Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia is a three-act, full-length play by Edward Albee that he wrote in 2000 and it was first performed in 2002. The play won many awards and was one of the finalists for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is a domestic tragicomedy play that explores and questions the limits of tolerance in a modern liberal society. The drama discusses a few transgressions considered taboo in society and explores how marriage and a family can survive when confronted with a once-unthinkable transgression that “shatters the glass” of their lives. The play raises many issues including, what should be accepted and what should be rejected as being within the confines of normalcy. Another issue that is raised in the play is about the value of truth, is Truth fundamentally an Objective good? Or, can a lie, hiding the truth, or keeping it a secret can be a better option?
Characters of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
Martin Gray is a 50-year-old successful architect who is married to an attractive wife and has a teenage son. He just won the most prestigious award in the field of architecture and has been hired to design a 200-billion-dollar city of the future. He is about to be interviewed by a popular TV host who happens to be his childhood friend. Stevie Gray is Martin’s beautiful wife. Though she normally bicker and fight with her husband, she is a dedicated and loving wife. They lead an otherwise happy married life except for the problems related to their teenage son Billy Gray who happens to be a homosexual. None of his parents approve of his sexual transgressions, yet they do not oppose it too, they are somewhat tolerant towards it. Ross Tuttle is a childhood friend of Martin and a successful TV program host. He often interviews the most successful people in society and this time, when his friend Martin won the prestigious award for architecture, he decided to interview him for his TV show. However, during the interview, he discovers a secret about Martin that he finds morally questionable. It is up to him either to keep it a secret or spill the beans and ruin Martin’s married life. Sylvia is a goat. She is one of the two loves of Martin Gray’s life. Sylvia is literally a goat who never appears on the stage and thus it can be taken as a metaphor, suggesting a transgression that Martin loves.
Summary of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
Scene 1)
The play begins as Martin and Stevie are sitting in their living room. They are waiting for Ross Tuttle, the famous TV show host who is a childhood friend of Martin. Martin is a successful architect who recently won a very prestigious architectural design award and has also been tapped to design a 200-billion-dollar city of the future called World City. Ross is the host of the popular TV show ‘People Who Matter,’ and now that Martin has attained such a prestigious award and business success, he certainly matters. Thus, Ross is going to visit their house to interview him.
Before Ross’s arrival, Stevie and Martin get into an argument and bickering. Though it is common for them, Stevie is appearing a bit concerned this time. She recently noticed an odd odor from her husband’s body and his business card and she jokes about him having an affair with a goat.
After a while, Stevie moves away to the kitchen and Ross Tuttle arrives right at that moment. The two old friends greet each other and then Ross begins interviewing him about his recent success and previous experiences. However, he finds that Martin is not concentrating on the interview. He feels that Martin is somewhat disturbed and thus, he stops the interview recording for a while and asks him if something is bothering him.
Martin tries to avoid the issue but finally, when he is convinced that it will be off the record, he confesses that recently he has fallen into an extramarital affair. Ross encourages him to reveal more about this and says that it is not very uncommon. Martin then says that his affair is a bit odd and maybe forbidden. He shows a picture of his new love to Ross and it turns out to be a disturbing taboo. The picture is of a goat whom Martin affectionately calls Sylvia.
Scene 2)
The second begins in the same living room the very next day. Martin and Stevie are sitting with their teenage boy Billy and the mood of the room is a bit tense. Stevie recently got a letter from Ross and when she read it, she came to know about Martin’s recent flinge. Ross mentioned all the details of Martin’s indiscretions in their entirety with Sylvia in that letter. Stevie is very upset about it and she fails to hide it from Billy. When Billy comes to know about his father’s sexual relationship with a goat, he gets outraged and violently accuses him of immorality. Stevie then reminds him that he too is no better and though they tolerate Billy’s homosexual tendencies, he doesn’t have a right to talk about the issue of Sylvia. Martin asks him to go out of the room and let him have some time with Stevie as he needs to explain some things. Billy feels profound emotional pain but agrees to go out.
Martin explains how he met the goat at a roadside vegetable stand and from the first sight, he fell in love with her. He says that he felt the truest feelings and absolute love for the goat and named her Sylvia. As Martin expresses his transgression as true love, Stevie feels immense anger and a wish to destroy everything beautiful present in the room. Martin feels her anger and pleads to her that he equally loves her too and that his love for Stevie and Sylvia is pure. Stevie insists that he cannot love Stevie now when Sylvia is in their life and that he has ruined her married life. In extreme anger, she leaves the room.
Scene 3)
After three hours, Billy returns to his house but finds that it has been demolished and what remains is a brutally demolished site. He sees Martin and asks where is his mother. Martin says that he doesn’t know where she is, the only thing he knows is that she has determined to destroy him completely. Billy feels emotional at this time and Martin comes near him and hugs him in a parental gesture showing affection and protection. However, Billy feels something different in his grasp and soon the father and son begin passionately kissing each other. At the same time, Ross arrives at the scene and sees Martin lustfully kissing his own son. He reprimands him and accuses him of the basest perversions. Ross says that Martin is a danger to society as he is doing everything against nature and all things normal in the world. Martin tries to defend himself and says that love and sex are not always so clearly defined and desire can very often find a way to disturb the expected course of relationships. He then takes the opportunity to remind Ross of the ethical vacuum existing in writing a letter to another man’s wife discussing private admissions spoken within the expectation of privacy and confidence. He says that had Ross kept his secret, his home and married life might have been saved.
Stevie returns at the same moment but she is not alone. She brings Sylvia with her. Martin is devastated after seeing Sylvia because she is no longer alive. Stevie brutally killed the goat and brought Sylvia’s bloody carcass to show it to Martin. Martin is in deep pain but rather than confronting the woman who murdered the love of his life, he goes down on his knees and pleads for forgiveness from his family. Stevie is still furious. Billy sees his parents in such devastating condition and he feels devasted and ruined. He cries Mom, and Dad as if pleading the things to go back to normal. The play ends at this point.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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