"THREE TALL WOMEN" (EDWARD ALBEE).   Term Paper ID:26685 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analyzes fictionalized, psychological play about the author's complex & unlikable adoptive mother.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analyzes fictionalized, psychological play about the author's complex & unlikable adoptive mother. Paper Introduction: Edward Albee's Three Tall Women is a remarkable play about an unlikable woman near the end of her long life. By means of its clever structure it dissects her life and character very thoroughly. This woman, identified only as A by the author, is completely unsympathetic but eventually, as understanding grows, she becomes, if not likable, at least comprehensible as a full human being rather than the caricature she at first appears to be. In the first act three characters, simply called A, B, and C hold a long conversation in a richly appointed bedroom. A is 92 years old, terribly fragile, and drifts from lucidity to brief moments of confusion, or indifference, as to her whereabouts. B is a 52-year-old woman who is A's care giver and C is 26, a young lawyer who has been sent by her firm to tend to details of A's estate. In the second act the three very different personalities Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. He may be, as he claims, distanced from theterrible relationship they had. But she doesnot want anyone to think that she was actually living in any kind of want.She therefore stresses that her father was "an architect," certainly not aprofession associated with poverty or even working-class life. C: That's not an architect, that's . A is in a coma (a dummy figureoccupies her bed) and the three women now represent A at three differentstages of her life. He did not, he says, intendto write any kind of "revenge piece," because, although he and his motherhad managed to make each other extremely unhappy throughout the years, heno longer harbored any ill will toward her (Albee n. The understanding he seems to seekis not that which grants forgiveness or reconciles the searcher to thepast. But these remarks (which are reiterated at least oncemore) open up a world of possibilities about A's background. Architects do design furniture but it is only an unsuccessfularchitect for whom this is a primary descriptor. . The mention of her father evokes the formula "Strict, butfair," but then A confusedly admits, with the candor of old age, that itwas, in truth, her mother who was strict. No, my mother was strict. But there is no lack of dramatic movement. B, in bothacts, is a pragmatist who recognizes that her pragmatism is entirely self-serving and claims not to care about this. But this seems to indicate anunwillingness on the critic's part to allow the play to proceed in anythingbut a direct, linear fashion. In part this is because of Albee's purelydramatic skill in handling dialogue. But Band A disagree about why women cheat. Nation 14 Mar. A tug of war goes on as A triesto deal with her mother's influence and it is a tug of war between one'spresentation to the outer world and one's self-knowledge. But with thesedeliberately spare means Albee builds a dramatic structure that isreflexive (i.e., act one does not achieve all its meanings until act twoplays out) and, ultimately, profound in the depth of its exposure of A'slife. (This confuses her; she cries.) (23)The reader is given no concrete information. In other words,A knows that her mother was the parent with the power, and she knows thatthe fiction of the father's power had to be maintained. In the second act when the characterstransform into A at the three stages in her life the decisions she madeearly on are replayed. Does she feel sympathy for the woman or is she simply recognizingthe difficulty that will follow, for B especially, if she's pressed?Whatever her reasons may be her intervention builds on the layer of mysterysurrounding A's origins and/or her attempt to put them in a certain light. Locked within thatmistaken notion of what constituted strength she could not, even withexperience and a considerable degree of intelligence, see any realalternative. Review of Three Tall Women by Edward Albee. It is not implied that she does nothing elsebut she is identified with the spending of money rather than making it.There is, therefore, an implication that even with a broader array ofchoices women are inherently oriented toward the kind of choices A made.Self-interest is seen as endemic to any female who tries to exist as astrong individual. . C is a pragmatist whobelieves she is merely following a reasonable course of action. Why, for example, does C in Act One share so many traits withC in Act Two even though she represents alternatives that women have at theend of the twentieth century? Works CitedAlbee, Edward. All of her mother'sthinking, and A's as well, is based on their response to the dilemma awoman faced in the early part of this century. Possibilitiesthat will begin to explain who she is and how she came to be this way. He makes a group project of it--both in presenting it in public,in offering A to B and C in the first act, and then, finally, turning Aloose on herself. The lack of character names, the restricted size of thecast, the piecemeal revelation of specific information, and the generallyspare nature of the conversations all lend the play an air of bleakness anddevastation. 1994: 355-56.Brustein, Robert. In many ways this is the fullest explanation of A that the playsachieves. You're growing up and theygo out of their way to hedge, to qualify, to . She saw a man who would suit her purposes, he wanted her, she wentafter him, and "It only took six weeks" (2 ). These remarks are also astandard formulation; only this time it is the formula she invokes when shewonders about her parents and their influence--but also avoids breachingthe internal guard that keeps her from looking too closely at her mother'sinfluence. A: (Smiles.) Why would you marry him if he's going to cheat on you? She operated on certain principles that, her mother believed,were necessary for a woman who wished to succeed. But she does not wish that she, at C's age, hadbeen told how it was going to be. B says, from her middlepoint in their shared life, "They lie to you. She is willing to say she was poor because she is pleased by the contrastbetween her previous existence and the life she married into. . Biographical criticism is, of course, very difficult without someknowledge of the individuals involved. Beckettwas, as Brustein notes, the first dramatic writer to "condense the past andpresent lives of a character into a single dramatic action" (27). But by ignoringher mother's power she is robbed of explanations of how her life came tofollow the course it did. In their blinkered view, the world was exactlywhat A's mother had said it was. Her persistent reversion tothe topic of her sister's alcoholism, however, indicates the same naggingdoubts about her mother's influence as her repetitions regarding her ownstrength (and height). But Albee's introduction seems toinvite the reader/audience to work through the puzzle of his mother alongwith him. And A's behavior seems to C (and perhaps to the reader) to be that of aperson who has always lived with the assumption that she has genuine wealthto back her up. As a woman who was determined to advance in socialclass and wealth, however, she faced numerous limitations based on genderand class--most of which she overcame. B and A accept the trade-off they'vemade and, while they continue to try to justify themselves by pointing outeveryone else's bad behavior, they truly do not think there was much theycould have done about it. But as A continues her explanation she progressively lowers thestatus she suggested for her father. Yet, although she was not liked by anyone who met her in the last2 years of her life, Albee soon discovered that his theatrical version ofhis mother made her seem fascinating to people--a reaction that made himwonder exactly what he had done in creating this dramatic rendering of thewoman. Her sister's drinking isclearly seen by the reader as a response to their mother's pressures, justas A's supposed strength was another response. C: (Some panic.) Why would I marry him if I'm going to cheat on him? . Throughout the play, A's height is invoked as a symbol of herstrength of purpose and power; and, in the case of her "penguin" husband,as its actual source. In the first act three characters, simply called A,B, and C hold a long conversation in a richly appointed bedroom. Regardless of any undercurrent of confusion Albee may have aboutwomen, the play does achieve its purpose in establishing the nature of thiswoman and of the choices she made. (82)B cynically reassures her that "men cheat because they're men" (82). Yet, he writes about it without beingsure, as he says, why he is doing so. But A, with greater distanceand a more objective view of her own motives, says that women cheat formany reasons: because they are bored, looking for revenge, ignorant, orsimply promiscuous. Edward Albee's Three Tall Women is a remarkable play about anunlikable woman near the end of her long life. As she shows in her slightly confused statein Act One, however, A entertains serious doubts about her mother and,consequently, about herself. pag.). New York: Plume, 1994.Appelo, Tim. Albee thus manages continuity between the characters from one act tothe other even though C and B are entirely different people. It is probably sufficient, however, to accept Albee'sintroduction as a clue to the play's origins without depending on it forhelp in analysis. It is undeniable that her existence wasblighted by her combination of genuine strength and a mistaken idea of howto use that strength, just as it is undeniable that this was a positioncommon to many women who were constricted and restrained by the patriarchalsystem. B, much closer to the incident withthe groom, says it is because of loneliness. A is 92years old, terribly fragile, and drifts from lucidity to brief moments ofconfusion, or indifference, as to her whereabouts. B and A present C with whatshould be a serious dilemma when they inform her that she will cheat on herhusband in revenge for his constant adulteries. The manner in which A approaches life, the conception of what makesher a strong woman, is derived from her mother. C'ssurprise that A was "poor" foregrounds the degree of her current wealth.She has more than enough money and there are strong indications that, evenif it is not worth what it once was, it is still enough money to impress C. The threehave a conversation about what is to come for some of them and what oncewas for others. Strict, but fair. the author saves the day with[the] big switch in the second act" (355). His statements direct the reader's attention toward theunderlying purposes of the play but these might be discerned without thathelp as, one assumes, they must be when an audience sees a performance ofthe piece. C: I don't know! It is true, however, that when the reader comes to consider how fullyA is known by the end of the play it is also astonishing to consider howlittle has actually been said. If A now claims that she was poor, C's vulgar curiosity,therefore, gets the better of her and she blurts out her question. But thisis a woman who is, as yet, unaware, of the consequences of her choices.Her determination never to be like either her A- or B-self indicates thedegree to which she still has not received any substantial clues about whather course of strength will cost her. A'sanswer, however, opens up a world of ambiguity about her pre-marriage past. The play is autobiographical in nature. B is a 52-year-oldwoman who is A's care giver and C is 26, a young lawyer who has been sentby her firm to tend to details of A's estate. A's mother haunts every part of her story: she is the author of A'ssocial ambition; she is the strict presence who demands that fictions bemaintained; she is the watchful authority who demands a weekly letter fromeach of her daughters; and she is the old, senile, dependent womanscreaming her hatred from a guest room in A's house. She will proceed and A and B would not really haveit any other way. The question of the father'sprofession is not really answered and the strictness of one or both parentsis left unexplained. This is an explanation. C is somewhat surprised and asks, "Poor? . It gradually becomesclear that A has based her own version of female strength on her mother'sand has adopted her mother's views wholesale--while suppressing naggingdoubts that emerge in her confusion and crying in Act One. As A reminisces in the first act sherecalls of her sister that "She didn't have her eye out; not like I did"and she is always unemotional about the directness of her course of action(5 ). No, they were both strict. What, heseems to ask, explains her character with its implacable harshness towardhimself (as represented in the Young Man) and, it seems, everyone else?Having determined what it is, his curiosity will be satisfied. In the second act C is A at a stage where sheretains her illusions about having made the right choices. Perhaps, he speculated, the character in his play was simply "morehuman, more multifaceted than its source" (Albee n. In the course of the conversation A's character isthoroughly laid out and, though she seems to acquire little in the way ofself-knowledge, the audience grasps the root of her being and senses thevariety of explanations that account for how this woman came to be theperson she was at the end of a very long life. Herstubbornness in addressing the old lady in Act One is unpleasant and ratherobtuse and these are the very same qualities that amuse A and B whenarguing with their younger selves in Act Two. Many times it is the very fact thatsomething is unexplained or a question is left unanswered that reveals morethan a simple expository statement could. A responds to a question about riding by saying that her familywas poor. All ofher circumstances, limitations, fears, doubts, and decisions are slowlyrevealed in the play as a dramatic character of considerable stature isconstructed. . In this sense A can be said to be revealed and explained by theplay and, as with any acutely realized fictional creation of this sort, theaudience is inevitably fascinated. Appelo complainedthat Albee abhors plots but allowed that "just as one realizes, withmounting irritation, that A's colorful fragmented vignettes will nevercohere into a single structured picture . . B: Let it be. She is stillproud of what she can accomplish and is appalled by what is implied by thecynicism of B and the emotionally drained A. Similarly theC of Act One is primarily concerned with money--with the small change ofhousehold accounts and unpaid bills--even though this is only a single taskand her professional qualifications also suit her for concern with realmoney and with making money. But her gravest error was toconfound her determination with genuine strength or accomplishment. The ever-literal C, however, objects and begins to question the word"architect." But B mysteriously intervenes and tells her to let it go.Does B fully comprehend the difficulties over status that A is revealinghere? But then A concludes with"he made it" and this describes a craftsman, thereby moving her father'ssocial position from upper middle class to middle class to working class ina few words; a few words, ironically, designed to keep C from thinking shewas ever truly far from her current class. In the second act the threevery different personalities disappear. He did,however, want in some way to get beyond the reach of their relationship, to"'get her out of my system,'" as he puts it, by writing the play (Albee n.pag.). But it is also one that is tingedwith a degree of misogyny that, ultimately, produces a disturbingaftertaste. C's only response is that she wants to be told aboutthe man she will marry. This woman,identified only as A by the author, is completely unsympathetic buteventually, as understanding grows, she becomes, if not likable, at leastcomprehensible as a full human being rather than the caricature she atfirst appears to be. Without a certain amount of faith that theplay is going somewhere the first act may seem unfocused. Review of Three Tall Women by Edward Albee. But the talk of her father makes A revert to remarks about thestrictness, and fairness, of her parents. As Albee has said in theintroduction to the published edition, the central character is afictionalized version of his adoptive mother. This was truefor the vast majority of women, and even when it was not entirely true itseemed to be so to most women. She seems to repeat a formula handed to her by someone else andit seems to revolve around the maternal threat regarding the strictness ofthe father, as in the classic "wait until your father gets home" in whichthe strong mother offsets her power onto the straw man of paternalauthority. She raises the family's status withthe word "architect" and then lowers it by saying that he designedfurniture. . Her rigid concern for appearances (herappalled reaction to A's racial slurs and her surprise at A's admission ofyouthful 'poverty') is the equivalent of A's youthful concerns, and thoseof her mother, regarding social conformity and social class. Really . If she wanted wealth,security, social advancement, or any other tangible and far-reachingimprovement in her life, it had to be gotten through a man. A does not seem to be fully attending to C and they havethe ring of a formulaic explanation given out for decades whenever A feltcalled upon to explain herself. In the effort to grasp the woman's character the reader, beingdeprived of the help of actors, must do the work him/herself. Never tell how it is--how it's going to be--when a half-truth can begotten in there" (93). The C of the first act, with her rather naiveinsistence on questioning a confused old lady, and holding her responsiblefor every word she says, is transformed into A at the same age. A was totally prepared by her mother's teaching and, always repeatingher mantra about keeping her eye out, she pities her sister who, forreasons A cannot wholly comprehend, did not manage to keep her eye out andnever fulfilled their mother's expectations. Three Tall Women. It is understanding in the simpler sense of explanation. poor?" A: Well, no; not really poor; my father was an architect; he designed furniture; he made it. This curious result may, however, be due to Albee's deeper intention:a search for understanding. A: He made such beautiful furniture; he was an architect. Critics compared the play to the work of Samuel Beckett, the onlyplaywright "Albee has claimed utterly to admire" (Appelo 355). They accept the illusions C carries because they areessential to getting her where she wants to go. A fourth character, the silent "Young Man," enterslater and visits the comatose and, later, dead woman on the bed. New Republic 4 Apr. And fair. C's illusionsin Act One are those of a naive person who simply has not been testedenough and has not faced the difficult proposition of standing outsideoneself and looking at the sources and consequences of one's choices. pag.). to evade; to avoid--tolie. By means of its cleverstructure it dissects her life and character very thoroughly. A good example of this techniquecomes in the first act in an exchange that presents information about A'sparents. InKrapp's Last Tape Beckett employed a tape recorder to "evoke the same kindof existential poignance" that Albee achieves with his three versions of A(Brustein 27). The words, however, are spokenautomatically. 1994: 26-27. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.