Many believe that getting a good education correlates positively with success in later social and financial life. Edward Albee seemingly disagrees. Through his portrayal of two faculty members and their wives at the fictional New Carthage University, Albee implies that there may be something inherently wrong in the pursuit of higher education for personal gains. With George struggling for supremacy in the history department and Nick eager to please Martha for better faculty positions, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf depicts a grisly power struggle prevalent in the modern professional world.
The expectation from society often seems to be that higher levels of education equate to higher levels of sophistication and wisdom. In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, however, the roles of student and teacher reverse, with faculty members of New Carthage University acting as if they were children and resorting to heavy drinking to hide the ugly realities of their personal lives. George, as a history professor, would likely give off the impression of a hearty and warm man to most of the audience at the start of the play. As the play progresses, however, that warm and benign image of George transfigures itself into a senile picture as George reveals more of his unpleasant qualities.
Along similar lines, Nick attempts to be polite and reserved through the opening act, but later becomes corrupted by the tempting smell of power. Though he is young, Nick realizes opportunities when they come and takes his chance to achieve a position that George never had the potential to reach. This transformation of George and Nick from benign to malignant not only serves to demonstrate that people hide their inner ugliness with superficial images, but also highlights what may appear to be an inevitable end for people who wish to continue their education for immoral reasons.
The relationship between education and the quest for power is evident even in the name of the university. The irony that George teaches history at a school called “New Carthage University” further represents that he, in his search for personal validation, is inherently chasing a failed cause. Though the institution may have the lures of being a prospective environment for successful people, Albee hints that much like the historical city of Carthage, the university itself is under constant pressure and will eventually succumb to a greater power. Though in the historical context Carthage was conquered by the Romans, New Carthage University looks to be “conquered” by its own power-hungry constituents. With the faculty’s favorite game being “musical beds” and George and Martha having trouble separating personal insecurities from their professional lives, New Carthage University simply portrays the decline of another institution – a failing representative of many schools in the perspective of the modern professional world.
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