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
"provide" her husband with—is the key that ignites the outcome of the drama. Peter blames the lack of male child (besides his two daughters) on the "matter of genetics, not manhood", when Jerry accuses Peter of not being man enough. The untold desire and the lack induced by the impossibility of having a 'heir' drive Peter into the induced fight with Jerry, who recognized this by Peter's body semiotics. Jerry: And you're not going to have any more kids, are you? Peter [a bit distantly ]: No. No more. Why did you say that? How would you know about that? Jerry: The way you cross your legs , perhaps; something in the voice. Or maybe I'm just guessing. (emphasis mine) 3 6 By mentioning the child he could never have, Jerry made Peter step out from his conformist position and obey his instinctual nature. "I guess this is what happened at the zoo", Jerry finally recognizes. With the help of the non-existent child, Jerry has made Peter react instinctually in self-defense, and at the same time he "comforted" Jerry in his last minutes of life. The blindspot of the play, similar to the workings of the pharmakos ('medicine', which heals but has side effects which can harm), embodies the basis of the relation in humans: human emotion in which kindness and cruelty work as supplements. The non-existent child does not love nor hurt because it is not reached. As Jerry says "we neither love nor hurt because we do not try to reach each other". Jerry made Peter at least verbally reach, 'mention' this child. This process showed the two facets of the same coin: love and hate, life and death. The exorcism of the desire in Peter by Jerry was similar to the veiling and the unveiling of the fictional son in Virginia Woolf, whose "mentioning" caused the flaw of the action in the drama. A Delicate Balance's cast includes Agnes who is described as "a handsome woman in her late fifties". Tobias is her husband and he is "a few years older" than his wife. The cast encounters the mirroring couple, Edna and Harry, who are 'very much like Agnes and Tobias'. Besides the two couples from the cast, there are two single characters. One is Julia, the daughter of the Agnes-Tobias couple, and the other is Claire, Agnes' alcoholic sister. Claire is "several years younger" than 3 0 Edward Albee The Zoo Story. In Absurd Drama (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), 161. 149
