Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)
Studies - Réka Cristian: Edward Albee's Castings
The great balancing act of the drama (and of human relations in it) is to reach the state of the "good enough motherhood" between humans, that is, an equilibrium of the envy-gratitude or love-hate, as shown by Donald Winnicott 4 7. The balancing act takes place if a character is "good enough" to the other character in the course of the plot induced by the blindspot. Agnes and Julia finally verbalize this act of balancing , which stands at the root of all human relations: Agnes: The double position of seeing not only facts but their implications... There is a balance to be maintained after all, though the rest of you teether, unconcerned, or uncaring, assuming you're on level ground... by divine right, I gather, though that is hardly so. And if must be the fulcrum... I think I shall have a divorce. Tobias: Have a divorce? Agnes: No. No, Julia has them for all of us. Not even separation; that is taken care of, and in life: the gradual ...demise of intensity, the private preoccupations, the substitutions. We become allegorical , my darling Tobias... The individuality we hold so dearly sinks into crotchet; we see ourselves repeated by those we bring into it all, either by mirror or by rejection, honor or fault... Julia: Well, you are the fulcrum and all around here the double vision, the great balancing act. ..{emphasis mine). 4 9 The American Dream according to Ruby Cohn, strives like Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano "on social inanities" 5 0. The characters are Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Mrs. Barker and the Young Man. The 1 The characters in the play act as mothering agents. This mothering process, in Donald Winnicott's writings on the topic means that each human can act as a 'good enough mother', which means that it must balance (in a so-called transitional space) the quantity of love and hate proportionally in order to achieve maximum effect and response from the other person. It also means that each character is both good and bad at the same time but also that they are "sensitively using the transitional space". In other words, "the good enough mother actively adapts to the needs of the infant rather than the other way round." In Rosaliny Minsky, ed. Psychoanalysis and Gender (New York: Routledge, 1996), 114. 4 8 In 1949 Albee wrote one of his apprentice works The City of People. "For the first time in Albee's work, the words "delicate balance" appear, referring to the that "shading between love and hate that exists between anybody that cares for one another". In Mel Gussow Edward Albee. A Singular Journey. A Biography (London. Oberon, 1999), 68. 4 9 Edward Albee A Delicate Balance (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969), 58-59. M l Ruby Cohn Edward Albee (Minnepolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969), I I . 155
