University of Virginia Library

Man's Obligation

The theme of the play,
which was awarded the Pulitzer
Prize in 1966-67 (though most
felt that the award was a
compensation for the Pulitzer
he was denied for "Virginia
Woolf"), is the extent of man's
obligation to his neighbor.
What are the limits of
friendship? Are we our
brother's keeper? Our friends'?

Agnes and Tobias are an
affluent, well-mannered,
conservative couple, not happy
in their marriage but resigned,
with whom live Agnes'
wisecracking, alcoholic sister,
Claire. With their daughter,
Julia, on her way home after
her fourth marriage has gone
on the rocks, their best friends,
Edna and Harry, are frightened
out of their own home by an
obscure terror (a typical Albee
convention) and come to live
with Agnes and Tobias. The
question, as Claire
straightforwardly puts it, is
simply whether to "take 'em
in" or "throw 'em out."

Mease, Black, Slafkosky: Confronting Guilt-Ridden Inadequacies

The play has a bothersome
tendency to verbosely meander
here and there, but this again is
Albee's self-indulgence, which
can, I think, be overlooked in
this case due to the many
virtues which this drama
possesses. The playwright's
strength is in depicting human
torment, making his characters
confront their guilt-ridden
inadequacies; the human
compassion he evokes when
Claire relates her experience
with Alcoholics Anonymous or
Tobias recollects his boyhood
relationship with his cat who
stopped liking him for no
reason is amazingly deep,
amazingly painful, and yes,
amazingly real.

Photo By Andy Stickney