A Delicate Balance: A Play Historical Context

This Study Guide consists of approximately 85 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of A Delicate Balance.

A Delicate Balance: A Play Historical Context

This Study Guide consists of approximately 85 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of A Delicate Balance.
This section contains 790 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the A Delicate Balance: A Play Study Guide

The tone of Albee's play A Delicate Balance reflects the overall social setting of the late 1950s. The postwar era was a time, in American culture, of very mixed messages. The older generation was caught up in putting on a good, social face while the younger generation was practicing drills at school on how to protect themselves from the radioactive fallout of atomic bombs. It was a time when parents (mostly mothers) were still greatly influenced by Emily Post, a socialite writer whose very name was an icon for social grace. Her books, such as 101 Common Mistakes in Etiquette and How To Avoid Them, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, and The Secret of Keeping Friends, defined success in life in terms of charm, proper social graces, and elegant and considerate speech. Television, which was impacting American society for the first time...

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This section contains 790 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the A Delicate Balance: A Play Study Guide
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A Delicate Balance: A Play from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.