WAOVW Fun and Games Key Quotes★

what are some of the insults Martha says to George on Page 1?

• “What a cluck! What a cluck you are!” - After George scolds Martha for being loud.

• “Dumbbell!” - George can’t identify where Martha’s quote comes from.

stage direction that represents Martha’s character on page 1?

“crash against front door. Martha’s laughter heard”.

Martha does an awful lot of what on the first page?

blaspheming!:

• “Jesus… H. Christ”

• “What’s it from for Christ’s sake?”

• “Its from some goddamn Bette Davis picture… some goddamn Warner Brothers epic…”

How is George feeling?

tired and finished with Martha’s behaviour:

• “For God’s sake, Martha, its two o’clock in the…”

• “Its late, you know? Late.”

• [wearily] What’s what from?

how does George provoke Martha on page 2 (about her age). How does Martha respond?

“Well, that was probably before my time but…”

“Can it! Just cut that out!”

examples of Martha criticising George.

• “I don’t know what you’re so tired about… you haven’t done anything all day”

• “You never do anything; you never mix. You just sit around and talk”.

how does George react when Martha tells him they have guests coming over?

[disbelieving]

“We’ve got what?”

examples of Martha and George being nice to each other/playing along with the other’s jokes?

• Martha: PHRASEMAKER! [pause… then they both laugh]

• George: You’ll crack your big teeth

  Martha: THEY’RE MY BIG TEETH

• Martha: [glumly] Well… you’re going bald

  George: So are you [pause… they both laugh]

• Martha: You pig!

  George: [haughtily] Oink! Oink!

• George: My God you can swill it down, can’t you?

  Martha: [imitating a child] I’m firsty.

examples of George humiliating Martha:

• [satisfaction about having Martha’s explosion overheard]

• George: Martha’s a devil with language; she really is.

• George:… some Greek with a moustache Martha attacked one night in…

• George: What it is, actually, is it’s a pictorial representation of the order of Martha’s mind.

quotes about Martha’s alcoholism

• when talking about himself “courting” Martha: “real lady like little drinkies”

• George: the years have brought to Martha a sense of essentials… alcohol [brings Martha her drink] pure and simple.

• George: God you can swill it down, can’t you?

• George: Martha’s tastes in liquor have come down… simplified over the years… crystallized.

how does Albee present Nick as a level headed and socially aware character?

• Nick: Well now, perhaps we shouldn’t have come…

• Nick: [stays grimly, coolly polite]

• Nick: [killing the attempted rapport] - he understands what George is doing is rude and wants no part in it.

George attempts to antagonise Nick

‘Don’t you condescend to me! (Toying with him).

Martha and George Cold War/ expressing disappointment through humour

‘Martha and I are having… nothing, Martha and I are merely… exercising.” -George

George feels threatened by Nick’s biology profession

‘You’re the one! You’re the one’s going to make all that trouble… making everyone the same.’

George feels reminded of his failures by Martha

‘Martha tells me often that I am in the History Department… as opposed to being the History Department.. I do not run the History Department.’

Nick uncomfortable at the topic of having children (links to Honey’s phantom pregnancy)

‘(hedging) Yes… certainly. We… want to wait… a little… until we’re settled.’

George becomes angered when he discovers Martha has told Honey about their son

‘(For Martha, as if she were in the room) You goddamn destructive…’

George feels inadequate compared to Nick, Martha antagonises him because she is disappointed at his failure.

‘(between his teeth): I said I was impressed, Martha. I’m beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw up?’

Martha criticises George for not being head of the History Department

‘George is bogged down in the History Department. He’s an old bog in the History Department… A SWAMP. Hey, swamp! Hey, SWAMPY!

Martha flirting with Nick in order to provoke George

‘(with a peculiar intensity and enthusiasm): You must be pretty good at it… I mean, you don’t look like you got hit in the face at all.’

Nick rises to Martha’s game and flirts with her

‘(unselfconscious… almost encouraging her) It’s still pretty good. I work out.’

Martha talking about the boxing match

‘It’s what he uses for being bogged down, anyway… why he hasn’t gone anywhere.’

Martha flirting with Nick (biology)

‘It’s… right at the meat of things… you stay right where you are… you stay right at the… meat of things.

George feels threatened by Nick’s biology profession.

‘We will have a race of men… test-tube bred… incubator-born… superb and sublime.’

Honey as childish + scared of reproduction

‘(her hands over her ears): Dear, you mustn’t… you mustn’t… you mustn’t.

Martha attempts to humiliate George by implying their ‘son’ is not his

‘(deeply serious) My God, you’re a wicked woman… a deeply wicked person.’

Martha’s relationship with/ admiration for her father

‘Jesus, I admired that guy! I worshipped him… I absolutely worshiped him. I still do.’

Martha provokes George by calling him a failure in front of the guests (he did not succeed in becoming president of the university despite Martha and her father wanting this).

‘(viciously triumphant)… he wasn’t particularly aggressive. In fact he was sort of a… (Spits the word at George) … a FLOP! A great… big… fat … FLOP!’

George is genuinely hurt by Martha’s cruelty

‘(almost crying) I said stop, Martha.’