A Delicate Balance (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Edward Albee
- First Published: 1966
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: October, in the mid-1960’s
- Setting: The living room of a large and well-appointed suburban house
- Principal Characters: Agnes, Tobias, Claire, Julia, Edna
- Genres: Drama, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: 1960’s, Family or family life, Parents and children, Communication, Fear, Existentialism, Suburban life, Houses, mansions, or manors
- Locales: United States
The Story:
Agnes and Tobias, an affluent elderly couple married for about forty years, sipped after-dinner drinks in their living room one autumnal Friday evening. They chatted pleasantly about Agnes’ persistent belief that she might one day easily go mad. Agnes’ younger sister Claire came down from her room to apologize for an embarrassing incident she had caused during dinner and was severely rebuked by Agnes for her drunkenness. Agnes then went to telephone her daughter Julia, who lived some distance away. Left alone with Claire, Tobias inquired about her previous...
[The entire page is 2164 words long]
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