or accomplishment. All of her circumstances, limitations, fears, doubts, and decisions are slowly revealed in the play as a dramatic character of considerable stature is constructed.
The play is autobiographical in nature. As Albee has said in the introduction to the published edition, the central character is a fictionalized version of his adoptive mother. He did not, he says, intend to write any kind of "revenge piece," because, although he and his mother had managed to make each other extremely unhappy throughout the years, he no longer harbored any ill will toward her (Albee n. pag.). He did, however, want in some way to get beyond the reach of their relationship, to "'get her out of my system,'" as he puts it, by writing the play (Albee n. pag.). Yet, although she was not liked by anyone who met her in the last 20 years of her life, Albee soon discovered that his theatrical version of his mother made her seem fascinating to people--a reaction that made him wonder exactly what he had done in creating this dramatic rendering of the woman. Perhaps, he speculated, the character in his play was simply "more human, more multifaceted than its source" (Albee n. pag.).
This curious result may, however, be due to Albee's deeper intention: a search for understanding. He may be, as he claims, distanced from the terrible relationship they had. Yet, he writes about it without being sure, as he says, why he is doing so. The understanding he seems to seek is not that which grants forgiveness or reconciles the searcher to the past. It is understanding in the simpler sense of explanation. What, he seems to ask, explains her character with its implacable harshness toward himself (as represented in the Young Man) and, it seems, everyone else? Having determined what it is, his curiosity will be satisfied.
Biographical criticism is, of course, very difficult without some knowledge of the individuals involved. But Albee's introdu...