Patrick Jacob

Edward Albee: "The Zoo Story"

1. Structure of the play

- part 1 (pages 11-21): Jerry gets to know Peter
- part 2a) (pages 22-29): Jerry′ s living conditions and past; b) (pages 30-36): the story of Jerry and the dog · Peter gets to know Jerry
- part 3 (pages 36-end): Jerry provokes Peter · Jerry′ s death

2. Characterisation of Peter Jerry

3. Jerry′ s social and family background:

- his mother (= an alcoholic · Mr. Barleycorn) left his father when he was 10_ years
- thus, his father took to drinking after his wife′ s death and he died of an accident
_ at the age of 11_ Jerry was an orphan
- he was brought up by a pious aunt who died on the day of his high school graduation
_ unhappy childhood/broken family

4. Jerry′ s problems and aims

Problems:
- he feels lonely
- he lacks company
- he has no one to talk to
- he feels misunderstood
- he desperately tries to come into contact with other people
- he is an outsider, utterly depressed, unhappy
- he is unable to establish a relationship with other people

Aims:
- he tries to establish a relationship with another person
- he tries to befriend somebody

Reasons for Jerry′ s inability to make friends/for his loneliness:
- childhood experiences (no real family life in his youth)
- psychological problems (he cannot deal with other people)
- anonymity/impersonality of a big city
- alienation of the individual in big cities/in modern society
- big gap between the haves and the have-nots

5. Jerry′ s relationship with other people

- p.23: two empty picture frames
- p.25/35: no relationship with women (the contact is restricted to prostitutes)
- p.22/27: no relationship with the other roomers (exception: the drunken landlady tries to seduce him · Jerry feels disgusted with her)

People in the rooming-house:
- a black transvestite; a Puerto Rican family; a crying woman; a person he has never seen; the landlady
_ all tenants of the rooming-house are outsiders
_ they are exotic looking
_ they are strange
_ they live in terribly small rooms under bad living conditions
_ a mixture of all kinds of people
_ the house can be likened to a "human zoo"; the rooms are cages; the people can be compared to animals in captivity

6. The Story of Jerry and the Dog (pages 30-36) - [the development of the relationship between Jerry and the dog]
- overriding principle: "If you can′t deal with people, you have to make a start somewhere." (page 34)

a) the dog dislikes Jerry · Jerry tries to make friends with the dog (pages 30-31/32)
b) Jerry fails · he tries to kill the dog (page 32, line 5)
c) Jerry wants the dog to survive (page 33, lines 13f.) · he is interested in a new relationship (page 33) · 1^st encounter after the dog′s recovery, Jerry loves the dog (page 34): Jerry hopes that the dog will understand
d) Jerry and the dog "made contact" (page 34):
· no real relationship
· lack of communication between Jerry and the dog (page 35): "mixture of sadness and suspicion; [they] feign indifference" · Jerry feels disappointed (· "loss"): "We neither love nor hurt because we do not try to reach each other." (page 36)

_ Jerry has gained new insight: "Kindness and cruelty, the two combined, together, at the same time, are the teaching emotion." (page 36)
_ = a means of coming into contact
_ = learning process
_ the dog is a substitute for human beings for other people

7. Jerry′s relationship with Peter
{· How do Jerry′s experiences with the dog influences the way he treats Peter?}
"kindness and cruelty combined ..."
kindness:
- Jerry pays compliments (page 13/18)
- Jerry flatters him (page 18)
- [Jerry tickles him (page 38) · disrespectful behaviour?]
- Jerry makes Peter interested in the conversation by telling him "the zoo story" (· by hinting at the zoo)
- [Jerry asks him questions]
cruelty:
- verbal and psychological abuse:

- page 41: Jerry calls him a "bastard"
- page 42: Jerry calls him a "vegetable" etc.
- pages 46-47: Jerry attacks Peter verbally (· impotent)

- physical violence:

- page 47: Jerry spits in Peter′s face
- page 40: Jerry pokes and punches Peter

- page 47: Jerry threatens Peter with his knife
_ Jerry provokes Peter to kill him

8. The ending: Does Jerry achieve his aim to establish a relationship with another human being?

9. ·Message of the play
- live is inhuman, brutal and cruel
- society drives Jerry to his fatal deed
- isolation and a lack of communication are the most serious problems of our modern/technical society · everybody needs somebody he can talk to, otherwise he becomes crazy and is driven to such a fatal deed

10. The significance of the zoo
At the zoo:
- Jerry gains new insight into life
- Parallel: animals live alone in their cages; people live in isolation, too
- There is a similarity between the way in which animals live in the zoo and the way in which human beings live together/communicate with one another
_ message 2:
- life/society is a kind of zoo
- the bars (= something real) separate animals
- feelings, money, colour of skin, race, religion, social class, attitudes, interests and lack of interests, generation gap,....... separate people
- Jerry wants to die, because he cannot bear this situation
- the zoo is a microcosm of real life