Primary Critical Anaylysis of Edward Albee's The Zoo Essay

Primary Critical Anaylysis of Edward Albees The Zoo - Essay ExampleIn the play The Zoo Story by Edward Albee in 1958 first performed in Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt, 1959. The zoo imagery runs throughout the play and the actual crisis emerges from the sentence that Jerry enters saying Ive been to the zoo. Jerry reflects a great tiredness and questions the verisimilitude of social prosperity and happiness that the optimism that seem to surround the American Dream. The isolation and the confinement of his free heart becomes the curse of the modern society. He is free to stay condemned, and hardly can share a relationship with even an animal. The one-act drama revolves around the c at one timept of the zoo that belies the Disneyland of American promise of superabundance and civility. My present concern in this paper is to analyze the questions that Jerry raises and how he escapes through his death.On a fine Sunday afternoon Peter sits on a park bench narration a book, h onorable when Jerry enters looking a bit tattered and ragged. He starts a conversation with Peter which takes a violent turn after Jerry goes into a detailed analysis of his life at his apartment, and his relationship with a dog the story that he names THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG. The dialogues about his personal life and that of the present turn seamy which ultimately takes a dangerous note when he starts telling Peter what exactly he saw in the zoo. Peters request to leave becomes ridiculous when Jerry starts to tickle him without reason, almost bordering on absurdity. While continuing with his zoo story Jerry challenges Peter repeatedly to leave the bench and hits him on his hand. wrathful at the illogicality of Jerrys response he starts a fight and ultimately falls into Jerry trap when he picks up his knife and Jerry lunges on him killing himself. Jerry dies with a fitting parody of a prayer.The speech of Jerry borders on madness and implicitly becomes a subversive force to unsettle the middle-class morals that seem to be the binding force of the American bourgeoisie. Jerry questions traditional concept of roles as he confuses wife with parakeets, cats and often compares Peters household with a zoo that makes a mockery of espousal and human relationships. Most importantly it becomes a satire against the concept of the family as portrayed by the come forwardular American image, like the The Brady Bunch, a situation comedy aired between 1969 and 1974. Clearly Jerry and peter represent two different worlds.1The typical archetype of good old mom and good old pop are just ideals that the society forces on us and thus Jerry says that the empty picture frames that should have framed another picture perfect moment is just a sham and his family history is just another terrible middle-European joke. Again he scandalizes middle-class morality by professing that he was once a homosexual and graphically gives a detailed encounter of his landlady and the pretty l ittle ladies who are just an embodiment of carnal desires. This is a mockery of the prudishness as he says People looked up. It always happens when I try to simplify things people look up Jerry is not stupid, infact he is quite learned since he tragically says that he is howling because he is alive. Characters like the hellish dog, the colored queen,