The Predicament Of Female Identity Construction In Edward Albee's Three Plays

As a winner of three Pulitzer Prizes,Edward Albee is a famous American playwright in the twentieth century.In his plays,females are usually depicted as domineering,arrogant and boisterous.Since those female characters do not go with the image of traditional good women,Albee has sometimes been blamed for his misogyny tendency.However,this thesis is designed to argue that Albee does not have prejudices against women.Instead,he is very much concerned with women's.existence in the patriarchal society.By exploring the physical confinement of social norms in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,the psychological anxiety brought by domestic orderliness in A Delicate Balance and the body objectification under male gaze in Three Tall Women,this thesis reveals women's living predicament and identity crisis in the patriarchal society.The thesis mainly adopts the feminist and existentialist theories from Simon De Beauvoir to analyze the identity construction of Albee's female characters,with a focus on their transcendence and immanence.The first chapter is to explore female identity construction under the physical restriction of social norms in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.In this play,the female protagonist Martha is repressed by the traditional gender role and the pro-family sentiment in 1950s'America.She is imprisoned in roles of a daughter,a wife and a mother while finding limited space to develop her own individuality.Caught in an identity crisis,Martha has to create a fictional child so as to find her own position in this imaginary world.However,the attempt of Martha for survival is only a simple escape from her facticity and immanence,which could not lead her to liberty.The second chapter is to explore female identity construction under the psychological anxiety brought by domestic orderliness in A Delicate Balance.In this play,the female protagonist Agnes devotes herself to deal with the problems of other family members.She seems to dominate the family but only superficially,because hidden in it is her anxiety towards a repetitive life and a susceptible identity.However,home is the source of her life meaning and representation of her value.Though she realizes the precariousness of her life,Agnes still chooses to reinforce her immanence,maintain an illusional family balance and seek her identity in domestic routines.But this attempt only leads her to miss the opportunity to transcend into an open future.The third chapter is to explore female identity construction under the objectification of male gaze and self survey.In this play,the female protagonist A has been instructed to understand what man expects and how woman should behave.She has felt herself as an object since her childhood.Frustrated as a subject,A is led to become a narcissist,who offers herself to her own desires and set herself as supreme.Under the gaze of her own,A creates a perfect imaginary double,waiting for others'watch and admiration.For her,male is more of an instrument to gain money,glory and social status.However,this survival strategy cannot help A get rid of her dependence but only lead her to complete slavery.Her self-salvation is a way of utilizing her immanencee---justifying her meaning of existence within her immanence.Narcissism would only make her lose her hold of the whole world and sink into nothingness.Although the female characters in Albee's plays do not realize their transcendence confronted with their living predicament in patriarchal society,thus developing an authentic and meaningful identity,Albee still entertains hope for those females.For him,what matters most is to jump out of the illusion of life and participate in life honestly and actively.Only when one transcends herself through her own projects,can she achieve real liberty.Affirming the importance of self-awareness and sincere participation in life,Albee thus elevates his concern on female predicament to the existential condition of human being.