Summative paper 2 practice "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Summative paper 2 practice "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" 14/11/22

• What impact does setting have on your understanding of the central ideas or themes presented in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"?

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a story written by Edward Ablee, first staged in 1962, which examines the complexities of a middle-aged marriage between George and Martha. It shows a gradual increase of chaos between 2 couples who are having late-night drinks after a party. The book involves personal issues related to parental and marriage issues and the nature of controlling your emotions when under the influence of alcohol. The central theme this book is focussed on is the chaos that unleashes more throughout the story, which is affected by the setting. The impact that the setting has on the central theme which is chaos is the time the story is set, which is a major cause of the characters to lose their decency and filter, and the place this late-night drink is held, George and Martha's house, which has irony with the central theme.

Firstly, the surroundings of the story is Martha and George's house. The house is ironic to the central theme, because a house stands for comfort, relaxation and privacy. Although in this story as the chaos unfolds, all these aspects of "home" are broken. Between these 2 couples the privacy and inner emotion is quickly released, breaking through the barrier of politeness. When looking at page 91, "Nick: I...I have no respect for you. George: And none or yourself, either...[...] I don't know what the younger generation's coming to. Nick: You don't... you don't even... George: Care? You're quite right... I couldn't care less. [...]". Martha and George are quite a bit older than Nick and Honey. It is about 4AM in this scene, and George is reading a book. He is telling his thoughts about the younger generation, Nick's generation. This scene shows the barrier of politeness which has disappeared during the story. This proves that the irony between the house and the chaos going on in the story has an impact on how we view chaos and the gradual increase of it.

Another aspect of setting that has an impact on the understanding of the central theme of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is the time this story takes place. The story starts at 2 in the morning, late-night drinks after a party they have had. The time has a significant influence on the chaos created. The 4 characters had already drank, and are under the influence, not only that, at 2 in the morning people are tired and it often results in a lack of caring thus no barrier of politeness resulting in chaos. On page 44, around 2-3AM, "Martha: I actually fell for him... it... that, there. George: Martha's a romantic at heart. Martha: [...] George: STOP IT MARTHA! Martha: Whadda you want? [...] Martha: So anyway, I married the S.O.B., and I had it all planned out [...] George: [almost crying] I said top, Martha." In this story Martha is about to tell Nick and Honey about their "son", a non-existent character. Martha and George are not able to get children, which resulted in Martha creating a false illusion that they do have a son. In this section, we can see that Martha is getting more aggressive and less caring, which is a result of the time it is set. She starts using more slurs and informal language around the other couple. This shows that the time the play is set has an impact on the understanding of the central theme chaos in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", because this setting is a major cause of the chaos created.

To conclude, the first aspect, place, has irony with the central theme, creating a more significant theme presented in the story. Secondly, time has a large impact on the central theme, because it causes the characters to lose their decency and filter. These both have a great impact on the central theme of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", chaos.