Echoes of Conformity: Truth and Illusion in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Abstract

This thesis explores the depiction of the various layers of truth and illusion in Mike Nichols’s film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Through an extended reading of the protagonists’ behavior, Martha and George, and the reasons behind their failure to meet the 1950s patriarchal domestic expectations, my paper focuses on how the film visually differs from the ideal societal norms by contrasting 1950s advertisements with Martha and George’s household. This study aims to show an insight into how the film’s production remodeled the American Motion Picture Production Code, noting the significance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s marriage in connection with the film. By exposing the motivations behind the son-myth, such as the strict gender roles, mandatory motherhood, trauma and the forced maintenance of traditional domesticity according to the American Dream, I argue that Martha and George try to maintain the illusion of the idyllic family life of the 1950s, but in reality, their marriage is in ruins due to unprocessed traumas.