Parody of Haunting Existential Terror in Albee’sA Delicate Balance

Abstract

A Delicate Balanceillustrates Albee’s deep concern with the American families and their deteriorating condition.The playwright examines illusion and loss in those prosperous families through the play that stood as a dark comic portrayal of modern angst.The characters in the play create their own truths and thus live with the superficial values making the existential choicesof not to choosein the meaningless, void world. They suffer verymuch from the ‘nameless terror’ at the depth of their existence. Even after a certain point,at which who are hoped to have been living a ‘changed’ life with somenewness, they merely repeat the sameseemingly placid everyday lifethatjust mocksand ridiculestheir routine--itmakes no more than the parody enough to create a fun of their repetitive business.