SOURCE: "Changing Perspectives: The Vanishing 'Character' in Albee's Plays," in CLA Journal, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, 1984, pp. 210-29.

In the following essay, Yates charges that over the course of Albee's career his characters have grown increasingly abstract, eventually becoming "mere vehicles for the expression of… ideas. "

As an American dramatist, Edward Albee moves from the philosophical position that reform can be affected by creating an awareness of social problems to the conclusion that man's condition is irremediable. In between these two stages of his career, Albee concentrates on psychological problems which result from restrictive social situations. As Albee moves closer philosophically to the absurdists, form follows content and the characters in his plays undergo a gradual process of dehumanization.

From the early plays to the middle plays, Albee shifts his emphasis from the idea that society is a force for good or evil to the idea that individuals are...