of the subsequent effect that the characters have on each other as a couple.George’s character is explored and his flaws as a human being are uncovered in order to understand his failure to perform the roles expected out of him conventionally of a son, husband or even as an imaginary father to an unconceived child.Whereas Martha, who suffered from traumatic emotional experiences during childhood is reflected upon to understand her phallic fixation, unbalanced personality and unresolved sexual conflicts all of which has negativity affected her personality.As a couple they make sure unconsciously that none of them is ever able to ride out of the storm that their union is.