The Sense of Loss in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1966)

Abdelsamie, Adel Mohamed

doi:10.21608/jltmin.2008.149765

The Sense of Loss in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1966)

Document Type : مقالات بحوث مبتکرة

Author

Adel Mohamed Abdelsamie

English Department, Faculty of Arts, South Valley University

10.21608/jltmin.2008.149765

Abstract

This paper focuses on studying modem man's sense of loss as dramatised by Edward Albee in his play A Delicate Balance (1966). It beomes clear from the dramatic action of the play that it is not possible for the characters of the play to attain self-fulfillment and contentment for they willfully prefer escape. In All Over (1971), a later play, Albee gives us, as an audience, a gloomier picture of the human reality; nothing left for modem man except physical and spiritual death as the end of the play suggests.

The dramatic action of A Delicate Balance concerns Tobias and Agnes, an upper middle-class couple in their late fifties or early sixties, living in a comfortable suburban house. Agnes’ sister, Claire, lives too with them permanently. These three are disturbed by the coming of Julia, Tobias and Agnes’ often-divorced daughter, and the couple, Harry and Edna, the family's childless friends who vaguely frightened at their own home. The dramatic event revolves, thus, around the coming of these intruders,. \vho threaten the delicate balance of Tobias' family.
Although the delicate stability of the family is shaken, and although they come to realize the vacuity of their existence, it becomes impossible for them to make a fresh beginning. Rather, they retreat restoring their tenuous stability, preferring the surface of their situation. Consequently, there is no hope of attaining a sense of release from their fears. The human situation, thus as suggested by the play, is circular and escape mechanism is being continually renewed.

Main Subjects