Zoo Story Research Articles

Mary M. Nilan

EDWARD ALBEE'S THE ZOO STORY centers about two themes: the polarization of modern society and the difficulty of human communication. To date, most commentators have viewed Peter, the representative of "those who have," the insiders of modern society, as the chief obstacle to any real communication; whereas Jerry is seen as one filled with compassion for his fellow beings, willing to sacrifice himself to save them. For example, for Rose Zimbardo, Jerry is a Christ-figure in a "modernized scene of Gethsemane" and the theme is one of "human isolation and salvation through sacrifice." Peter she conceives as Everyman who will not reveal his true self for fear of being "known" as a person. Jerry, on the other hand, is seen as desperately desiring to "know," to reach an understanding with another. CharlesR. Lyons sees Jerry as attempting two means to establish some contact: "compassion" (with the dog) and "an act of sacrifice" (with Peter). Jerry's sacrifice is compassionate, Lyons maintains, because "it functions to initiate Peter into an acute awareness of his reality." George E. Wellwarth adds another dimension to this portrait of a compassionate, self-sacrificing character when he notes that Jerry represents for him "the person cursed (for in our society it undoubtedly is a curse) with an infinite capacity for love" and thus he sees the drama as "about the maddening effect that enforced loneliness of the human condition" has on such a person.

Albee's Attack on Fiction

IN A WIDELY PUBLISHED ARTICLE ENTITLED "What's the Matter with Edward Albee?" Thomas Driver attacks the basic situation of The Zoo Story maintaining that Peter's passive acceptance of Jerry's aggressive behavior is illogical and unrealistic. Driver states that no "sane, average-type person would be a passive spectator in the presence of behavior obviously headed towards destructive violence." In the same article Driver makes a similar criticism of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? arguing the improbability of Nick and Honey's remaining at George and Martha's when the older couple obviously "want only to fight the whole night through.” Driver's criticism of both plays misses a fact which is central to their development and to an understanding of Albee's work in general. Peter remains on the park bench for the same reason that Nick and Honey remain at George and Martha's: he is entertained by story-telling, particularly when the story-teller is very obviously his opposite.

Albee's The Zoo Story : Alienated Man and the Nature of Love

Albee's The Zoo Story : Alienated Man and the Nature of Love

The Zoo Story : Albee's Attack on Fiction

IN A WIDELY PUBLISHED ARTICLE ENTITLED What's the Matter with Edward Albee? Thomas Driver attacks the basic situation of The Zoo Story maintaining that Peter's passive acceptance of Jerry's aggressive behavior is illogical and unrealistic. Driver states that no sane, average-type person would be a passive spectator in the presence of behavior obviously headed towards destructive violence.! In the same article Driver makes a similar criticism of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? arguing the improbability of Nick and Honey's remaining at George and Martha's when the older couple obviously want only to fight the whole night through.,,2 Driver's criticism of both plays misses a fact which is central to their development and to an understanding of Albee's work in general. Peter remains on the park bench for the same reason that Nick and Honey remain at George and Martha's: he is entertained by story-telling, particularly when the story-teller is very obviously his opposite. Simple in itself, this fact has complex ramifications when one understands Albee's purpose in writing: basically he is attacking the fictions which North American society has developed to escape the alienation and discord which he views as modern urban realities. In his preface to The American Dream, he states this purpose most succinctly:

The Medium Is the Absurd

ccJ ERRY a homosexual? No,... he's Jjust lost. A lonely guy, spilling his guts in Central Park. Communication? Yeah . . . that's what 'Zoo Story's' all about. This fellow Jerry-no parents, no girl-no one he can relate to, . . so he nabs Peter on the park bench ... and makes sure that Peter never, never forgets. Sure it's pessimistic. Jerry has to die to make Peter live, doesn't he? But isn't that part of what we're living through today? Kennedy... King... it hurts but it's here.

Edward Albee's Tiny Alice: A Note Of Re-Examination

EDWARD ALBEE'S Tiny Alice SUSTAINS neither the acute artistic control nor the consummate theatrical dialogue of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or the Zoo Story~ but it attempts to be more metaphysically provocative than either. And in the 1964-1965 New York production the attempt was successful. (However, the compensating talents of a John Gielgud, an Irene Worth, a William Hutt were, in Tiny Alice, more necessary to support the somewhat shaky substratum and camouflage the plethora of superficial quips-that so often pass for deeply probing comments on being—than, say, an Arthur Hill and an Uta Hagen were essential to the success of Virginia Woolf.) In this drama perhaps more profundity is attempted than in any of Mr. Albee's other plays; less is actually realized—at least on the printed page. Mr. Albee's success rests on his superior reinforcement of the verbal with the visual.

Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story

-a strong suggestion of the gimmick. Because American playwrights have been self-conscious in employing symbols, their symbolism is almost always embarrassingly obvious. It calls attention to itself and exists as a kind of scaffolding which the audience feels the playwright should either have built over or removed. For example, O'Neill's symbolistic drama, which has, of course, shaped all later American drama, directs attention

The Theatre of Harold Pinter

The so-called avant-garde theatre in the United States and England is generally a case of new wine in old bottles. The plays of most of the young Anglo-American playwrights do not break new ground. Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, to begin with one of the better known examples, is essentially a realistic psychological melodrama. His Sandbox and The American Dream utilize conventions of the traditional non-realistic theatre. Jack Gelber's The Connection explores a segment of society that has been previously unexplored in the theatre except in terms of melodrama, but the manner of presentation goes back to Pirandello. Jack Richardson brings to The Prodigal a unique intelligence and virtuosity but uses familiar techniques. In England as well, there is vitality within traditional forms. Although John Osborne's observations of the temper of postwar England are vividly realistic, he blazes no new paths of dramaturgy.