Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? brings together two couples in a college town, one couple older and more experienced, the other younger and new to the academic world, for a night of psychodrama approaching outright psychological torture. The older couple has clearly performed this ritual many times before, and over the course of the night, while they pass through a series of stages leading form one interpersonal position to another, they cannot be said to be changed by the experience. After all, as noted, they have tortured one another like this before and will do so again. On this night, Martha may give away more secrets or take the drama in a different direction, but still the couple has done this before. The younger couple, on the other hand, experience something new which challenges their view of the accepted order and tests their view of one another. In some ways, they may represented George and Martha at an earlier stage, and the older couple may be a preview of what the younger couple will become.
From the first, it is made clear that this drama belongs to George and Martha and that Nick and Honey are observers and unwitting participants. George and Martha hold the stage for the first part of the play and begin their own interpersonal drama before their audience shows up, their audience being Nick and Honey. Nick and Honey are at a disadvantage in the evening that ensues because they are young, they are guests, and they do not know the "rules" of engagement being used by their hosts. Still, it is clear that Nick, at least, is willing to join in and explore his own mental state as well as theirs. His drinking contributes to his willingness, along with his ambition in the academic community. However, as becomes evident, he has no real idea how deep are the psychological currents he is entering as he joins in the fray. Honey, on the other hand, lacks the awareness of her husband and has no idea...