In the following essay, the author analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Albee'sA Delicate Balance.

In 1962 Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? narrowly avoided winning the Pulitzer Price. Although the previous award had gone to an insipid musical, no prize was offered in 1962-63. When another of Albee's plays is awarded the self-same prize some five years later, then, the critic is posed with an obvious problem. Have the Committee, one of whose members reportedly called Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "a filthy play," become more catholic in their taste or has Albee compromised the values and the manner which had formerly made his work unacceptable? The answer, I believe, is that Albee has achieved what is clearly a rare distinction. He has played a part, small though it is, in the long process of educating the Pulitzer Prize Committee. For while A Delicate Balance...