The Big Bad Woolf

"Truth, Illusions, what's the difference?"

-George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

I'm tired of people being proud of not being afraid. I'm not talking about the fear of public speaking, or of heights, but one the most basic fears we have as social human beings is that one day, we'll be found out. Somebody, somewhere will discover what lies beneath the personas we put on day to day. We need to put on a persona because our inner lives are so convoluted and corrupt that it needs to be hidden away, and we do this by creating a public image, much like presidential candidates and actors do. As people not in the public eye, however, we are not stuck in one public image, but instead we shift from one character to the next. Around my employers, or my students I behave one way, but around my friends or my family I might behave entirely differently. Each person will come to know me as a certain person, but none will see me exactly the same as the next, because I behave differently around all of them. This could be interpreted as being creepy, but really it's just the nature of being friendly and empathetic. The series of personas we put on forces us to consider which one is the "real" one. Which persona is Joe qua Joe? This question is at the heart of the movie/play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," and yes, it scares me.

The story focuses on the witty and cruel banter between George and Martha, a husband and wife who both love and hate each other. They take turns attacking each other in what seems to be their weakest points. After a dinner party they invite over a newlywed couple and immediately begin to argue in front of them. They play extravagant roles for this couple, and the newlyweds, like the viewer, can never seem to figure out if George and Martha are in love or if they hate one another. This question, it turns out, is meaningless. Martha strongly comes onto her young attractive guest, while George berates his wife in every manner possible. We all come to understand eventually that this is just one of the many "games" the happy couple plays. For each game they play, George and Martha put on a certain face. In some games George plays the role of the offender, in others the offended. Neither persona suits them better than the other, and they switch back and forth seamlessly between the two. As the evening wears on, it starts to become clear that their terrible behavior is not, as it first appears, out of cruelty, but rather, it is a final effort to distract each other. They spend so much of their lives focusing on their spouse, who they love and hate, because so long as they focus on this other, they can avoid dealing with their own self who they fear and loathe more than anything else.

This is what a "distraction" is. So long as we have a persona which we can build up, and so long as we have an 'other' to compare our personas to, we can pretend that the illusions of our personae are real and we hope that the persona is more "real" than the horrific being that we know lurks in the depths of our mind. In Who's Afriad of Virginia Woolf the most disturbing thing, is realizing this, and seeing how cruel George and Martha are willing to be just to avoid facing themselves. When we learn that the very foundation of their relationship is an illusion, though it shouldn't come as a surprise, it does reveal just how far they are willing to go to avoid looking at themselves in earnest. And when that illusion is destroyed in public, as happens in the movie, the couple is left by themselves. The young man comes to see through so many layers of the couple that each layer is just another level of illusion built up to protect the vulnerable sadness, and evil beneath. What's worse is that he sees himself in this pair. That even if he pretends to be better than them he is merely playing a part. Putting up another illusion to be inevitably peeled away. When all the layers are gone, who knows what horrible being remains. Before the end credits we are left with these harrowing lines:

George: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (sung to the tune of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf)

Martha: I am.

And she should be.





P. S. If you're wondering about the title, the question of perception and personae is the central theme of "To the Lighthouse," but I'm convinced that the treatment of the subject is even darker in this play than it is in Woolf's book. Maybe the play isn't "darker," just a little more French.