The Call Of The Existentialism

Emerging on the American theatrical scene in the 1950s, Edward Albee (1928—) is always considered as a social critic for his description of dysfunctional family relationships in modern American society.Based on the analysis of Albee's three representative plays The American Dream (1961), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), and A Delicate Balance (1966), this thesis tries to dig out the societal problems embedded in these plays and then find out Albee's way to deal with the social problems through his solution to alleviate the frustrated family relationships in his plays. What is more, because of the influence of the existential thoughts, especially of Sartre and Camus's concepts having exerted on Albee, this thesis will apply the existential thoughts to interpreting the process of Albee's searching for the way to solve both familial and social problems and it consists of five parts.The introduction illustrates Albee's adopted life, the connection between Albee and the existential thoughts, as well as the studies concerning on the theme of this thesis at home and abroad. As for Chapter One, it consists of the existentialism's influence on Albee and the social problems miniaturized in his three typical family plays. On the basis of the basic concepts of Sartre's existentialism. Chapter Two has explicated the abnormal family relationships in Albee's three plays. In Chapter Three, through the inspiration of Camus'idea of awakening as well as Sartre's concept of freedom and responsibility, Albee's way to deal with the familial and social problems will be concluded. In the last part, it comes to the conclusion that although there is the deficiency in Albee's alleviation of the deformed family relationships, his way to maintain the familial and social balance can still benefit our society a lot.