"Of the four characters in the play, George is the character most adept at 'doing things with words'" To what extent do you agree with this statement?Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The expression “to do things with words” can be interpreted in different ways; an effective way to interpret it would be to use it as a language to manipulate people and change the flow of dialogue or action. In this sense, George is clearly very linguistically gifted, as we see him achieve this at different points in the play. This does not mean, however, that George has mastered this skill better than the other characters in the play, with Martha and Nick being his main rivals in this competition. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee's characters frequently demonstrate the ability to manipulate each other and the mood or tone of the play through the use of their language. As the three acts of the play taken together effectively demonstrate, George is the most capable in this regard. In the first act, "Fun and Games", we are first introduced to George and Martha, with Martha doing the majority of the talking and yelling, seemingly to no avail in terms of George's response. This shows that although Martha uses words frequently, she is not necessarily always good at "doing things" with them. She speaks very quickly and her tone is aggressive for the majority of the opening scene, before Nick and Honey arrive. This aggressive tone is not returned by George, because he realizes that to become aggressive would be to fall into the trap that Martha sets for him. An example of this comes when Martha says, “AWWWWWWWW!” [No reaction] Hey! [No reaction] Hey! [No reaction]' Martha is clearly attracting attention at this point in the play, unable to use her language to influence George. On the other hand, George is able to change the tone and direction of dialogue without getting angry, such as when Martha asks George to put ice in her drink and they continue to have a conversation about quantity of teeth they each have. Martha warms up and says she has more teeth than George: "Well, two more is a lot more," indicating an aggressive, defensive tone, while George responds, "I guess so." I guess that's pretty remarkable...considering your age. This shows how George is able to manipulate Martha's emotions and the flow of the scene with the use of his words. Martha and George find themselves locked in this conflict throughout the play, which acted as a mirror image of the Cold War that was unfolding. the same time period that the play was written, showing that the play is relevant and politically aware of the times. George also shows his use of words when speaking to Nick, later in the first act of the play, such as when he suggests that Nick is in the math department at the university, and then after been corrected, it continues to refer to Nick being in the math department. This is about undermining Nick and suggesting that he himself holds more power, which is reinforced when he says, "I'm a doctor." AB…MA…PH.D…' George showed in the first act that he is more than capable of influencing people's emotions, the flow of a conversation, and the tone or mood of an atmosphere by using his words, rather than turning to extreme emotions. , like Marthe. Nick and Honey also show that they are capable of doing things with words, possiblymore subtle way. I say this because their manipulation is subtle, as they try to convince Martha and George that they are having a good time and feel welcome in their home, using their words: "Oh, aren't you?" beautiful!' While this is technically a manipulation of the tone of the scene through the use of words, I would argue that it is too much of a minor manipulation compared to George or Martha, who attempt to completely manipulate and change a conversation . This relates to speech act theory because the intention of the illocutionary force that Nick and Honey use is not as important as the illocutionary force that Martha or George use throughout the first act and even in the rest of the room. The name of the second act, "Walpurgisnacht", means Walpurgis Night: the German equivalent of Halloween. This means that the monsters will come out, as shown by all the characters in the play, influencing George and his vocal abilities. The act opens with George and Nick talking together, both intoxicated at this point in the play as they have been drinking strong alcoholic beverages for some time. As they talk, we see that George is still able to use his words to manipulate the scene, such as when he tells the long story of the boy who shot his mother. They had already talked about why Nick married Honey, and then George wanted to draw attention to himself, as evidenced by the long and dense story he tells Nick. He gives the context of the story "When I was sixteen and going to prep school, during the Punic Wars", and he tells how they laughed, drank for free and had a good time, in contrast to the seriousness of the fact that the boy killed his own mother. It is this contrast that acts as a vocal tool that George shows he is capable of using to attract interest towards himself, as evidenced by Nick's response to the story: "What...what is What happened to the boy... the boy who shot his mother? What's particularly interesting about this section is George's response to this question: "I won't tell you," to which Nick simply responds: "Okay." This shows how George used the story and only his words to gain power over Nick in this scene, able to ask Nick's question without any problem. However, taken from another angle, the scene and Nick's response to the story could be interpreted differently; perhaps his response could be disinterested, which would explain why he gave up on his question so easily. This brings into question the topic of George's vocal ability, but I would argue that the first interpretation makes more sense and therefore shows that George is skilled at doing things with words. As the second act continues, the four characters begin to head towards Nick and Honey's house, when they pass a small bar which they enter to have one more drink. Dramatic events unfold in the bar, including a moment where George shows that he is capable of weakness in terms of language abilities. He goes after Martha and grabs her by the throat, showing that he is not always able to control people through the use of his words. In this section, Martha uses the story of how George was never able to get his book published because of his father as a weapon against George, making him feel inadequate about his career. These feelings of inadequacy are hidden by George and Martha, as Akhil Bansal says on the Academia website: "George and Martha create an illusory barrier to suppress feelings such as inadequacy, fear and self-loathing, but this illusion only exacerbates their feelings of inadequacy. self-loathing.,.