An Interpretation Of Female Characters In Albee's Absurd Plays

Edward Albee is recognized as one of the greatest American playwrights in the American drama history after Eugene O'Neill,Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.Albee is also a good representative of the Theater of Absurd in America and has tremendous influence on American Avantgarde Theatre.This thesis studies the female figure in Albee's four absurd plays,they are Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The American Dream of Albee's early works,Three Tall Women and The Goat,or Who Is Sylvia? created in his late years.By using literature review method,method of qualitative analysis,method of inductive analysis,and a combination of case study and theoretical analysis,and feminist criticism theory,this thesis will analyze,compare and contrast the female characters in Albee's early years' plays and that in his late ones,so as to bring a new perspective to study on Albee.The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One is introduction which introduces Albee and his absurd plays and also talks about the study methods used in this thesis;Chapter Two is literature review,which thoroughly states the study status on Albee and his plays,at home and abroad;Chapter Three contains two parts,part one is the theoretical framework,part two is the embodiment of feminist theory in the four plays;Chapter Four is the body part which consists of two parts,the first part analyzes two kinds female figure of Albee's early works,the young and the old.The old women are kind,gentle and virtuous,but the young are evil,vicious,with strong and aggressive personality.By studying Albee's childhood,the contemporary homosexual social status,and feminist theory,this thesis explores the reason of Albee's depiction of evil women who are created by the patriarchy society.The second part of Chapter Four focuses on the female figure of Albee's later plays,who are independent,optimistic and confident.This part also analyzes Albee's creation of charming female figure and the awaking of their feminist consciousness by looking at his family background and feminist theory.Chapter Five is the conclusion part,by comparing and contrasting the female figure of Albee's early works and works in his late period,this thesis believes that women in Albee's absurd plays are not only evil.Obviously,there is a striking contrast of female figure of his plays,the evil young women and kind old women in his early year's plays and the charming women in his late ones,which shows Albee's expectation for women who are independent,gentle and kind;on the other hand,his creation of charming female figure states that Albee's creation of female figure having been misunderstood,because he has made great contribution on creating female figure on stage performance.