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

since melancholy connotes the absence of the object of love, that Teddy used to be. Julia is the physical attempt to replace her dead brother in the world of the drama. She is thus the visible site for the blindspot of the play. Claire tells Tobias that Julia is "only" his "daughter" and as such, she emphasizes the role the remaining daughter plays in the family since the departure of Teddy. Julia stopped calling her father Daddy or Father from the moment Teddy was gone. This fact emphasizes an infertile parenting, a family devoid of further life, so specific to Albee's dramatic world. The figure of the absent Teddy is shifted towards the figure of Julia's ex-husband, Charlie, whom Julia's parents "pushed" on their daughter (because of Charlie's similitude with their son, Teddy). Charlie was the most beloved of all of Julia's husbands because he was "so alike" Teddy although he was the husband that had the inclination for boys: Julia: Do I pick 'em [husbands]? ... Tobias [grudging]: Well, you may have been pushed on Charlie... Julia: Poor Charlie. Tobias [temper rising a little

]: Well, for Christ's sake, if you miss him so much.

.. Julia: 1 do not miss him! Well, yes, I do, but not that way. Because he seemed so alike what Teddy would have been. Tobias [quiet anger and sorrow

]: Your brother would not have grown up to be a fag. Julia: Who is to say?

3

9 Teddy is the physically absent character, to whom the family directly or indirectly relates. The reason of his death is knot mentioned, but it might have been the "fright", the "plague", the "terror" of his recognition in being other ("a fag") than he was (socially) supposed to be. At least this is what the Julia and Tobias dialogue above makes it visible. Claire introduces the deictic figure of Teddy, when the frightened Harry and Edna arrive at the house of Agnes and Tobias. Claire puts sadly the rhetorical sentence: "I was wondering when it would begin... when it would start." (emphasis mine). Nobody seems to recognize the referent of her sentence. This referent is only labeled as the fright, "the terror", the "plague" (which 3

9 Ibid., 49. 151