Edward Albee's play The Zoo Story

Edward Albee's play The Zoo Story is a play about communication, or rather, the lack of communication between people who believe they are communicating. The play is both comic and tragic, for the same lack of communication which brings laughter can the next moment bring pathos as the consequences of isolated human beings (human beings who cannot or will not communicate openly and honestly) brings death, even murder, or murder by suicide.

The play features two men, Jerry and Peter. Jerry is either mad or so eccentric and troubled that he might as well be mad, and Peter is conservative and completely ignorant of the world beyond his little married life. On one level, the men appear to be trying to communicate, although there are obvious roadblocks to that end.

From the beginning, Jerry is a rather pushy, if not obnoxious fellow, who seems intent on slyly mocking the traditional values and thoughts of Peter. Peter is withdrawn and alternately suspicious and compliant. They are opposites trying to communicate. On the other hand, are they truly trying to communicate? And, if so, is it truly possible for them to successfully communicate?

Peter is probably too locked inside himself and his conservative outlook on life to open up enough to show himself willingly, and at the same time he is not aware enough to listen intelligently, especially to such a contradictory and devious character as Jerry. He never really knows what is going on in his bewildering communication with Je

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he has killed Jerry before he even knows what has happened. In one sense, then, from Jerry's point of view, the communication is perfect--he accomplishes precisely what he wants to accomplish. From Peter's point of view, of course, what has happened to him, how Jerry has manipulated him into murder, will probably not come clear to him for a long while, if ever. Jerry has achieved what he wanted from the encounter--death. Peter has no idea what hit him. At the same time, however, one can say that Jerry is as deluded as Peter in terms of communication and what Jerry believes can be accomplished through communication. Perhaps the heart of the play (aside from Jerry's death at Peter's hand) is the long story Jerry tells about his complex "relationship" with the landlady's dog. If Jerry were to put as much time, care, creativity, and effort into establishing communication with a human being that he put into coming to some sort of mutually acceptable and respectful understanding with that dog, he would probably have found human companionship and would not be seeking to be murdered by Peter in order to escape his pain. In addition, because Jerry is so profoundly conflicted with respect to his parents and his sexuality, he is far f

Category: Arts - E