Jose AlmazanMrs. FranksAP English IIIMarch 31, 2014Satanism and the Immortal Youth: An All-American FamilyAs a 32-year-old man, emotionally tortured playwright Edward Albee, set out to create Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A controversial work considered one of the greatest in American history. Born in Virginia, he was adopted by a group of wealthy members of New York high society and was forced to adapt to their ethics and beliefs, following this sudden distortion Albee started a youth revolt. He was expelled from two schools and fired from Valley Forge Military Academy; later attended two final colleges; Choate School and Trinity College, before being expelled again for failing to attend. Without worrying about the possible outcomes, Albee left home permanently by the end of his teenage years stating, “I never felt comfortable with foster parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't even know how to be a son. Perhaps using the unwanted past as a reference, he created his characters George and Martha; a jilted married couple sharing each other's fountains of youth and Dionysian fantasies, the pinnacle of a reckless family. Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? It is Albee's depiction of the antithetical reality of a modern American family; a subliminal story told through occult symbolism, uncomfortable wit, and unbridled mysticism.Eyes Wide Shut; released in 1999 by director Stanley Kubrick, it follows a similar path to that of Albee's work, with a married, socialist and wealthy couple. The story, unlike Albee's, is about redemption and peace in a marriage. Yet the characters face many obstacles like George and Martha, albeit adversely. They are forced to u... middle of paper... due to unjustified absences; and a lesser known fact, he studied the occult as a way to further his craft in writing. In his youth he was asked about symbolism in some of his early plays; and unlike most authors and playwrights, he was known for keeping things open about his allusions and metaphors. Albee was an intricate personality known for his complexity and ingenious literature. It would be a painful mistake; to define one of his works as nothing more than a drama. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is the story of a couple with sinister actions and goals, searching for youth. When their source of wealth and pathological wealth has finally dried up, they are forced to steal it from a new, young and intelligent couple. Albee introduces the reader to his Dionysian sabbath in a cacophonous setting, where almost everyone and everything is shown as a mirror of a darker and more sinister reality..