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ANIKÓ LUKÁCS GEORGE (Throws one at her) SNAP! No, actually, it doesn’t. Either way ... I’ve had it. [...] (Throws another at her) SNAP! [...] MARTHA (A little afraid) Truth or illusion, George. Doesn’t it matter to you... at all? GEORGE (Without throwing anything) SNAP! (Silence) You got your answer, baby? MARTHA (Sadly) Got it.” The difference between truth and illusion can be compared — even if only symbolically — to the physical experience of the flowers hitting Martha’s body, and its opposite, the understanding of which turns Martha’s frightened question into a grim answer. George is already aware of the full screenplay of the last game, while Martha still merely suspects the nature of the trials before her. Following George’s announcement: “Now; we got one more game to play. And it’s called bringing up baby.”°* — the humiliated Nick leaves the room and, following the orders of George, starts looking for Honey to have all participants involved in the grand climax of the final game. Martha’s behavior is very telling: sensing the possibility of the total collapse of the previous structure (of which she is a substantial part), and beyond the humiliation of Hump the Hostess, she decides to change her tone: “I don’t like what’s going to happen. [...] (Pleading) No more games. [...] (Almost in tears) No, George; no. [...] No, George; please. [...] No, George. [...] No more games ... please. [...] Ugly games ... ugly. [...] (Tenderly; moves to touch him) Please George, no more games; I...”°’ George, however, has made his decision: rejecting Martha’s pleading and tenderness, he clenches her hair, shoves her head back, and hits her repeatedly. In the third act, George, as part of a large and dramatic exorcism, in spite of Martha's begging, commits his ritual child murder. As Allan Lewis notes, the goal of the exorcism is to abolish everything that is falsehood and fraudulent; an act of ultimate desperation aimed at destroying illusions behind which the truth cannot be seen.** George appears to be the executor of this, by eliminating the most substantial life of their life: Jimmy, the illusion of the “American Dream”. CONCLUSION - THE END OF THE JOURNEY While George destroys the symbol of their self-deception and ultimately eliminates the preliminal structure, this is also an arrival at the ultimate 55 Albee: Ibid., 203-205. 56 Tbid., 205. 57 Ibid., 206-208. 58 Lewis: Ibid. «130 +
