Edward Albee The American Dream 1961 Edward Albee

Edward Albee „The American Dream“ (1961)

Edward Albee (1928 – 2016): Adopted by a rich, exclusive New York family: "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't know how to be a son, either. “ Expelled from several schools and Trinity College Moves to Greenwich Village, NYC, writes first plays: „The Zoo Story“ (1959) and „The Death of Bessie Smith“ (1960) „Who‘s Afraid of Virginia Woolf“ (1962) One of the most successful and influential contemporary dramatists A sharp critic of American society and its ideologies

"It is an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation, and vacuity; it is a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen. “ Edward Albee on „The American Dream“

- a family play - social relationships and communication - generational conflict and old age - The American Dream: a collective fantasy - A critique of post-World War II American society: materialism, consumerism, conformity, spiritual and intellectual exhaustion - A commentary on modern life: alienation, loss of individuality, complacency, apathy, indifference, loss of empathy and orientation

„The American Dream“ One-act-play Premier in January 1961 at York Playhouse (Off-Boradway) Satire on the conventional American family The Scene: A living room The Players: Mommy Daddy Grandma Mrs. Barker Young Man

MOMMY: I don‘t know what can be keeping them. DADDY: They are late, naturally. MOMMY: Of course, they‘re late; it never fails. DADDY: That‘s the way things are today, and there‘s nothing you can do about it. MOMMY: You‘re quite right. DADDY: When we took this apartment, they were quick enough to have me sign the lease, they were quick enough to take my cheque for two months‘ rent in advance. . . MOMMY: And one month‘s security. . . DADDY: . . . and one month‘s security. They were quick enough to check my references; they were quick enough about all that. But now, try to get the icebox fixed, try to get the doorbell fixed, try to get the leak in the johnny fixed! Just try it. . . They aren‘t so quick about that. MOMMY: Of course not; it never fails. People think they can get away with anything these days. . . and, of course they can. I went to buy a new hat yesterday.

GRANDMA: Well, that‘s all that counts. People being sorry. Makes you feel better; gives you a sense of dignity, and that‘s all that‘s important. . . a sense of dignity. And it doesn‘t matter if you don‘t care, or not, either. You got to have a sense of dignity, even if you don‘t care, ´cause, if you don‘t have that, civilization‘s doomed. . Because I‘m old! When you‘re old you gotta do something. When you get old, you can‘t talk to people because people snap at you. When you get so old, people talk to you that way. That‘s why you become deaf, so you won‘t be able to hear people talking to you that way. And that‘s why you go and hide under the covers in the big soft bed, so you won‘t feel the house shaking from people talking to you that way. That‘s why old people die, eventually. People talk to them that way. I‘ve got to go and get the rest of the boxes

GRANDMA: . . . It turned out the bumble didn't look like either one of its parents. That was enough of a blow, but things got worse. One night, it cried its heart out. . Then it turned out it only had eyes for its Daddy. BARKER: For its Daddy! Why any self-respecting woman would have gouged those eyes right out of its head. GRANDMA: Well, she did. That's exactly what she did. . Then, it began to develop an interest in its you-know-what. BARKER: In its you-know-what! Well! I hope they cut its hands off at the wrists! GRANDMA: Well, yes, they did that eventually. But first they cut off its you-knowwhat. . One day it called its mommy a dirty name. BARKER: Well, I hope they cut its tongue out! GRANDMA: Of course. And then, as it got bigger, they found out all sorts of terrible things about it, like: it didn't have a head on its shoulders, it had no guts, it was spineless, its feet were made of clay. . just dreadful things. . For the last straw, it finally up and died. (AD 99 -101)

YOUNG MAN: Well, actually, I may have a career there yet. I‘ve lived out on the West Coast almost all my life. . . and I‘ve met a few people who. . . might be able to help me. I‘m not in too much of a hurry, though. I‘m almost as young as I look. GRANDMA: Oh, that‘s nice. And will you look at that face! YOUNG MAN: Yes, it‘s quite good, isn‘t it? Clean-cut, midwest farm boy type, almost insultingly good-looking in a typically American way. Good profile, straight nose, honest eyes, wonderful smile. . . GRANDMA: Yup. Boy, you know what you are, don‘t you? You‘re the American Dream, that‘s what you are. All those other people, they don‘t know what they‘re talking about. You. . . you are the American Dream.

Literature of the absurd: The term is applied to a number of works in drama and prose fiction which have in common the view that the human condition is essentially absurd, and that this condition can be adequately only in works of literature that are themselves absurd. . the tradition: human beings are fairly rational creatures who live in an at least partially intelligible universe, that they are part of an ordered social structure, and that they may be capable of heroism and dignity even in defeat. existentialism: . . . view a human being as an isolated existent who is cast into an alien universe, to conceive the human world as possessing no inherent truth, value, or meaning, and to represent human life-in ist fruitless search for purpose and significance, as it moves from the nothingness whence it came toward the nothingness where it must end-as an existence which is both anguished and absurd. Abrams/Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms

The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, „the lord make it like that of New England. “ For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God‘s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God‘s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us `til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going. John Winthrop, „A Model of Christian Charity“ (1630)

„ . . . where is that station which can confer a more substantial system of felicity than that of an American farmer possessing freedom of action, freedom of thoughts, ruled by a mode of government which requires but little from us? “ J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, „Letters From an American Farmer“ (1782)

Benjamin Franklin and the „American Dream“

To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (1771, 1788/89)

Benjamin Franklin – Conclusion: 1. The self-made man 1. The exemplary American: frugality, discipline, self-improvement 1. The printer/tradesman and journalist/writer 1. The scientist: enlightenment reason 1. The politician and diplomat: public servant, advocate for democracy, reformer and initiator of public projects (first library, fire company, school, hospital, etc. ) 1. Internationally respected statesman and scientist

Thus is the problem of Rich and Poor to be solved. The laws of accumulation will be left free; the laws of distribution free. Individualism will continue, but the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; intrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself. The best minds will thus have reached a stage in the development of the race which it is clearly seen that there is no mode of disposing of surplus wealth creditable to thoughtful and earnest men into whose hands it flows save by using it year by year for the general good. This day already dawns. Andrew Carnegie, „Wealth“, North American Review (1889)