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In Edward Albee’s controversial play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,
religion plays a major, yet often overlooked theme. There are constant
references to God and Jesus throughout the play; in the third act, “The
Exorcism,” George recites the Requiem for the Dead, the Catholic funeral mass.
Throughout the play, these religious references and the character of Honey come
to symbolize the failure of religion. Albee added these references to point out
the fact that although religion is and has been ubiquitous, it still gives no
answers. Most of the references to God and Jesus are swear words; “God damn,”
and “Jesus Christ!” and the like. Even though these interjections are not the
typical ‘reference ’ to God or Jesus, they bring a sense of knowing into the
play’s setting. The characters know about God and believe in Him. Martha claims
to be an atheist, but that is doubtful because she especially uses ‘God damn’ to
get her point across, and she gets very upset while George is reciting the
Requiem. She knows that God is there, but won’t admit it. George recites the
Requiem when his and Martha’s son ‘dies.’ The requiem was designed to comfort
those people whose loved ones had passed on, so that they could let go.
However,
while George is reciting the requiem, Martha is in hysterics! She can not let go
of her ‘son’ and she is not comforted until George stops reading the mass. The
character of Honey is somewhat of a paradox. She is the goody-goody preacher’s
daughter on the surface, with dark secrets held beneath. She grew up surrounded
by religion, and it did practically nothing to shape her morals. She appears to
be the sweet, passive, pious woman that many preachers’ daughters grow up to be,
but we see more of her as the play goes on. When Nick and George are talking
outside for the first time, Nick reveals that he only married Honey because he
thought she was pregnant. Honey knew she wasn’t pregnant, she only wanted to
trap Nick into matrimony. Not a very Christian thing to do. Also, she has been
taking birth control and concealing it from Nick. There are three things wrong
with that. First, birth control itself is against Christian belief. Second,
withholding important information from someone who should know that information
is considered lying within the Christian church. Third and finally, her
selfishness goes against everything she should have learned growing up in the
home of a preacher. Albee made and still makes a point in this play. ‘Although
religion is supposed to be the answer, it gives none.’ That point is supported
by every religious reference he added in. Every reference to God and Jesus being
a swear word, the requiem causing grief instead of comfort, and finally the
preacher’s daughter being everything but Christian. Albee definitely got his
point across this time.
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