“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (Act One) by Edward Albee (post 5): Martha changes clothes and speaks of son; she has a history of memory gaps.

Martha and George entertain guests Nick and Honey. Martha tells Honey that she and George have a son living elsewhere, who is about to have his twenty-first birthday.

It is suggestive of multiple personality that Martha reveals the alleged existence of a son (which she would normally not reveal) simultaneously with changing her dress (which is uncalled for, and may indicate a switch in personalities, since, in multiple personality, different personalities often dress differently).

As George’s reaction indicates, neither her telling about their alleged son nor her changing her dress had been called for, and their simultaneous occurrence may be significant. Indeed, the way George says “She’s changing” may refer to Martha’s personality, not her dress.

HONEY (to GEORGE)

She’ll be right down…she’s changing.

GEORGE (Incredulous)

She’s what? She’s changing?

HONEY (To GEORGE, brightly)

I didn’t know until just a minute ago that you had a son.

GEORGE (Wheeling, as if struck from behind)

WHAT?

HONEY

Twenty one…twenty-one tomorrow…tomorrow’s his birthday.

GEORGE (Nailing it down)

She told you about him.

HONEY (A nervous giggle)

Yes.

GEORGE (Strangely)

You say she’s changing?

Later in Act One, George threatens Martha with a shot gun, which frightens everyone, until the gun proves to be fake.

HONEY (To MARTHA)

I was never so frightened in my life. Weren’t you frightened? Just for a second?

MARTHA (Smothering her rage at GEORGE)

I don’t remember.

At first, you might think that Martha says “I don’t remember” just to prove that George’s frightening joke had not upset her. But later in Act One, George reveals that Martha has a history of memory gaps: forgetting “half-filled glasses [of alcohol] everywhere in the house…in the linen closet, on the edge of the bathtub…I even found one in the freezer, once,” all of which Martha disputes (since she does not remember it).

Has Martha been hiding her drinking or having alcoholic blackouts during binges? Obviously not, since you don’t hide your drinking by leaving glasses of alcohol on the edge of the bathtub; and you drink the alcohol, you don’t waste it and leave it behind on a binge.

The point of Act One is not simply that George and Martha allegedly have a son, but that it is a secret which Martha would not reveal, except when she changes.

1. Edward Albee. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York, New American Library, 1962/2005.