The Life of a Logophile: AP Literature Blog: October 2013

Kaitlyn Barnes, Rachel Cawood, Jess Hart, Haley Hopkins

AP English Literature and Language

Ms. Wilson

30 October 2013

Independent American Drama Assignment

Prompt: 1982 Bulletin #2: “In many plays a character has a misconception of himself or his world. Destroying or perpetuating illusion contributes to a central theme of the play.” Choose a play with a major character to whom this statement applies, and write an essay in which you consider the following:

1) What the character’s illusion is and how it differs from reality as presented in the play.

2) How the destruction or perpetuation of the illusion develops a theme of the play. Do not merely retell the story.

I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.

Rationale for Prompt, Scene Selection, and Stylistic Choices

We chose the 1982 Bulletin #2 prompt because a major theme in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is Reality vs. Illusions. Martha maintained the illusion of a son whom she wanted but could never have. She was very uncomfortable with the reality so she perpetuated the illusion of a son and George let her do this until she destroyed the illusion when she told Honey about their son. The destruction of the illusion caused George to have to “kill” their imaginary child. The illusion had to end and Martha had to face reality again. This demonstrates the conflict between reality and illusions in the play, which the prompt allows us to address since its focus is on how reality and the character’s illusion conflict in the play. But the illusion develops the theme of sexual maturity as well. It is revealed in the play that Martha and her father had a poor relationship which affected Martha’s relationship with other men for the rest of her life. She wasn’t able to have healthy sexual relationships due to her lack of sexual maturity which came from her childlike innocence which was a result of Martha and her father not developing a healthy relationship with each other when she was young. This prompt allows use to attach the theme of sexual maturity to her illusion because Martha developed the illusion due to her childlike innocence and inability to develop healthy sexual relationships, which is why her child was a boy over a girl. The 1982 prompt was the perfect fit for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf because the play is focused on the effects of living within an illusion, which is the central focus of the prompt.

We selected the three scenes we did to illustrate the prompt because they show Martha’s struggle to have sexual relationships, and the eventual failure of each of her attempts. For instance, in the first scene, in which George pretends to shoot Martha, Martha tries to be sexual with George by making him touch her, but he rejects her. Similarly, in the scene with Martha and Nick, Martha is complaining that even though Nick had considerable sexual “potential” (199), when Martha tried to initiate sex with him, he failed to “perform” (199). This demonstrates Martha’s underdeveloped sexuality as all the times we see her try to be sexual, there is a failure. In the third scene, the illusion of Martha and George’s son is destroyed. George tells Martha their son died after swerving to avoid a porcupine. This is a pivotal moment in the play as the reality of Martha’s situation sets in for her. It is shown Martha understood that her son was an illusion and was only real to her as she was not supposed to talk about their son with anyone. George tells Martha, “You know the rules,” and she acknowledges he is taking away her fake child from her but the loss is still devastating for Martha as she is being thrown into the world of reality (235). The first two scenes and the third scene connect to each other and relate to the prompt in that it is because of Martha’s lack of sexual maturity that she creates the illusion of a son because she fails at all of her real relationships with men. The theme of sexual maturity (or a lack thereof) is developed by the illusion because it is seen as an escape from Martha’s struggles with sexual maturity due to the childlike innocence she still maintains. Despite Martha’s lack of sexual maturity creating the son, it also destroyed him. She failed at the relationship with her son as well and that is why he had to be destroyed. George told Nick and Honey of how Martha would try to “climb” all over him and bathe him at the age of sixteen (215). This is showing the relationship she had with her son was just as sickly as the ones she had with the other men in her life so in the end her lack of sexual maturity and her childlike innocence killed the son. Another significant detail in the scene is when George says their son was killed after swerving to miss a porcupine. A porcupine is a symbol of childlike innocence (Andrews). The porcupine was the reason their son crashed into the tree so Martha’s innocence and underdeveloped sexuality destroyed the illusion of the son as well.

To demonstrate the stark contrast between reality and illusion that is presented in the play and is part of the prompt, we chose to make our video in black and white. There is heavy contrast between black and white just as their is between reality and illusions. Reality vs. Illusion is a major theme in the play as Albee’s larger point of the play was to say that the sexual revolution was an illusion itself. Therefore, it was imperative to find a way to emphasize this theme and making the entire video in black and white makes it very clear the contrast is important.

Also, the choice to make our frame narrative based off an episode of Snapped was made to emphasize that contrast between reality and illusions because the show is centered around people who lose their connection with the real world and finally snap and do something harmful. In the play, Martha had lost her touch with reality so much so that she forgot about rules and told Honey about their son so the illusion had to be destroyed and her son was “killed” because of her. Within an episode of Snapped there are witnesses who speak about what they knew about the person and maybe warning signs they saw. We had Honey and Nick do witness statements because they were the bystanders for most of the play, watching the illusion unravel so we had them share their supposed thoughts after each scene to highlight was just happened in the past scene and move to the next one.

Some other stylistic choices we made were in the camera angles. We didn’t have that many close up scenes but there was one close up on Martha and George when they were sitting at the bar discussing their son. We did a close up there to focus on the emotion they are investing into their son, who is really an illusion, because this is the first time where a major personal topic is getting seriously discussed and later in the video it will be seen that the son they talked so highly of and debated about was really fake, emphasizing how real an illusion can seem. The reason there aren’t more close up shots is due to the emotional detachment from the characters. Especially in the beginning of the play, there is a lot of joking around and teasing but the true relationships of the characters aren’t understood until later in the play, especially in the last scene. Having medium shots doesn’t give that up close and personal feeling that is to be reserved for when the characters get more emotional and deep into their problems as the play progresses.

We filmed the video in a group member’s basement on their couch and around their bar because the setting in the book was a living room and they had a bar as well because they drank a lot throughout the night. It was a familiar and casual setting, as in the play, since it was set in Martha and George’s living room. All of the characters were dressed up in a casual with a formal touch because Martha and George live on a small college campus since George is a professor at the school and they are having another professor over, so we felt they might be slightly dressy but still informal because it is a social gathering.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Synopsis

General Synopsis: Two couples, each embroiled in a very complicated relationship, spend a night drinking and talking, but as the play progresses their conversations reveal the secrets and illusions within their relationships.

Characters:

Martha: A deluded 52 year old woman who is married to George. They have been married for many years but time has fractured their relationship. She is very promiscuous, and craves male attention.
George: The underappreciated 46 year old husband of Martha who feels held captive under the thumb of Martha’s father’s college, at which he is a history professor. He strikes back at Martha’s promiscuity and disobedience by killing their son.
Nick: Honey’s husband and a young professor at Martha’s father’s college. He proves to be an unfaithful husband during the night, as the strength of Nick and Honey’s relationship is shown.
Honey: A young woman who is married to Nick and who, throughout the night, is in an intoxicated state as the chaos ensues late into the night making her unaware of the actions of her husband.

Playwright Background:

All 25 of his plays are controversial and provocative as they attack “artificial values” and disillusionment of American society (The Kennedy Center).
He was kicked out of or left multiple schools due to his artistic dreams, rebelling against his parents and pursuing a writing career in New York (The Kennedy Center).
Albee was the first to introduce absurdist drama (The Kennedy Center).

Setting:

Martha and George’s living room of their on campus house at a small New England college.
The play starts off at two AM and goes until the early morning.
It takes places in the early 1960s.

Significance of Title:

The title means who’s afraid of living without illusions and having to face the reality of the world around them? Because at the end of the play after the illusion is destroyed, George sings to Martha, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and Martha says, “I...am...George,” (242).
So now Martha is saying she is afraid of how she will live her life without the illusion of her son.

Key Plot Moments:

When Martha asks George to kiss her and after she places his hand on her breast he pulls away and rejects her. This demonstrates Martha trying to be sexually mature but not doing it well and being rejected when trying,
After Martha and Nick tried unsuccessfully to have sex, she insults him on his sexual performance, calling him a “flop.” This is another moment in which Martha can’t have a successful sexual relationship with a man.
When George shares that Martha bathed her son when he was sixteen years old and was always going after him, revealing the abuse their imaginary son endured from Martha because of her inability to develop proper sexual relationships with any man.
When George destroys Martha’s illusion of having a son, revealing the poor relationship between Martha and her father, and George“kills” the son by saying a telegram came and he swerved to miss a porcupine and died after crashing into a large tree. The illusion is destroyed and Martha must face the reality that they do not really have a child and she must come back to reality.
At the very end when George and Martha are alone and George sings to Martha, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Martha says she is. This shows Martha is scared of what her life will be without the illusion but this ending scene also shows how even after George kills Martha’s illusion they can reconcile their relationship.

Symbols/Motifs:

Porcupine: it is a symbol of childlike innocence which is embodied by Martha as she lacks sexual maturity which is a result of the poor relationship between her and her father (Andrews). Her lack of sexual maturity is why she can’t have developed relationships with men.
The Child: Martha and George’s child was a figment of Martha’s imagination but the child was another outlet to show her desire for sexual development.
Alcohol: All the characters drank late into the morning but as they became more intoxicated they went further into the truth of the illusion and the instability of both the couple’s relationships. As the play went on it was seen that Honey and Nick got married only due to her pregnancy, Nick almost had an affair with Martha, and the truth about Martha and George’s child was revealed as well as the rules and lies that their relationship was built on.

Key Quotes:

Martha: “Aww ‘tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world weighs too heavy on our tiny heads” (188). Demonstrating the refuge she seeks from reality with illusions.
Nick to Martha: “Everybody’s a flop to you! Your husband’s a flop, I’m a flop…” (189). Nick pointing out Martha’s inability to have a successful relationship with any of the men in her life.
Martha: “(George) can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy, and yes I do wish to be happy. George and Martha: sad, sad, sad” (191). Martha describing her relationship with George and her conflicting emotions surrounding him and the happiness she desires.
Geroge: “Truth or illusion. Who knows the difference toots?” (201). George says this before he explains how their son died. He is hinting at the unreality that has become their life as he is about to force Martha into reality.

Themes:

Reality vs. Illusion: The reality of Martha and George’s situation is constantly conflicting with the illusion Martha has created to avoid the reality that she couldn’t have children. The illusion kept Martha from the truth that she wasn’t ready to deal with and George allowed the perpetuation of this lie until she broke the rule and told people from the rest of the world, outside of Geroge, about their illusion. Martha is aware of these rules but forgets because of how real the illusion is to her. This is the constant conflict between the reality of the situation and the illusion of the child in Martha and George's relationship.
Sexual Maturity: Martha wishes to be sexually mature and be able to have a healthy relationships with men. She tries with George, Nick, and even her imaginary son but fails each time. This is her continual struggle that is a result of the poor relationship she had with her father which has caused her to maintain her childlike innocence.

Style:

Albee mixes the realistic and relatable setting with the absurd and surreal moments that the characters experience through the play.

Script:Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Edward Albee

Characters:

Martha: Kaitlyn Barnes

George: Haley Hopkins

Nick: Jess Hart

Honey: Rachel Cawood

Prosecutor (Intro): The murder of Jim, the son of Martha and George, is a very complex case. But at the very root of this case is Martha’s delusion, and the consequences that occur when George could no longer handle it. In Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Martha is under the illusion that she has a son, whereas, in reality, her son exists only in her mind. Even though babies typically signal a transition in life, Martha’s perpetuation of this illusion represents her inability to develop sexual relationships with men due to her poor relationship with her father. By eventually destroying her illusion and thus her childlike innocence, symbolized through her son’s death by porcupine, Albee examines the changing world around him at the onset of the 1960’s sexual revolution by asserting that the sexual revolution itself is an illusion and people are still constrained by the monogamous aspects of society even as they struggle to attain sexual liberation.

Scene 1:

MARTHA:

...and George wheeled around real quick, and he caught it right in the jaw...Pow!

(NICK laughs)

I hadn’t meant it...honestly. Anyway...POW! Right in the jaw…and he was off balance...he must have been...and he stumbled back a few steps, and then, CRASH, he landed...flat...in a huckleberry bush!

(NICK laughs. HONEY goes tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, and shakes her head)

I think it’s colored our whole life. Really I do! It’s an excuse anyway.

(GEORGE enters now, his hands behind his back. No one sees him.)

It’s what he uses for being bogged down, anyway...why he hasn’t gone anywhere.

(GEORGE advances, HONEY sees him)

MARTHA:

And it was an accident...a real, goddamn accident!

(GEORGE takes from behind his back a short-barreled shotgun, and calmly aims it at the back of MARTHA’S head, HONEY screams...rises. MARTHA turns her head to face GEORGE. GEORGE pulls the trigger)

GEORGE:

POW!!!!

(Pop! From the barrel of the gun blossoms a large red-and-yellow Chinese parasol. HONEY screams again, this time less, and mostly from relief and confusion)

You’re dead! Pow! You’re dead!

(HONEY is beside herself. MARTHA laughs too...almost breaks down, her great laugh booming. GEORGE joins in the general laughter and confusion. It dies, eventually)

MARTHA

Where’d you get that, you bastard?

GEORGE

(A trifle abstracted)

Oh, I’ve had it awhile. Did you like that?

MARTHA (Giggling)

you bastard.

GEORGE (Leaning over MARTHA)

You liked that, did you?

MARTHA

Yeah...that was pretty good. (Softer) C’mon...give me a kiss.

GEORGE

(Indicating NICK and HONEY)

Later, sweetie. (But MARTHA will not be dissuaded. They kiss, GEORGE standing, leaning over MARTHA’s chair. She takes his hand, places it on her stage-side breast. He breaks away)

Oh-ho! That’s what you’re after, is it? What are we going to have...blue games for the guests? Hunh? Hunh?

MARTHA (Angry-hurt)

You...prick!

GEORGE (A Pyrrhic victory)

Everything in its place, Martha...everything in its own good time.

(Albee 61-64)

(Transition from Scene 1 to Scene 2)

HONEY I have never been so scared in my entire life! I really thought George was going to shoot Martha. Even though I was pretty intoxicated I can clearly remember being able to tell George and Martha were living in a dysfunctional relationship. This was the start of the evening chaos.

Scene 2:

MARTHA:

Hey, hey...where is everybody…? (It is evident she is not bothered) So? Drop me; pluck me like a goddamn...whatever-it-is…creeping vine, and throw me over your shoulder like an old shoe…George? (Looks about her) George? (Silence) George! What are you doing: Hiding, or something? (Silence) GEORGE!! (Silence) Oh, fa Chri…(Goes to the bar, makes herself a drink and amuses herself with the following performance) Deserted! Abandon-ed! Left out in the cold like an old pussycat. HA! Hump the Hostess! (Laughs greatly at this, falls into a chair; calms down, looed defeated, says, softly) Fat chance. (Even softer) Fat chance. (Baby talk now) Daddy? Daddy? Martha is abandoned. Left to her own vices at…(Peers at a clock)...something o’clock in the old A.M. Daddy White Mouse; do you really have red eyes? Do you? Let me see. Ohhhhh! You do! You do! Daddy, you have red eyes...because you cry all the time, don’t you, Daddy? Yes; you do. You cry alllll the time. I’LL GIVE YOU BASTARDS FIVE TO COME OUT FROM WHERE YOU’RE HIDING!! (Pause) I cry all the time too, Daddy. I cry alllll the time; but deep inside, so no one can see me. I cry all the time. And George cries all the time, too. We both cry all the time, and then, what do we do, we cry, and we take our tears, and we put ‘em in the icebox, in the goddamn ice trays (Begins to laugh) until they’re frozen (Laughs even more) and then...we put them...in our...drinks. (More laughter, which is something else, too. After sobering silence) (Sadly) I’ve got windshield wipers on my eyes, because I married you...baby!

(NICK enters while MARTHA is clinking; he stands in the hall entrance and watches her; finally he comes in)

NICK

My God, you’ve gone crazy too.

MARTHA

Clink?

NICK

You’re all crazy: nuts.

MARTHA (Affects a brogue)

Awww, ‘tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world weighs too heavy on our tiny heads.

(Normal voice again)

Relax; sink into it; you’re no better than anybody else.

NICK (Wearily)

I think I am.

MARTHA

(Her glass to her mouth)

You’re certainly a flop in some departments.

NICK (wincing)

I beg your pardon…?

MARTHA (Unnecessarily loud)

I said, you’re certainly a flop in some…

NICK (He, too, too loud)

I’m sorry you’re disappointed.

MARTHA (Braying)

I didn’t say I was disappointed! Stupid!

NICK

You should try me sometime when we haven’t been drinking for ten hours, and maybe…

MARTHA (Still braying)

I wasn’t talking about your potential; I was talking about your goddamn performance.

NICK (Softly)

Oh.

MARTHA (She softer, too)

Your potential’s fine. It’s dandy. (Wiggles her eyebrows) Absolutely dandy. I haven’t seen such a dandy potential in a long time. Oh, but, baby, you sure are a flop.

NICK (Snapping it out)

Everybody’s a flop to you! Your husband’s a flop I’m a flop…

MARTHA (Dismissing him)

You’re all flops. I am the Earth Mother, and you’re all flops.

(Albee 195-199)

(Transition from Scene 2 to Scene 3)

NICK I could tell Martha was having some issues after our encounter. Even though I did have some performance issues, I feel like she was determined to tear me down from the beginning. No matter what happened she would have been disappointed because she’s in love with the potential but can’t stand the reality.

Scene 3

GEORGE

Isn’t Martha something? Here we are, on the eve of our boy’s homecoming, the eve of his twenty-first birfday, his majority...and Martha says don’t talk about him.

MARTHA

Just...don’t.

GEORGE

But I want to, Martha! It’s very important we talk about him. He’s a nice kid, really, in spite of his home life; I mean, most kids’d grow up neurotic, what with Martha here carrying on the way she does; sleeping till four in the P.M., climbing all over the poor bastard, trying to break the bathroom door down to wash him in the tub when he’s sixteen, dragging strangers into the house at all hours…

MARTHA (Rising)

O.K. YOU!

GEORGE (Mock concern)

Martha!

MARTHA

That’s enough!

GEORGE

Well, do you want to take over?

HONEY (To NICK)

Why would anybody want to wash someone who’s sixteen years old?

NICK

(Slamming his drink down)

Oh, for Christ’s sake, Honey!

HONEY (Stage whisper)

Well, why?!

GEORGE

Because it’s her baby-poo.

MARTHA

ALL RIGHT!!

(By rote; a kind of almost-tearful recitation)

Our son. You want our son? You’ll have it.

Our son. Our son was born in a September night, a night not unlike tonight, though tomorrow, and twenty...one...years ago.

GEORGE (Beginning of quiet asides)

You see? I told you.

MARTHA

It was an easy birth…

GEORGE

Oh, Martha; no. You labored...how you labored.

MARTHA

It had been an easy birth...once it had been...accepted, relaxed into.

GEORGE

...Martha thinks she saw him at delivery…

MARTHA

...with slippery firm limbs, and a full head of black, fine, fine hair which, oh, later, later, became blond as the sun, our son.

GEORGE

You see, Martha, here, stops just when the going gets good...just when things start getting a little rough. Now Martha, here, is a misunderstood little girl; she really is. Not only does she have a husband who is a bog...a younger-than-she-is bog albeit...not only does she have a husband who is a bog, she has well a tiny problem with spirituous liquors--like she can’t get enough.

MARTHA (without energy)

No more, George.

GEORGE

...and on top of all that, poor weighed-down girl, PLUS a father who doesn't really give a damn whether she lives or dies, who couldn’t care less what happens to his only daughter…on top of all that she has a son. She has a son who fought her every inch of the way, who didn’t want to be turned into a weapon against his father, who didn’t want to be used as a goddamn club whenever Martha didn’t get things like she wanted them!

MARTHA (Rising to it)

Lies! Lies!!

GEORGE

Lies? All right. A son who would not disown his father who came to him for advice, for information, for love that wasn’t mixed with sickness--and you know what I mean, Martha!--who could not tolerate the slashing, braying residue that called itself his MOTHER. MOTHER? HAH!!

MARTHA (Cold)

All right, you. A son who was so ashamed of his father that he asked me once if it --possibly--wasn’t true, as he had heard, from some cruel boys, maybe, that he was not our child; who could not tolerate the shabby failure his father had become….

GEORGE

Lies!

MARTHA

Lies? Who would not bring his girlfriends to the house…

GEORGE

...in shame of his mother…

MARTHA

...of his father! Who writes letters only to me!

GEORGE

Oh, so you think! To me! At my office!

MARTHA

Liar!

GEORGE

I have a stack of them!

MARTHA

YOU HAVE NO LETTERS!

GEORGE

And you have?

MARTHA

He has no letters. A son...a son who spends his summers away...away from his family...ON ANY PRETEXT… because he can’t stand the shadow of a man flickering around the edges of a house…

GEORGE

...who spends his summers away...and he does!...who spends his summers away because there isn’t room for him in a house full of empty bottles, lies, strange men, and a harridan who…

MARTHA

Liar!!

GEORGE

Sweetheart, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you. Well, Martha…I’m afraid our boy isn’t coming home for his birthday.

MARTHA

Of course he is.

GEORGE

No, Martha.

MARTHA

Of course, he is. I say he is!

GEORGE

He...can’t.

MARTHA

He is! I say so!

GEORGE

Martha…(Long pause)...our son is...dead.

(Silence)

He was...killed...late in the afternoon…

(Silence)

(A tiny chuckle) on a country road, with his learner’s permit in his pocket, he swerved, to avoid a porcupine, and drove straight into a…

MARTHA (Rigid fury)

YOU...CAN’T...DO...THAT!

GEORGE

...large tree.

MARTHA

(Quivering with rage and loss)

NO! NO! YOU CANNOT DO THAT! YOU CAN’T DECIDE THAT FOR YOURSELF! I WILL NOT LET YOU DO THAT!

GEORGE

We’ll have to leave around noon, I suppose…

MARTHA

I WILL NOT LET YOU DECIDE THESE THINGS!

GEORGE

...because there are matters of identification, naturally, and arrangements to be made…

MARTHA

(Leaping at GEORGE, but ineffectual)

YOU CAN’T DO THIS!

(NICK rises, grabs hold of MARTHA, pins her arms behind her back)

I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS, GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!

GEORGE

(As NICK holds on, right in MARTHA’s face)

You don’t seem to understand, Martha; I haven’t done any thing. Now pull yourself together. Our son is DEAD! Can you get that into your head?

MARTHA

YOU CAN’T DECIDE THESE THINGS.

GEORGE

He’s dead. POUF! Just like that! Now how do you like it?

MARTHA

(A howl which weakens into a moan)

NOOOOOOoooooo.

GEORGE (To NICK)

Let her go. (MARTHA slumps to the floor in a sitting position)

MARTHA

YOU CAN’T KILL HIM! YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM DIE!

HONEY

Lady...please…

GEORGE

There was a telegram, Martha.

MARTHA (Up; facing him)

Show it to me! Show me the telegram!

GEORGE

(With a straight face)

I ate it.

MARTHA

(A pause; then with the greatest disbelief possible, tinged with hysteria)

What did you just say to me?

GEORGE

(Barely able to stop exploding with laughter)

I...ate...it.

MARTHA (To GEORGE, coldy)

You’re not going to get away with this.

GEORGE (With disgust)

YOU KNOW THE RULES, MARTHA!

You broke our rule, baby. You mentioned him...you mentioned him...you mentioned him to someone else.

MARTHA (Tearfully)

I did not. I never did.

HONEY (Crying)

To me. You mentioned him to me.

MARTHA (Crying)

I FORGET! Sometimes...sometimes when it’s night, when it’s late, and...and everybody else is...talking...I forget and I...want to mention him...but I...HOLD ON...I hold on..but I’ve wanted to...so often...oh, George, you’ve pushed it...there was no need...there was no need for this. I mentioned him...all right...but you didn’t have to push it over the EDGE. You didn’t have to...kill him.

(Albee 226-251)

(Conclusion)

Prosecutor: Throughout the progression of the night, the deterioration of George and Martha’s relationship becomes apparent. Her promiscuity affects him to the point that he can no longer stand it: and he snapped. He killed their son Jim in an attempt to subdue Martha’s struggle towards sexual liberation. As yet another one of Martha’s relationships with a man fails, so does the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.