e deal with various crises on a daily basis. People almost always focus on the negative aspects of their lives. Albee uses the symbol of the woman's constant crying to show that people need to focus on the positive things in their lives instead of the negative. It is so easy to become consumed by life's problems, but if you only think about the things in your life that are not going your way, you will become like the woman in the boarding house who sits alone in her room all day wallowing in her sorrow. Albee is commenting that people should be the masters of their own destinies. People have the choice to either create a reality for themselves in which they experience all realms of the emotional plane, or they could close themselves off to the world and focus on how their lives are not going as planned. Jerry tells Peter about this woman in hopes that it will make him realize that he has the ability to choose his values in life and how he wants his life to proceed.The one character in the play that embodies all of Albee's views of reality pertaining to the indifference, unkindness, weakness, and emptiness in the world is Jerry's landlady. She is "a fat, ugly, mean, stupid, unwashed, misanthropic, cheap, drunken bag of garbage" (Albee, 27). Peter is thoroughly shocked by her description, and does not believe that people like her really exist. She symbolizes all that is wrong with society. She spies on the people that enter the building because her own life is so empty that she needs to use her energy looking at the lives of others. She is a drunkard who drinks all day to escape her problems. She is so lustful of Jerry that she always rubs her body up against his although he does not reciprocate the feelings. The only way she gets Jerry to talk to her is by cornering him, which demonstrates how people in society usually interact with others only when they are forced to. After telling Peter about all the various encounters Je...
