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Early in the play, George says "I am preoccupied with history" (Albee 50). George is a humanities professor, but Albee is saying more than that, as the couple's story shows as the play continues. Both characters are products of their childhood, and have never really matured from their childhood, which is why they act like children in their marriage. George has guilt about his parents, and makes up stories about sons who try to kill their parents. Martha was a "daddy's girl" who wanted unconditional love from her father and wanted it from George too. They disappoint each other, and they disappoint themselves. They grew up not feeling strong and good about themselves, and they have carried these feelings into their marriage and their adult lives, when they should be mature enough to leave these childish feelings behind. Albee shows that even though adults marry, they may not be truly adult; they may be carrying around baggage from their youth that is never quite taken care of or resolved. George and Martha are like overgrown children in the way they fight with each other. They are very strong people and yet they do not like themselves, and it shows.
Finally, Albee shows the theme and his thoughts about marriage in how immature these characters really are, and how they cannot accept each other or themselves. These two characters cannot accept and love each other for who they are and this also shows their emotional immaturity and lack of self-esteem. They react to each other by trying to hurt each other, and they even...
This shows that Albee believes the fantasy of "love ever after" in marriage is a myth. People grow and change, and life hands them many disappointments and hardships. Some people rise above these hardships, but George and Martha seem mired in them, and that says their marriage is indeed as Martha calls it - a "sewer" they cannot seem to surmount. That is because they are immature and they still carry around regrets from their childhood that make them fearful and unsure of themselves and of each other. Their relationship is dysfunctional, but it seems clear that neither one of them would ever consider leaving the other. Marriage may be a bond, but to George and Martha it is more like a bind - binding them together in love, hate, and despair.
In conclusion, Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a disturbing look at marriage and relationships that illustrates the difference between liking someone and loving someone - which is an important issue in marriage. George and Martha clearly love each other, but they do not like each other very much, and they do not like themselves very much, either, which leads to dissatisfaction, hurt, and pain. Marriage for "love ever after" is a myth to this couple, and that is Albee's final message in the play. Love can bind two people together but it is not always love that keeps them together.
References
Albee, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York: Pocket Books, 1964.
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