The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

Martina hugely successful architect who has just turned fiftyleads an ostensibly ideal life
with his loving wife and gay teenage son. But when he confides to his best friend that he is
also in love with a goat (named Sylvia), he sets in motion events that will destroy his family
and leave his life in tatters.
Type: Full Length Play
Acts: Two
First Performance: March 10, 2002
Awards: Drama Desk Award for Best New Play, 2002. Tony Award for Best Play, 2002.
Nominations: Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2003.
Plot Summary and Critical Analysis by Ashley Gallagher
Plot Summary
Edward Albees The Goat, alternately titled Who Is Sylvia? (Notes toward a definition of
tragedy), opens with Martin and Stevie, a long married couple, preparing for the arrival of
their best friend, Ross, who will be interviewing Martin about his fiftieth birthday and his
winning of the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the world of architecture. While preparing
for the interview, Stevie and Martin banter in a greatly exaggerated Noel Coward manner
during which Martin admits that he is actually in love with Sylvia who he then confesses is a
goat. Stevie laughs at what she perceives as a joke by Martin and exits to greet Ross at the
door. In her absence, Martin remarks, You try to tell them; you try to be honest. What do
they do? They laugh at you, suggesting that there is more to his seemingly offhand
comment.
When Ross enters, his and Martins longtime friendship is evident when they reminisce and
then discuss their children, specifically Martins teenage son, Billy, who recently revealed he
is gay. Ross readies his camera to interview Martin, but, to Rosss dismay, Martin seems
distant and distracted during the taping. Bringing the interview to a halt, Ross inquires as to
what is bothering Martin. Although reticent, Martin confesses that his distance might be due
to love or something. When Ross suggests that Martin is having an extramarital affair,
Martin bristles at the thought. Then, as he begins to describe how satisfying his marriage to
Stevie has beenso much so that he has never had a desire to have an affairMartin begins
providing details of his encounter with Sylvia. Martin confides to Ross that while searching
for a place in the country for Stevie and himself, he saw her: I didnt know what it was
what I was feeling. It wasit wasnt like anything Id felt before; it wassoamazing,
soextraordinary! There she was, just looking at me, with those eyes of hers.With this
declaration of love, Martin produces a photograph of Sylvia from his wallet. Once Ross sees
the photograph and the seriousness on Martins face, his emotions go from jocular to somber
to incredulous as he realizes that his best friend is having a sexual relationship with a goat.
Before the conclusion of the act, Ross issues a stern warning: either Martin tells Stevie the
truth about his affair or he will.

In Act II, the audience is instantaneously aware of Rosss betrayal when Martin and Stevies
son, Billy, exclaims, Youre fucking a goat?! Billy is then forced by his parents to leave
Stevie and Martin alone to discuss Rosss letter detailing the specifics of Martins affair with
Sylvia. Stevie reads aloud from the letter out of disbelief as much as a need to absorb the
facts of the situation in which she now finds herself. As Stevie labors over the details of
Rosss letter, Martin continues to insist that he loves Stevie. To which Stevie replies, How
can you love me when you love so much less? Stevie then demands the full story from
Martin. Reluctantly, Martin describes how he met and fell in love with Sylvia and, later,
joined a help group for others suffering from addictions to bestiality. With the mention of one
of the group participants sexual relationship with a pig, Stevie stands, picks up a plate, and
smashes it on the floor before calmly continuing her conversation with Martin. Martin
resumes his story with Stevie punctuating each detail with the smashing of various items
adorning their home. Finally, Stevie leaves the house threatening, You have brought me
down, and, Christ!, Ill bring you down with me!
The third and final act begins with Martin and Billy standing amongst the ruins of what was
once their home. Neither Martin nor Billy know where Stevie has gone, but they use their
alone time to try and repair their damaged relationship. While Billy still cannot accept his
fathers affair, he admits that he has always felt that his parents are as good as they come
smart, and fair, anda sense of humor. Overwhelmed with a sense of loss and love for his
father, Billy embraces Martin and kisses him sexually on the mouth. Martin pushes Billy
away just as Ross enters to witness the scene. Martin angrily defends both his son and
himself to Ross by stating: He loves his father, and if itclicks over and becomeswhat?
sexual forjust a momentso what?! So fucking what?! Hes hurt and hes lonely and
mind your own fucking business! Ross, unmoved by Martins speech, claims to have
received a call from Stevie saying Martin needed him. Ross and Martin spar over Rosss
letter and how Martins public image can be saved from this incident. Then, with a sound at
the door, Stevie reappears, dragging Sylvias carcass with her. Martin cries out, Billy calls
for help, and Ross stares as Stevie offers her reason for slaying the goat: She loved
you.you say. As much as I do. Billy calls out again in confusion, ending the play.
Critical Analysis
In Stretching My Mind, Edward Albee comments on The Goat: You may, of course, have
received the misleading information that the play is about bestialitymore con than pro.
Well, bestiality is discussed during the play (as is flower arranging) but it is a generative
matter rather than the subject. The play is about love, and loss, the limits of our tolerance
and who, indeed, we really are. Indeed, while bestiality is one of the many topics addressed
in Albees play, the playwrights main objective is more aligned with imagining ourselves
subject to circumstances outside our own comfort zones. In an interview with Charlie Rose
focused on The Goats 2002 New York premiere, Albee stated, Imagine what you cant
imagine. Imagine that, all of a sudden, you found yourself in love with a Martian, in love
with something you cant conceive of. I want everybody to be able to think about what they
cant imagine and what they have buried deep as being intolerable and insufferable. I want
them to just think freshly and newly about it. In this play, as in all of Albees plays, there is
a larger message beyond just the literal interpretation of the plot.
The Goats major characters, Martin and Stevie, are meant to represent affluent suburbanites.
In an interview, David Esbjornson, director of the plays New York run, commented, there is
a kind of normalcy that we are trying to achieve, and a feeling that these people are
surrounded by good taste and good art. So when Stevie starts breaking these things, we know

she is willing to destroy some precious things. It is Stevies realization of and reaction to her
husbands inconceivable affair that contributes to the plays tragic mood despite its moments
of humor. In some ways the laughter is seductive; it opens you up, and then the more
serious issues can flow in, says Esbjornson. Even the plays title echoes this sense of
multiplicity in terms of its meaning. Albee said in his interview with Charlie Rose, A goat is
two things. A goat is the animal, and, also, I believe a person can be a goat, the butt of a
situation. Florescu offers a more symbolic definition of the word goat: Sylvia is
everybodys goat, ready to unleash our wildest desires, potentially dissolving, or, at least,
diminishing the ravaging effects of our gregarious, unhealthy regimented selves. Zinman
suggests that the use of the term goat could also refer to scapegoat: The goat is wholly
innocent, victimized by Martins obsessive love and Stevies murderous revenge. Yet, in an
advertisement created by The Philadelphia Theatre Company for their production, a picture of
a goat with a snapshot of the plays characters hanging out of its mouth, suggesting that a
goat, who will, notoriously, eat anything, has devoured this family alive, suggests the
personification of the goat and, thus, Sylvias own responsibility for the events that take
place. In addition, the name Sylvia, Zinman argues, references Shakespeares pastoral vision
in Two Gentlemen of Verona.
As stated by Esbjornson, The Goat is ultimately meant to be a tragedy. Even the set he and
John Arnone collaborated on had columns to provide a classical quality to it, a Greektragedy quality. Zinman states, In ancient Greek tragedy, the hero, at the height of his
happiness, often complacent in his smooth fortunate life, undergoes a sudden reversal of
fortunes. Indeed, once Martin confesses his affair to Ross, his fate is no longer his own.
According to Aristotle, he must then fall from a great height, which Martin does; he is
reduced from an award-winning architect to a mere sexual deviant. Whereas Martin acts more
as a tragic hero, Ross, on the other hand, takes the place of the chorus representing the vox
populi and of setting the wheels of tragedy in motion.
Albee thinks a play can be called political only if it makes people think differently enough
about things so that their life alters including their politics. In order to make a difference in a
contemporary society so accustomed to debunking generally accepted restrictions, Albee had
to go even further afield than Nabokov[s Lolita] to find a taboo still standing. In
Zinmans opinion, Albees view is that sexuality is more complex, far wider, deeper, and
less governable than we generally think. Albees use of bestiality is meant to parallel
societys view of homosexuality which appear[s] normal by comparison. Gainor furthers
her argument by stating that it is through bestiality that Martin literalizes his extremity of
alienation and longing. By experiencing prejudice for his own sexual proclivities, Martin
must accept his sons desires with equanimity, applying his newly gained insights on
dominant and marginal practices. In this way, Martin and Billy can seek to rebuild their
relationship. Robinson writes of The Goat: Albees play insists that it is about something
beyond a domestic crisis that can be cordoned off and concealed from the world though it is
about that too. We see that the personal is political, yes, but also something more: that what
is private about our lives only comes to have meaning as we enter the public sphere and this
public sphere enters us. Ultimately, as Robinson states, The Goat is meant to affect both the
micro and macro levels of society in a way that encourages progressive thinking even in
uncertain times.
The Basics:

Winner of the 2002 Tony Award for Best Play, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? is a tragically
comical play with a simple albeit deeply disturbing premise: a married man falls in love with
a goat. And no, he doesn't just love the goat like a pet; he is emotionally and sexually
attracted to the animal. Once his wife finds out this sordid truth, all hell (and a lot of vases)
breaks loose.
Meet the Playwright:
One Act Play Scripts
Edward Albee is the author of many plays, including the award winning Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? and Seascape. Much can be said of his work, but the first word that comes to
my mind is "innovative." Albee never writes the same play twice. Each new work explores
different territory. Although the themes can be unsettling and the format may sometimes
border on avante-garde, his plays always offer new insight into the human condition.
Synopsis of The Goat -- Scene One:
Just shy of his fiftieth birthday, Martin is an incredibly successful architect, about to receive a
prestigious honor symbolizing the culmination of the American Dream. His love life is
seemingly idealistic: he has been married to a smart, beautiful, supportive woman named
Stevie, with whom he has remained faithful -- until he met a goat named Sylvia.
Before the play gets into the freakish elements, the audience senses that something isn't quite
right with our male protagonist.
As Stevie makes casual conversation about his upcoming interview, Martin cannot remember
the names of supposedly familiar friends. When he is interviewed by his best friend, he
behaves in a very distant manner. His friend, Ross, tries to coax a typical interview out of
him, asking the usual questions about the upcoming award, and his remarkable career. But
Martin is too distracted. Something else is on his mind.
Finally, wanting to reveal an unspeakable secret, Martin confides in Ross, explaining that for
the first time in his life he has strayed away from his marriage, and has fallen in love with
someone else. First, he only tells Ross the name: Sylvia. When Ross insists on knowing
exactly who Sylvia is, Martin takes a photo from his wallet and shows it to his friend. Scene
One ends with Ross looking at the photo of Sylvia the Goat, followed by a lot of shouting:
Ross: THIS IS A GOAT! YOU'RE HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH A GOAT!
Scene Two:
The family has been ravaged by the news. Ross sent a letter revealing the truth to Martin's
wife, and now even their teenage son knows about his father's bizarre indiscretion.
Scene two is the heart of the play. Most of the moments pass with Martin earnestly yet feebly
attempting to explain his feelings for Sylvia, all the while Stevie smashes various plates and
pieces of furniture.
Simultaneously fascinating and sad, Martin does not understand why his actions are
perceived as so devastating. Several times throughout the play, the word "destroyed" or "kill"
is used by the wife and other characters. In spite of her shock and horror, she does her best to
explain that Martin has crossed a moral line no human should cross. There is no apology,
atonement, or reparation that can ever redeem their relationship. Perhaps worst of all, Stevie

may never recover from the emotional damage. If Martin can compare his love with her to
that of a goat, how does that affect her self-perception?
Throughout scene two, their teenage son Billy will re-enter the scene, worried that his
parents' fight will escalate into violence. Billy is openly gay, a fact that beforehand Martin
wasn't bothered by. However, now that his son is disgusted by his father's actions, Martin
unleashes homophobic slurs (only to later regret his hateful speech).
The wife's temper continues to flare, but Martin is compelled to further explain his emotions.
He talks about how he went to a support group of people with the same "problem," but he
ultimately decided that his feelings aren't really problematic. He rationalizes that humans and
goats are both animals -- so what's the big deal? He states, "I love you. And I love her. And
there it is."
Ultimately, Stevie cannot stomach being around her sexually deviant husband. She exclaims,
"You have brought me down to nothing!" She exits with a foreboding threat that she will
bring Martin down with her.
Scene Three:
The final phase of the play picks up about an hour after the events of Scene Two. This is
where things get weird. I know, you're thinking isn't this demented plot strange enough?
However, during Scene Three, Martin attempts to reconcile with his son, Billy, who is
obviously very distraught. In fact, Billy is so confused and emotionally vulnerable that as he
hugs his father he begins to kiss him in a sexual way. Martin pushes his son away, but not in
disgust -- merely because Billy is "not [his] type." Ross discreetly enters the home and
observes the embrace, and when he makes his presence known Martin flies into a rage.
Martin claims that Ross betrayed their friendship. He also admits that his relationship with
the goat is "sick" and "compulsive." However, Martin believes that he could have eventually
stopped on his own, and that Stevie could have remained blissfully ignorant.
As their argument escalates, Stevie enters. She carries the corpse of the recently slain Sylvia.
To exact revenge against her deranged husband, she has killed the goat. The play ends with
Martin devastated.
EDWARD ALBEE. THE GOAT OR WHO IS SYLVIA: NOTES TOWARD A
DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY. 2000
SUMMARY: Scene One:
As the play opens, Martin seems disoriented and forgetful or perhaps just plain preoccupied.
Hes preparing to be interviewed by his old friend Ross. Martin and Stevie, his wife, are
obviously still in love after many years together, although today their conversation seems
disjointed....they dont seem to be on the same wavelength. While in a play acting mode,
Martin tells Stevie that hes been unfaithful to her with a goat, which she naturally takes as a
joke. After Ross arrives, theres some talk of aging between the old friends and during the
soon to be aborted interview, we learn that Martin is a prize winning architect who has been
selected to construct the World City of the Future. We also learn that its his birthday (hes
50). Martins responses during the interview seem ironic or perhaps he is just distracted, but
the result is a funny scene although it results in the interview being scuttled. Ross senses
something is bothering Martin and he finally elicits a confession from Martin that he has

indeed been having an affair with a goat. Martins constant refrain through the rest of the play
is You dont understand.
Scene Two:
Stevie gets Ross letter and she winds up in a turmoil of jealousy and confusion. She feels
betrayed and their openly gay son, Billy, seems to have lost respect for his father. During
their argument, Stevie is in a rage and winds up destroying vases and lamps, before she exits
the scene, threatening to bring Martin down.
Scene Three:
Although, it appears that the revelation about Martin has succeeded in destroying his
marriage, this scene has some very touching moments between Billy and his father, which in
fact culminate in a sensual embrace and a kiss which is witnessed by Ross who is shocked
and contemptuous of such sensuality between father and son, calling it sick. Martin boldly
speaks of how, as human beings, we have little control over what arouses a sensual response
and how it can happen in any situation, however inappropriate it may be. He mentions
examples of babies on laps and St Sebastian being penetrated by arrows. In Martins view
what is truly sick is Ross betrayal of confidence and hes appalled that Ross outrage seems
to be contingent on whether or not people will find out the facts. The play ends in an
outrageous scene in which a bloodied Stevie returns dragging a dead goat, apparently Sylvia.
Martin cries in anguish: What did she ever do? Stevie says: She loved you as much as I
do. The curtain falls.
CRITIQUE
Well, this play gives us a lot to chew on and first off, we would have to acknowledge that
something is always lost in the reading of a play as opposed to attending a performance,
especially when dealing with a metaphorical play of ideas, such as this one. To me the play
seems to be about the many ways that love expresses itself through us as human beings and
how our conventional perceptions and judgements can destroy relationships when such ways
are revealed.
The complex play seems rich with ideas and probably generates more questions than answers.
Questions such as:
Are there limits to whom or what we should love?
Are we mere vehicles for the expression of love beyond our personal and collective
judgements, thus making jealousy an exercise in futility?
Are there certain sexual passions that should remain forbidden, however natural they might
be for an individual?
Should certain sexual expressions be considered wrong or evil because they dont conform to
societal conventions?
On the level of acceptability, how does homosexuality come off in this play where bestiality
is presented as the extreme? From this perspective, can this play in essence really be all about
attitudes regarding homosexuality?
All these rather profound questions have failed to convey, however, my delight in reading
what at times I found to be a very funny, moving, and entertaining play.

After twenty yearsand preceded by Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company's

retrospective and critically successful Off-Broadway runs of Three Tall Women, The Play
About The Baby, and Tiny AliceEdward Albee returned to Broadway with The Goat or
Who is Sylvia? and won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Play. As the title indicates, this
production is ultimately about questions rather than answers. The reception of the play
covered the full spectrum from upsetting tragedy to uproarious comedy. David Esbjornson,
the director, balanced the production so not to persuade the audience of one particular reading
over another.
The title has multiple readings. "The Goat" could be literally a goat in which case the
forbidden love spoken of in the play is bestiality. "The Goat" can be the metaphor for sexual
appetite, an apt theme for post-Clinton United States. "The Goat" can be a literary allusion to
Dionysus, whereby the play can be read as a meditation on theatre itself. The subtitle of the
play, Who is Sylvia?, comes from a song in Two Gentlemen of Verona, a comedy about love
and betrayal. This Shakespearian reference foreshadows the plot and sets up the normalcy
that the tragedy reaffirms. It is not all right for a man to betray his wife by loving a goat;
however, it is normal for a man to betray his "woman" with another woman.
TheGoat is a one act structured in three scenes. The first scene highlights an interview with
Martin (Bill Pullman), conducted by his best friend, Ross (Stephen Rowe). Martin is
celebrating his fiftieth birthday, and he has also just won an astounding competition to design
a city of the future, out of nothing, in the heartland of the US. This scene contains the first
indications that something other than realism is occuring on stage. There is an allusion to
Ibsen's Master Builder and his commission to build the highest steeple; Solness's infatuation
with a "troll girl," a forbidden love, also underlies Albee's allusionary context. When the
emotions onstage get too real, Albee reminds the audience they are within a theatrical space.
Characters are constantly correcting one another's grammar or supplying literary references
rather than speaking plainly. It is not the "top" of a hill, for instance, but the "crest" of a hill.
An unexplained noise is identified as "The Eumenides" rather than a sound from a kitchen
applicance. There is reference made to an old girlfriend known as Big Alice which obviously
alludes to Albee's Tiny Alice. The loving, playful banter between husband and wife Stevie
(Mercedes Ruehl) is in opposition to the hurtful banter between George and Martha in Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Martin admits to his wife that the scent she smells on him is from
his mistress, a goat, but since it is beyond her imaginings Stevie dismisses it. The best friend
ellicits the same confession, however, and he takes it seriously.
The second scene takes place after Ross betrays Martin's confidence in a letter to Stevie. The
couple's gay son, their "kid" Billy (Jeffrey Carlson), is confused by his father's forbidden
love. This scene raises the question of defining forbidden love, which is addressed in a series
of lengthy monologues or poignant illustrations. Among the most gripping and graphic are
Martin's recollection of the ecstatic moment of sexual congress with Sylvia and a narration of
a bestiality anonymous meeting where Martin met others who had sex with "piglets," dogs, or
geese as a result of various traumas that left the discussants painfully lonely. Two events that
close the playthe story of a father who unknowingly gets an erection while bouncing his
baby on his knee and the onstage, fleetingly sexual kiss initiated by Billy toward his father
bring reality the of forbidden love right into Martin's family living room.
Reviewed by Claudia Perry

Philadelphia Theatre Company's final offering this season was the emotionally layered,
verbally scintillating, envelope pushing "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?" by Edward Albee.
Arguably one of our greatest living playwrights, Mr. Albee has subtitled his play, "Notes
toward a definition of tragedy". The piece is deceptively simple - four characters, one living
room, one crisis. Mr. Albee has been previously quoted in Show Business Weekly as saying,
"I'm one of the believers in the theory that any play that really needs more than one light bulb
and two bringing things down to essence."
This play successfully illustrates his theory for it is an exercise in masterful writing as Albee
weaves a tragi-comic tapestry of the human heart. Why do we love whom we love? Why do
we set boundaries on love? Why must we divorce our sexual selves from our social selves?
Why does it embarrass us that all God's creatures are also sexual creatures? And why must
the innocent always be sacrificed? These are the questions that you come away with and ask
yourself over and over again. They are at once perplexing, disturbing, frightening and funny.
The plot involves Martin Gray, a successful architect, who admits to his friend, Ross, that he
is having an affair with a goat. Ross responds by writing a letter to Martin's wife, Stevie,
telling her of her husband's infidelity. The brilliance of the play lies in the fact that though we
can predict the reaction of Martin's family to his admission of his new found love, we cannot
predict the outcome of those reactions. Though we may not understand it, we never condemn
Martin for his actions but rather pity him that his love cannot be tolerated in our current
society. On the other hand, Stevie, his wife, the wronged party, the survivor, we ultimately
despise for her cruelty. And when she drags the butchered body of her husband's slaughtered
love up the stairs to their apartment in a bloodied bag - we are a bit dumbstruck. What kind of
pain could cause such an action? How can you murder the love of someone you love and
claim that you still love them? Like the Greek Medea, intellectually we can dissect her anger
but never fully understand the depth of her rage (though there have been many Medeas in this
world throughout the ages).
John Glover's intense and passionate portrayal of Martin Gray the obsessed lover is perfectly
balanced by Elizabeth Norment's stoic and outraged depiction of his betrayed wife, Stevie.
Bradford William Andersen's sensitive and comic delivery as their son is the soft mortar that
keeps these two rigid individuals linked together. And Tom Teti as Ross Tuttle, a
documentary filmmaker, provides the sarcastic righteousness of the do-gooder who brings
down the Gray household.
In painting Martin as a sympathetic character whose love is pure in its simplicity and force,
Mr. Glover helps to illuminate the quandary of the play. And in praise of Mr. Glover's
verismo,
during the scene where Martin confesses his affair to Stevie (who responds by breaking all
the glassware in the apartment), Mr. Glover wrapped what appeared to be a bloodied
handkerchief around his hand. In a true testament to his acting, I could not tell whether he
actually had cut his hand or this was stage business. I found out later that right after the
performance Mr. Glover had to go to the Emergency Ward to get stitches for his wounded
hand that would not stop bleeding. Apparently it was a clean handkerchief that became
soaked with blood as the scene wore on. I ask you, what more can an actor give for his art
than his own blood?
And not enough can be said about Elizabeth Norment's crackling and rapid fire delivery of
Mr. Albee's scalding dialogue. From her mouth words are like rapier slashes - sharp, swift
and sanguine. In knowing her target, her aim is true. Like a shark smelling blood, she circles

around Martin, crashing (probably beloved) pottery to the floor, overturning furniture and
wreaking havoc on their once perfect artistic nest - for the nest has been fouled.
And the nest which Stevie destroys was astutely designed by Todd Rosenthal. It is a warm,
artsy apartment -- the cold brick walls of a city loft offset by sleekly comfortable, modernist
furniture. Original oils hang on the walls and objects d'art and books pepper the shelves. It is
an intellectual but inviting space where new and innovative ideas would appear to be
welcome.
Director Tim Vasen has done a fine job of assembling this cast whose ensemble acting makes
the play seem almost too short -so engrossed are we in its progress. And Mr.Albee has
outdone himself by not writing a denouement. For, after the final climactic scene, we the
audience are left to ponder what happens to poor Martin after the butchery of his love. A play
that makes you think - what a novel idea!
As an addendum I must add that there was an amazing range of opinion about this play. There
were some people who were offended. My aunt who is in her Seventies, a theatergoer and a
practicing Catholic thought it was, in her words, "Stupid!" Then I met a Born Again Christian
male actor who thought it was, in his words, "Brilliant!" - one of the best plays he's ever seen.
Now to me that is simply fascinating and all I can hope is that Mr. Albee is at the beach or up
in the mountains this summer writing us yet another piece as provocative, as brave, and as
uncompromising as this one.
The Goat Themes
Themes and Meanings (Survey of Dramatic Literature)
Albees version of the emotional ties within a family and the behavior of Ross, Martins
best friend, suggest a bleak outlook for a society that reverts to primal instincts when
threatened. Could any marriage withstand the test to which Martin puts his? The Goat returns
to the theme of the problems within a marriage that were brutally explored in Albees play
Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (pr., pb. 1962), but it makes the gender warfare between the
warring couples in the earlier play seem like a mere game.
Martin, the epitome of a good man, successful in every sense of the word, has ventured
somehow into a place where the morals he has lived by do not matter, and he does not seem
to understand why he should care. His things happen philosophy bespeaks a moral
indifference, and, in his view, he just cannot be held accountable for his feelings or his
actions in regard to Sylvia, the goat. This passion beyond reason that Martin feels for Sylvia
calls into question many aspects of the life that he has been living, undermining its
authenticity and creating the never-answered question of what propelled him into this carnal
compensation in the first place. Acceptance of this paradox is beyond the purview of any
wife, the play suggests, and, despite Martins previously good track record as a husband and
provider, the marriage is irrevocably destroyed.
Elsewhere in this provocative play, Albee touches on familiar themes, such as the myth of the
American Dream and the hypocrisy of the striving American establishment, and on issues
such as homophobia and disillusionment with people in power. The fact that Martins gay son
Billy is able to empathize with his fathers misplaced passion suggests a certain commonality
in their like-father, like-son rejection of a traditional heterosexual relationship. In addition,
the duplicity of Martins personality suggests that identity is a fluid, rather than fixed, entity,
one that can shift inexplicably, without discernible cause. The Goat is a puzzle not meant to

be solved, but to provoke, challenge, and shock audiences into confronting social norms that
constrain human behavior and define family relationships. At the same time, open-minded
viewers might also find the absurdity of the situation quite amusing.