The Miseries of Modern Man: An Analytical Study of Edward Albees The Zoo Story

Hanieh Mehr Motlagh Karaj Islamic Azad University June 2011

AbstractThe Theatre of the Absurd has been introduced by Martin Esslin and many plays with some shared characteristics are considered to be under this category. The Zoo Story is one of the earliest plays of Edward Albee and it demonstrates the senses of alienation and loneliness in the modern life, and it represents the failure of the attempts that are made by the individuals to make communication with each other. In this paper after analyzing the elements of the Theatre of the Absurd in The Zoo Story, the writer suggests that the play can fall out of this category as well. Although it is believed that the Theatre of the Absurd portrays life as being meaningless and void of any truth and values, in The Zoo Story the violent act and the brutal death at the end of the play communicates with the audience and therefore it brings the play out of the world of the Absurd Theatre. In this case Albee has made the audience to be critical of what they see on the stage.

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I.

Introduction

The Zoo Story (1958) is Albees first play and his early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugene Ionesco. The play investigates the themes of alienation, loneliness and dehumanization in a commercial world can be seen. At first it was titled "Peter and Jerry" and the play was not approved by the New York producers.1 Anne Paolucci believes that The Zoo Story is a unique work since it is Albees first play without imperfections. Albee gained his theatrical style very magnificently and he had no doubt about it. The harshness of emotions, clearance of religious allegories, using

especial language and the effects of the music can prove his dramatic techniques (23).

A.

Edward Albee and the Theater of the Absurd

According to Edward Albee, the Theatre of the Absurd is a kind of avant-garde theatre and is first introduced by Martin Esslin. This type of theater describes the philosophical perspectives and the theatrical techniques of some of the European dramatists. As M.H Abrams gives a definition of the Theatre of the Absurd, it is to show mans futile search for meaning in life. There is no truth, purpose or merit in the world (1). Also, Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus states that man seems to be a stranger and an unknown creature in the world and he is in such an endless exile that there is no hope for finding his lost home. In this case mans condition is called absurd (6).

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< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Albee#Plays>.

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Jerome P. Crabb asserts that what Esslin calls a Theatre of the Absurd is because of the presence of some features like the sense of anxiety, wonder, confusion in the individual who lives in an unexplainable world (1). However, Albee was really displeased when he realized that he was considered as one of the dramatists belonged to the Theater of the Absurd. He believes that an absurd theatre is the one in which the esthetic criterion is something like this: A "good" play is one which makes money; a "bad" play (in the sense of "Naughty! Naughty!" I guess) is one which does not. Albee continues to say that he does not like being labeled and moreover the absurd dramatists stand for a group of writers who have many shared features at the same time (Which Theatre Is the Absurd One?).

II.

The Elements of the Theater of the Absurd in The Zoo Story

Richard E. Amacher divides the play into three parts. In the first part the audience learns about the differences between Jerry and Peter with regard to their background, economic status, marital status, literary taste, philosophy, desire for communication, the way they talk, and so on. The second part is about Jerry and the dog and the third is the zoo story and what happens at the zoo (qtd. in Trudeau 161).

A.

Isolation

Not only are the characters spiritually isolated but also they are geographically set apart from each other. According to Philip C. Kolin, symbolically, the play is about cages, boxes, frames, bars, encasements, the shrinking territorialities of prison cell or madhouse. At the time of the play advertisement, a cage or the prison bars were used to exemplify the whole play. Actually Albee was in favor of using confined areas on the larger frames of the stage in

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order to represent the situation to which man is restricted whether consciously or unconsciously (qtd. in Bottoms 21). Harold Clurman points out that Jerry is an isolated man who sits beside Peter as a respectable and modest citizen. While being an ignorant man and alienated by the society Jerry has no connection with anybody; however he tries to establish a connection in vein. He cannot trust anyone and he feels disgust and is frightened whenever he approaches a person or even an animal. When he tries to come out of the emotional insulation of his life, he ends in the violation of the privacy of the other citizen on the park bench and later Peter is forced to lead Jerry to commit suicide (qtd. in Trudeau 141). As the title of the play suggests, mans life is a zoo story. Jerry states: I went to the zoo to find out more about the way people exist with animals, and the way animals exist with each other, and with people too *. Kuska, Martina. The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter and The Zoo Story by Edward Albee a Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto) production Study Guide. National Arts Centre. Feb. 2011 . Nilan, Mary M. Albees The Zoo Story:Alinated Man and the Nature of Love. Drama Criticism. Ed. Laurence J. Trudeau. 11 vols. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2000. Vol. 11: 154-155. Paolucci, Anne. Edward Albee: A Retrospective (and Beyond). Edward Albee. Ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York: Routledge, 2003. Siefker, Bailey M. Lisa. Absurdly American: Rediscovering the Representation of Violence in The Zoo Story. Edward Albee: A Casebook. Ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York: Routledge, 2005. 33- 46. Stenz, Anita Maria. Edward Albee: The Poet of Loss. Germany: Mouton Publishers, 1978. Wallace, Robert S. The Zoo Story: Albees Attack on Fiction. Drama Criticism. Ed. Laurence J. Trudeau. 11 vols. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2000. Vol. 11: 151-152. Zimbardo, Rose A. Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albees The Zoo Story. Drama Criticism. Ed. Laurence J. Trudeau. 11 vols. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2000. Vol. 11: 143- 145. Edward Albee. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. February 2011. . The Zoo Story. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. February 2011. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoo_Story>.

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