The title Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a playful but deeply symbolic question that captures the central concerns of Edward Albee’s 1962 play. On the surface, the phrase is a parody of the children’s song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” The substitution of “Virginia Woolf”—a writer associated with psychological depth, intellectual rigor, and emotional honesty—immediately signals that the play will deal with fear, truth, and the discomfort of facing reality.

Symbolically, being “afraid of Virginia Woolf” means being afraid to live without illusions. Throughout the play, George and Martha sustain their marriage—and their sense of identity—through elaborate fantasies, most notably the imaginary child. These illusions protect them from confronting failure, loneliness, and emotional pain. Virginia Woolf, as a symbol of unfiltered truth and intellectual clarity, represents the stripping away of these comforting lies. To be afraid of her is to fear a life lived honestly, without protective self-deception.

By the end of the play, when Martha answers that she is afraid, the title’s question becomes devastatingly clear. Albee suggests that truth is necessary but terrifying, and that many people prefer illusion to the emotional vulnerability that honesty demands..