“[They] adopted the same technique to explore, from Freudian and Marxist viewpoints, domestic and ideological situations confronting left-wing intellectuals divorced by their education and subsequent careers from their original working-class life-styles” (Wickham 255).Albee, in his first work, infused family life with the ideals of the American dream, with his relationships to family members as his ultimate inspiration.
Using Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Mrs. Barker, and Young Man, Albee creates vibrant and absurd scenes that seem much like an autobiography of his dramatic childhood. “Evidently Albee has decided to begin his expose of the American Scene at its roots: the family unit. And according to Albee it is breaking down, in need of immediate repair” (Rutenberg 63). After examining the text of his first play, it is clear that Albee was drawing his characters from his family. There is substantial evidence to conclude that the character’s in Edward Albee’s play The American Dream represent his own tumultuous family life.
Albee became very aware of his surroundings at an early age, and everyone around him influenced his perception. He had been given the title, in Saul Bellow’s phrase, of a “first-class noticer” (Gussov 22). Some of the greatest impact came from his adoptive parents who instilled in him the idea of an American dream.
As a child of luxury (and lovelessness), Albee was indoctrined in the American dream. Work hard, study hard, apply oneself, take advantage of opportunity, and become a success. Get to know the right people, make a good impression, belong to the correct clubs. Marry well, generate a family and live happily ever after in consanguinity (Gussov 140).He was forced to believe that in order for them to love him, he needed to become a successful individual. He noticed that his parents did not communicate between each other, nor could they communicate with him. Recessive and unemotional, Mr. and Mrs. Albee had nothing to do with anybody, not even the loving son they had adopted. Mommy starts off and finishes as the most humorous character. She jabbers incessantly while Daddy pretends to lend her an ear. She is a vicious and snappy woman. In the play Grandma quotes, “It’s Mommy over there makes all the trouble. If you’d listened to me, you wouldn’t have married her in the first place. She was a tramp and a trollop and a trull to boot, and she’s no better now” (Albee 60). When questioned if his mother were, in fact, those things, Albee confided that he had no tangible proof but still thought she was. He was also quite certain that his mother only married his father for his money, and that his grandmother remembers her vowing at the age of eight that she was going to marry a rich man (Gussov 28). In one scene of the play, Mommy states, “We were very poor! But then I married you, Daddy, and now we’re very rich!” (Albee 66). Not only was his mother a snobby “gold digger” of sorts, she was very domineering over his father as well. She wore the pants in the relationship, while Daddy pranced around acting like a scared rabbit. Albee creates in his play a dialogue between Mommy and Daddy to prove his point:
This type of scene occurs frequently throughout The American Dream.
- MOMMY: What did I say? What did I just say?
- DADDY: You didn't like any of them, not one bit.
- MOMMY: That's right; you just keep paying attention. (Albee 69)
Daddy can only be described as “passive and disemboweled” (Beck 3). “He could not be touched emotionally or physically,” says Gussov about Edward Albee’s father (Gussov 140). In a series of dialogues later, Albee’s father takes on a sense of insecurity through the character of Daddy, who is very receptive to being submissive and doesn’t seem to mind a great deal. He just does what he needs to, to stay on Mommy’s good side—a common action in the Albee household (Beck 14).
Albee felt as though his adoptive parents had plenty of internal problems that needed to be worked out between each other and expressed them often throughout his play. From power struggles to not being able to get any sort of satisfaction, the personalities of Mr. and Mrs. Albee could have started World War III.
- DADDY: Was I firm about it?
- MOMMY: Oh, so firm; so firm.
- DADDY: And was I decisive?
- MOMMY: SO decisive! Oh, I shivered.
- DADDY: And masculine? Was I really masculine?
- MOMMY: Oh, Daddy, you were so masculine; I shivered and fainted. (Albee 74)
Edward Albee’s favorite relative, by far, was Grandma Cotter. She was the glue that held the family together. “Only with Grandma Cotter and his growing family of friends could he find sanctuary and share a laugh” (Gussov 140). In The American Dream Grandma displays her own wits:
Albee recognizes Grandma as very smart. Grandma has been threatened that the van man will take her away because she has grown too old. She knows that the “arrival of [him] requires her own immediate departure (Beck 4). And thus enters Young Man.
- MOMMY: You see? I can pull that stuff just as easy as you can.
- GRANDMA: Well, you got the rhythm, but you don’t have the quality. Besides, your middle-aged.
- MOMMY: I’m proud of it!
- GRANDMA: Look I’ll show you how it’s really done. Middle-aged people think they can do anything, but the truth is that middle-aged people can’t do most things as well as they used to. Middle-aged people think they are like anybody else. We live in the age of deformity. You see? Rhythm and content. You’ll learn. (Albee 86)
Young Man embodies all the qualities of the American dream of superficiality. He looks like a model and captures strength and masculinity at it’s best. Though the Young Man claims to have no talents whatsoever, he offers to do any type of work for pay (Albee 107). He is all looks but in every other way incomplete (Albee 113). In some ways, Young Man represents Edward Albee himself. He was habitually lost in himself. Being adopted, he knew very little about himself or about his past, which resulted in developing a very recluse and passive personality. Albee once said that the “reason for his adoption was because his grandfather wanted a grandson, a male heir.” Albee was also known to ask himself if maybe he had and identical twin that may have been stillborn due to the emptiness he constantly felt (Gussov 22). Albee’s adoption is certainly a credible way to explain the schemas of the characters in his play.
Mrs. Barker, who in The American Dream volunteers at the Bye-Bye Adoption Service (Albee 97), must be the symbol of Albee’s own mysterious adoption. Not only does she act as messenger; she is also the arbitrator between Mommy and Grandma. This mediation may have been the cause or the effect of the bitter tension between Mommy and Grandma in the play and in Albee’s family. The relationship of the three women can be seen as cyclic. Mommy adores Mrs. Barker. She has prestige in the community as chair of the woman’s club, so of course Mommy feels compelled to look up to her. Also, Mommy simply adores Mrs. Barker’s husband who is bound to a wheel chair (Albee 60). Mrs. Barker sympathizes with Grandma, and it is only when the two funny women are in the living room alone that they open up to each other and show their true selves (Albee 95). On the contrary, the only relationship that Grandma and Mommy share is one of utter contempt for each other. They just do not get along (Albee 69).
There is one character, not in the cast but in the past, who is particularly of interest. It is the reference to the “bumble of joy” which was the newborn baby Mommy and Daddy received from the Bye-Bye Adoption Service twenty years before the scene takes place. This baby is just what Mommy and Daddy have always wanted, since they had been told they could not bear children of their own. But when they got this “bumble of joy” they found it to be bad. He cried all the time, he only had eyes for Daddy, and he “began to develop an interest in it’s you-know-what.” The disgruntled parents took it back to the Adoption Service (Albee 97). This character presumably portrays Edward’s inner self, his unknown past, constantly fighting and searching for answers that have been long gone.
The American Dream is a direct translation of Edward Albee’s childhood into a script for stage: With Mommy as the sarcastic, unfeeling character forcing Albee to “get rich quick;” Daddy as the father who he would never dream of talking to in tough situations because he would never care. Grandma is his only loophole for a happy and a compassionate soul to confide in—his savior of sorts. Witty and smart, she keeps Albee attentive and laughing within. His questionable adoption is roughly represented by Mrs. Barker, a well to do in town. He is portrayed through Young Man, a beautiful person on the inside who cannot sense or touch any emotion, especially love, due to internally abusive parents (Albee 115). Edward Albee has turned the barrel of bad apples, known as his family, into sweet, sweet, inspiration for his play The American Dream.
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