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Locus Focus is a wonderful weekly meme (on which I have been sadly deficient of late) hosted by the lovely Enbrethiliel over at Shredded Cheddar.  Each week we focus on a particular location in literature (and sometimes film)  in order to examine its significance and emotive power.  Check it out!

May's theme is places in film, and I've chosen George and Martha's house in the wonderful 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis and George Segal.  The great majority of the story takes place in George and Martha's house or on their lawn; there is only one other stage set in the film and that is the bar which provides the backdrop for a game of "get the guests."

The house is a two-story rather shabby little place with well worn furniture and piles of junk over every conceivable surface.  Indeed, in some ways it serves as a metaphor for George and Martha's relationship.  One is too busy noticing all the crazy details to examine the larger structure of the home.

The first line of dialogue in the film is Martha's discontented grumble "What a dump."  when referring to their house.  In fact, the house could be nice, but the couple's utter disregard for the things around them (including people) is mirrored in their surroundings.

In one of the opening scenes, when we see into George and Martha's bedroom, we watch Martha "tidying up" by stashing dirty plates in the nightstand drawer and putting dirty clothes under the bedspread.

And we see her in the kitchen putting a half-eaten chicken wing back onto a plate in the refrigerator.  The debacle continues apace as the new couple at the University, Nick and Honey, come over for late-night drinks.  Martha blatantly sets out to seduce Nick and belittle George, while George quietly parries the barbs and retaliates by discussing Martha's drinking.  And there is a lot of drinking.  A lot.  At one point, Martha goads George so much that he breaks a bottle on the mantlepiece:

To which she responds:  "That better have been an empty bottle!  You can't AFFORD to waste good liquor! Not on YOUR salary!  Not on an ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR'S salary!"  and that's one of the saner moments in the film.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is not an easy film to watch.  Martha and George rip into one another with gleeful cruelty, not even slowing down when Nick and Honey get in the way.  They build through the night through the second act, "Walpurgisnacht" to the third, "The Exorcism."  In the end, we are left, like George and Martha, shattered and surrounded by once-familiar things that now seem to have new context.


This film is not exactly a "fun time" flick, and NEVER attempt to play drinking games with it, but it can teach us about the necessary coping measures we adopt in our lives, and what happens when the supports are removed.  And George and Martha's house at all points reflects their personalities.  In fact, the house might be said to be a fifth player in the tragicomedy.