Play Comedy

The American Dream

Author First Performed Original Language

Edward Albee 1961 English

THEMES

American The American Dream takes a dark and satirical look at the middle-class culture of
the 1950s with its portrayal of bored family drama. Mommy and Daddy’s dialogue
Dream? Ha! is shallow, repetitive, and dissociated, while Grandma’s words reflect slightly
better values—and callousness. To them, life is absurd and meaningless; there’s
not much to dream about.

Cruelty

Mommy mistreats Grandma,

emasculates Daddy, and behaves
brutally toward their adopted son.

Emptiness Values

When Grandma empties the Mommy and Daddy’s blandness and

apartment of its contents, she is shallowness are representative of
showing how a materialistic the materialistic American dream.
American dream can be empty.

Main Characters

Daddy
Mommy’s considerate but
passive husband
Mommy
Grandma Vicious, domineering,
The author’s somewhat dull woman
likable mouthpiece

Mrs. Barker
Visitor and volunteer with
the adoption service
Young Man
Handsome, emotionless
twin of Mommy and
Daddy’s adopted son

Motifs
Grandma

Represents blunt honesty and an ounce

of humanism in the face of absurdity
and declining American values

The American Dream

Represents a wished-for, but

empty, life of comfort—an
The American Dream illusion that’s ultimately absurd
by the Numbers

Boxes
1 Symbolize the elimination of
everything of worth and the
Other one-act play hollowness of what is left
(The Sandbox) often
produced with The
American Dream

Author
1959
Year Albee produced
Like most writers, Albee pulled from
his first play, The Zoo
personal experiences in his work.
Story
Asked how long it took him to write a
play, he answered, “all of my life.” In
The American Dream, Albee built on

2005 his rocky relationship with his

adoptive mother and his disaffection
with American values.
Year Albee won a
Tony Award for
lifetime achievement EDWARD ALBEE
1928–2016

2010
Year of Albee’s final ou got to have a sense of dignity...if you
Off-Broadway
premiere: Me,
don’t have that, civilization’s doomed.
Myself & I Grandma

Sources: Cherry Lane Theatre, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Goshen College,

Introduction in Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, Merriam-Webster’s
Encyclopedia of Literature, New York Times, NOLA.com

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