An Analysis Of Alienation In Who Is Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? From The Perspective Of Space Theory

Edward Albee,who rose in the United States in the second half of the 20~thh century,is the pioneer of American absurd drama.He has produced more than 30 plays in his life,and has won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony best Drama Awards and Lifetime Achievement Awards for many times.The works of Edward Albee are mainly about the theme of distorted marriage and family life,the shattered American dream,the absurdity of the world and the alienation between human beings,by describing the alienation between man and society,man and man,man and himself,which reveal the degeneration of people’s spiritual civilization under the highly developed material civilization of contemporary America.When the work of Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?was published,it attracted the attention of the world’s theatrical circles and became one of the world’s classic plays.The drama’s absurd artistic features and unique writing style makes Edward Albee one of the world-class drama Masters.The theory of space criticism was formed in the 1980s,and the French theorist Henry Lefebvre proposes that“space”is a social force formed on the basis of a particular culture,and has social,cultural and historical attributes.In social space,people’behavior and spiritual world also have alienation phenomenon.The“space turn”of literature provides a new way for literary research,which enables writers to better explore the theme of the text and its deep meaning.Great achievements have been made in the study of Edward Albee and his works at home and abroad.On the basis of predecessors’researches,this paper tries to analyze the alienation relationship in this play under the space theory of Henry Lefebvre,to explore the deep cause of alienation,so as to better understand the connotation of this play,and to reflect on the current state of the society.This paper consists of three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.The main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction.This part first introduces Edward Albee’s personal life and his writing career systematically.According to the chronological order of Edward Albee’s creation,the paper introduces the representative works of each stage of their creation.The author summarizes the research status of Edward Albee at home and abroad,and points out the significance and research characteristics of this paper.The second part is the body,consisting of four chapters.The first chapter summarizes the space theory of Henry Lefebvre and the concept of alienation.First,the paper introduces the development of Henry Lefebvre’s space theory.By discussing the background and development of space theory,the author realizes that space is not simply a container,or abstract concept in physics,or a scene or background of story,but has social,cultural,historical attribute.Then it discusses the relationship between space and literature under the influence of the theory of space criticism.At last,it concretely expounds the concept of alienation and the embodiment of alienation in western literary works.The second chapter analyzes the alienation between man and society and human beings under the social space,which is oriented by materialistic values.The rapid development of capitalism,making the material civilization and spiritual civilization constantly impact and collide with each other,American spiritual civilization has gradually declined.People find it difficult to integrate into the society where they live in and gradually lose their sense of belonging.The space-time chaos of the protagonists in this play symbolize the sense of the diaphragm of their living space-time,and the confusion and absurdity of human existence.People’excessive pursuit of materialism makes them selfish and indifferent,cruel and hypocritical,moral flawed,spiritually empty,and even ethical distorted.The worship of money and social status strangles people’imagination,affection,and the purest love and goodness between them.The differences of values leads to the difficulty of communication between people and the alienation and separation in social relations.The third chapter analyzes the alienation of the relationship between the father and the son,the mother and the son and the husband and wife in the family space.It analyzes the alienation phenomenon between George couple and Nick couple.The mutual abuse,mutual hatred,mutual slander,and even sexual betrayal between George and Martha,reflecting the indifference between the American couple.The deceit and utilization between Nick and his wife reflect the selfishness and ugliness of people under the materialism.All of this reveal the living situation of difficult communication,indifferent feeling in American marriage.Then,the author analyzes the relationship between Martha and her father’s relationship of oppressing and being oppressed,and reveals the powerless resistance to paternity in the United States.Finally,by describing the distorted nature of Martha’s relationship with her imaginary son,and the selfishness behavior of Honey’s multiple abortions,it indicates that people are driven by monetary relationships and so that the most intimate family relationships have became alienated and distorted.The fourth chapter analyzes the psychological changes and self salvation of the four protagonists in the psychological space.Through the psychological changes of the four characters,the paper analyzes the changes of individual psychological space in the play,and explores the self redemption and moral awakening of the characters under the psychological space.Through the four games of the exorcism ceremony,the two couples gradually put aside their hypocrisy and banished the devil.Martha was gradually turning to fear and calm down from the tough and strong nature and bohemian madness,and began to realize her love and guilt for her husband.From his initial ambition to decadence and humility,Nick realized his hypocrisy and greed.Honey awoke up from her deliberate stupidity,realized her selfishness,started to look straight into the truth of their marriage,faced the reality of life with honesty and courage,and decided to have a baby.George was no longer afraid of the moral decline of the real world.The four protagonists were redeemed in their hearts.Finally,through the self redemption of the four protagonists,the awakening of the contemporary social morality of the United States is revealed.The last part is conclusion,which again reviews the full text.First,the paper summarizes the former parts,and then sums up the main causes of alienation,that is,the highly developed material civilization in contemporary America leads to the decline of people’spiritual civilization,which leads to the alienation between people and society,people and people,man and himself.Finally,the paper sums up the significance of space theory to literary research,and the space turn opens a new way for literary research.The author points out the innovation and deficiencies of this thesis,hoping more experts and scholars should continue to pay a close attention to Edward Albee’s works and further study on his drama creation.