On The Tragic Elements In Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Edward Albee, born in1928, is the most influential playwright after Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. His most successful play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, enjoys great popularity for running for664performances successively, and won both the1963Tony Award for Best Play and the1962-63New York Drama Critics’Circle Award for Best Play. Moreover, after this play was adapted for the film, it was nominated for all thirteen eligible categories at the Academy Awards and finally won five in1967.As a modern play, many scholars and critics focus on its modernity, making certain researches on its postmodern characteristics, the living state of humankind and other related aspects. However, seldom do critics regard it as a pure tragedy, and studies its tragic elements, which is what this thesis attempts to explore on the basis of Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy, the origin of all the tragedy theory. In accordance with Aristotle, tragedy is an art of imitation, whose plot carries three features, i.e. seriousness, completeness and of a certain magnitude; meanwhile, it achieves the effect of Catharsis by arousing audience’s pity and fear. Therefore, this paper will explore the tragedy in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in terms of the Theory of Imitation, tragic plot and tragic effect.The whole paper is composed of five chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction, briefly introducing Edward Albee and his play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and summing up the related researches at home and abroad. The Second Chapter probes into the Theory of Imitation in tragedy, inspecting how the author imitates his society in the play, and emphasizing the object of imitation-Tragic Heroes. Chapter Three investigates the tragic plot, which consists of two parts:the characteristics of Plot and the elements of Plot. With respect to Plot’s characteristics, since seriousness related to tragic heroes has been touched in the former chapter, completeness and of a certain magnitude are elaborated on here; and the part of Plot’s elements expounds Peripeties, Discoveries and Sufferings in the play. The Fourth Chapter on the tragic effect-Catharsis, in the first place, summarizes the definitions of Catharsis from different groups, and then combining with the play, tentatively sums up them in two points:medical purgation and religious purification; finally, it makes an analysis of the way to accomplish Catharsis, namely pity and fear, in the play. The last chapter is the conclusion.This paper is a trial of rereading the modern play with classics. Based on Aristotelian tragedy, the tragedy of the characters lies in their hamartia, i.e. blindly pursuing the American dream distorted by materialism. Through the play, Albee reveals the malady in his time and society; and he calls on people to rethink about their lives, awakening from the illusive American dream, to find the definition of success as well as the meaning of life in reality.