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
Agnes and she is, as her name implies (Clare meaning 'clear') the clairvoyant of the play. Her otherwise very positive figure resembles that of Grandma in The Sandbox or in The American Dream. According to Mel Gussow's biography of Edward Albee, Agnes and Tobias were actually inspired by the playwright's adoptive parents, Frances and Reed Albee. Claire was modeled by the playwright's aunt (Frances's sister) Jane, while Julia resembles Albee's cousin, Barbara, who was another adopted child of the extended Albee family, who was a "spoiled brat"" . Julia is the problem character of the play. She is the daughter of Agnes and Tobias, an "angular" character, who failed in all her four marriages (with Tom, Charlie, Phil and Doug). During the plot time of the play, Julia is home after a new deception with Douglas, her fourth husband. Claire utters the truth about the failure of Julia's marriages: CIaire[fl mocking sing-song ]: Philip loved to gamble, Charlie loved the boys, Tom went after women, Douglas. .. 3 S (emphasis mine ) Julia is in close relation with the blindspot of the play, who is her brother Teddy. He is described in any way but his absence rules the plot because of the impact he had on all the dramatic participants. Teddy died and he has become a fictional, non-existent son to whom all relate to some extent. He is, in functional terms similar to the son in Virginia Woolf. The summer when Teddy, Julia's younger brother, died she presented body scars in her mourning, "she used to skin her knees" in grief. It was that summer when Tobias cheated on Agnes by sharing the same woman (most probably Claire) with his best friend, Harry. When Harry and Edna bring in the house "the scare" and want to finally depart, Tobias repeatedly asks Harry to "please, stay". His attachment to Harry dates from the point of losing Teddy. Julia does not have children of her own. Once every three years she comes home and announces that her marriage failed. Agnes labels her as "our melancholy", which means that Julia is a site of Teddy's remembrance Mel Gussow Edward Albee: A Singular Journey. A Biography (London: Oberon, 1999), 254-255. Edward Albee A Delicate Balance (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969), 31 . 150
