Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | George and Martha's Relationship

Busiel is a Ph.D. candidate with a specialty in drama. In this essay he examines the band between George and Martha: while their relationship may be antagonistic, Busiel proposes that it may be love that keeps them together.

Christopher G. Busiel

The complexity of the marital relations between Martha and George is one of the central strengths of Albee's technique in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Audiences and critics alike were often repelled by the depth of George and Martha's viciousness toward one another. Time magazine commented that for Eugene O'Neill "marriage had its serpents, but they were invaders in Eden. To Albee, marriage seems to be a no-exit hell in which the only intimacy is a hopeless common...

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