Terence’s answer to “I am not sure I understood the ending in the way the author meant it. Would anyone care to give me …” > Likes and Comments
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Actually, in interviews with the author he adamantly refutes this.
It doesn't mean it's not true. Otherwise, the play makes no sense. The women are not women; it's obvious, at least to the discerning.
This article is quite helpful. Although it seeks to refute the claim, you will notice that the reference IS made to the work of Tennessee Williams also. The Jewish writers cited may be homophobic, but they were no less acute in their recognition of what was going on in Albee's plays for all that.
Hi Terence - not trying to start an argument or anything just genuinely curious - why doesn't the play make sense if Honey and Martha are actually women? Or how does it make more sense if they are men? I've pondered this a bit since reading this question/answer exchange a few days ago and I haven't been able to come up with much. I'd be curious to see what you think. Thanks - EE
Hi, Emily!
Did you read the linked article yet? I think that will help you make sense of the play. If you still have questions after reading it, I would be happy to answer them.
I would say this, though: in Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, I have always got the uneasy feeling that Blanche WANTS to be raped by Stanley. Can you see how this would make more sense if Blanche is actually a gay man in drag?
I knew Edward Albee and he vigorously refuted this interpretation of his play.
Fair enough, but I stand by it. The play makes very little sense as a study of two heterosexual couples—and I struggled mightily to make it make sense. What’s more, in my opinion, we can only write out of our own experience. If Albee is seen as an important precursor of gay liberation (although apparently not of racial liberation), this interpretation makes the most sense.
Curiously, I was listening to a podcast yesterday where a gay man attributed his own sexual proclivities to women in general in a way that I found lacked a radical self-awareness. My impression is that gay men believe their often finely-felt emotional affinities with women carries over into the realm of sexual license. They do not.
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Michelle
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Jan 09, 2021 08:01AM
Actually, in interviews with the author he adamantly refutes this.
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It doesn't mean it's not true. Otherwise, the play makes no sense. The women are not women; it's obvious, at least to the discerning.
This article is quite helpful. Although it seeks to refute the claim, you will notice that the reference IS made to the work of Tennessee Williams also. The Jewish writers cited may be homophobic, but they were no less acute in their recognition of what was going on in Albee's plays for all that.
Hi Terence - not trying to start an argument or anything just genuinely curious - why doesn't the play make sense if Honey and Martha are actually women? Or how does it make more sense if they are men? I've pondered this a bit since reading this question/answer exchange a few days ago and I haven't been able to come up with much. I'd be curious to see what you think. Thanks - EE
Hi, Emily!Did you read the linked article yet? I think that will help you make sense of the play. If you still have questions after reading it, I would be happy to answer them.
I would say this, though: in Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, I have always got the uneasy feeling that Blanche WANTS to be raped by Stanley. Can you see how this would make more sense if Blanche is actually a gay man in drag?
I knew Edward Albee and he vigorously refuted this interpretation of his play.
Fair enough, but I stand by it. The play makes very little sense as a study of two heterosexual couples—and I struggled mightily to make it make sense. What’s more, in my opinion, we can only write out of our own experience. If Albee is seen as an important precursor of gay liberation (although apparently not of racial liberation), this interpretation makes the most sense.
Curiously, I was listening to a podcast yesterday where a gay man attributed his own sexual proclivities to women in general in a way that I found lacked a radical self-awareness. My impression is that gay men believe their often finely-felt emotional affinities with women carries over into the realm of sexual license. They do not.
