The Sandbox Summary

The play opens with a Young Man doing calisthenics behind a sandbox at the brightest time of
day. Mommy and Daddy enter; Daddy says he's cold, and Mommy says it's warm as toast. They are
looking for a place to put Grandma. Mommy asks Daddy his opinion, but he doesn't have much of an
opinion. A Musician comes onstage and Mommy cues him to begin playing. The pair bring out Grandma,
who looks afraid, and place her in the sandbox. After Mommy and Daddy take their seats at the front of the
stage, Grandma throws sand at Mommy with a plastic shovel that is in the sandbox.
Grandma addresses the audience, explaining that she is 86 and was married at 17, to a farmer. Her husband
died when she was 30 and she was left to bring up Mommy all by herself. Grandma asks the Musician to
stop playing, and then notices the Young Man and asks him his name. He doesn't know, as he is an actor and
the movie studios haven't given him one yet. Grandma then tells the audience that Mommy married Daddy,
a very rich man, and they brought her from the farm to live in their home in the city. They made space for
her under the stove and gave her an army blanket, and her own dish.

The Musician begins to play again as the lights dim and it becomes night. Mommy and Daddy recognize
that it is night and know that death is coming for Grandma when they hear an offstage rumble. Grandma
tells them to be quiet as it hasn't happened yet. Grandma then dies and the lights return to brightest day.
Mommy and Daddy put away their mourning and exit.
Grandma attempts to move but cannot. The Young Man comes over to her and tries to silence her. She
continues to speak and he tells her that he has a line to say. She lets him say that he is the Angel of Death,
and he kisses her on the forehead. She tells him that the way he said it was very nice, that he has a certain
quality. The Young Man is appreciative. The Musician plays.

The Sandbox Character List

Grandma
The 86-year-old protagonist of the play and the mother of Mommy. Grandma is simultaneously shrewd and
childlike, often to the chagrin of her daughter. She represents a rural ideal and raised her daughter on a farm
before Mommy moved her to the city. She is alternately sarcastic and warm, and has a special confidence
with the audience.
Mommy
Grandma's 55-year-old daughter, a domineering and outspoken person. Mommy has very little respect for
those around her, including her own mother, and often tends towards cruelty. She operates under the
delusion that she has cared well for her mother and affects sadness at the prospect of her death, but quickly
moves on.
Daddy
The 60-year-old wealthy husband of Mommy. Daddy is extremely passive and does whatever Mommy asks
of him, having very few opinions of his own.
The Young Man
A handsome stranger whom the family sees performing calisthenics near the sandbox. It is revealed that he
is in fact the Angel of Death, come to take Grandma away. As Grandma discovers, he is an actor from
Southern California, who dreams of being in the movies. While he is very attractive, he is not all that bright
or skilled as an actor.
The Musician
An unnamed character who doesn’t speak. The Musician accompanies the family to the beach, playing
music when asked, although it is not specified what kind

The Sandbox Glossary

wizened
adj.

wrinkled with age.

regionalism
n.
A linguistic feature particular to a region.
vacuity
n.

empty-headedness.
footlights
pl. n.

A row of spotlights along the front of the stage, at the level of the actors' feet.
raked
adj.

(Of a stage): set at a sloping angle.

calisthenics
pl. n.

gymnastic exercises for fitness.

Angel of Death
n.

A human personification of death in fiction and in art.

feeble
adj.

lacking in physical strength.

army blanket
n.

A thick cover, usually made of wool.

amateur
adj.

Nonprofessional, inexperienced.

The Sandbox Themes

Death
Death is the central theme of the play as the play itself is a theatricalization of Grandma's death. While the
events onstage do not reflect traditional images or markers of death, certain elements, such as the Musician,
and the fact that the Young Man is presented as the "Angel of Death," suggest that we are watching a
version of Grandma's funeral. We never see Grandma actually die, but various stage antics, such as her
piling sand on herself, and her not being able to move, represent her passage from life to death.
Bad Marriage
Daddy is described by Albee as a small man, grey and thin. During the play Mommy asks his opinion of
things, but he never has a strong one, opting to do whatever Mommy wants to do. Mommy and Daddy
bicker and rarely see eye-to-eye, but they uphold the image of their marriage for the sake of appearances.
Indignity
Grandma explains how she married a farmer at 17 and he died when she was 30. Mommy is their child, who
Grandma raised alone. When Mommy married Daddy, she came into a lot of money and took Grandma off
her farm to live in their townhouse in the city. As Grandma describes it, however, they put her under the
stove, giving her only an army blanket and a dish. Albee shows that Grandma is a woman who has been
through a great deal of hardship, yet is only given the bare essentials and no respect. We see this clearly as
well from the fact that Mommy and Daddy bring Grandma to the beach to die, a place she does not care to
be. Even the way they carry her out by her armpits and plop her in a sandbox to wait for her to die represents
their lack of respect for her
 The Sandbox Quotes and Analysis
"Whatever you say, Mommy."
Daddy
Daddy says this when Mommy asks his opinion as to whether the setting will do for Grandma's death. The
quote reveals that Daddy is especially submissive in the relationship, and takes a passive approach to
everything, caring very little about what happens and always deferring to Mommy.
"I mean...I mean, they haven't given me one yet...the studio..."
Young Man
The Young Man says this to Grandma when she asks his name. He is an actor there to play the Angel of
Death, a young man from Southern California. His statement is comic in that he has completely given his
identity to a movie studio, letting executives and producers decide something as basic and essential as his
name. This line shows that the Young Man is a kind of phantom, someone without an identity.
"So it is! Well! Our long night is over. We must put away our tears, take off our
mourning...and face the future."
Mommy
Mommy says this just moments after Grandma dies. While the previous evening, Mommy was very sad
about Grandma's death, in the light of day, she is able to move on very quickly. Her ability to bounce back
goes further than resilience, and has a chilling pragmatism to it.
"You've got that...you've got a quality."
Grandma
After the Young Man tells Grandma that he is the Angel of Death and that he is going to take her to the
afterlife, she assumes the role of a director or a casting agent, and delivers this line. Rather than internalize
what he has just told her, that her life is ending, she flatters the young handsome actor, and suggests that he
has a quality that could make him a star.
"There's no respect around here!"
Grandma
Grandma says this after asking the Musician to stop playing when she is trying to talk to the audience. She
already feels disrespected by Mommy and Daddy, who have carted her out to a sandbox to die, and here she
expresses her disappointment with the Musician as well. In her eyes, no one respects her and she is
mistreated in her old age

The Sandbox Summary and Analysis of Part 1

Summary
On a bare stage are situated 2 chairs facing the audience, a chair facing stage right with a music stand, and in
the back, a sandbox with a pail and shovel in it. The stage directions read, "The background is the sky,
which alters from brightest day to deepest night." Right now, it is brightest day, and the Young Man,
described in the character list as "a good-looking, well-built boy in a bathing suit," is doing calisthenics
onstage, which "should suggest the beating and fluttering of wings." The stage directions tell us, "The
Young Man is, after all, the Angel of Death."
Mommy and Daddy are arriving at a beach. While Mommy is happy to be there, Daddy complains that it's
cold. Mommy is, according to the stage directions, a "well-dressed, imposing woman" of 55, while Daddy is
a "small man; gray, thin," of 60. Mommy points out the Young Man and waves to him. The Young Man
waves back with "an endearing smile." Daddy and Mommy are arguing about something that remains
unclear to the audience when Daddy reminds Mommy that Grandma is her mother, not his.
At this, Mommy calls to the Musician, who comes onstage and takes a seat at the music stand. When
Mommy and Daddy go to get Grandma, the Musician plays and nods to the young man. Then, Mommy and
Daddy come back in carrying Grandma, "a tiny, wizened woman with bright eyes," age 86. The "expression
on her ancient face is that of puzzlement and fear."
Mommy and Daddy decide to put Grandma in the sandbox, and Grandma gets into a sitting position, crying
out. Mommy tells the Musician to stop playing and tells Daddy that they can go sit down now. When she
says hello to the Young Man again, he says "Hi!" in the same happy-go-lucky way he did before.

When Grandma cries out, Daddy asks Mommy if she thinks Grandma is comfortable, to which she replies,
"How would I know?" Daddy asks Mommy if she would like to talk and she sarcastically asks if he has
anything new to discuss, when suddenly Grandma starts throwing shovelfuls of sand at Mommy. As Daddy
turns around to look at Grandma, Grandma screams, "GRAAAAAA!"

Mommy tells the Musician to play again, and Mommy and Daddy stare out beyond the audience. Grandma
throws down the shovel and monologues about how her daughter and son-in-law treat her so terribly. She
tells the audience that she was married when she was 17 to a farmer who died when she was 30. Then she
asks the musician to stop playing, and he does. "There's no respect around here!" she complains.

The Young Man says "Hi!" again in his usual way. Grandma looks at him, surprised, doing a "mild double-
take" before continuing to speak to the audience: "I had to raise that big cow over there all by my
lonesome." She addresses the Young Man, as he flexes his muscles. He tells her he's from Southern
California, to which she says, "Figgers; figgers." When she asks his name, he doesn't know, telling her "they
haven't given me one yet...the studio..." He's an actor.

Analysis
The play sets up a highly allegorical and theatrical playing space from the beginning. While there are
indicators of a normal realistic scene (a sandbox, a backdrop that suggests the bright daytime), the stage is,
first and foremost, a stage. The action takes place in an abstracted reality, one which has the markers of the
real, but which exists in a kind of liminal dream-space of meaning.

The anti-realism of the play is further solidified by the archetypal nature of the characters. We are
introduced to a "Young Man," a "Mommy" and a "Daddy" and a "Grandma" rather quickly. While they are
highly specific in many ways, they are also archetypes, representing a kind of universal or perhaps
psychoanalytical representation of their family roles. The "Mommy" and "Daddy" and "Grandma," for
instance, by virtue of not being given names or more specific identifiers, stand in for all mothers, fathers,
and grandmothers.
The "Young Man" is a rather more unusual archetype, in that he is a handsome and well-built young man in
a bathing suit—seemingly representing some kind of desirable image of youth—yet Edward Albee, the
playwright, describes him in the stage directions as "after all, the Angel of Death." This stage direction is
curious not only because Albee ascribes a morbid job description to a seemingly youthful character, but also
because his "after all" suggests that we are all already in agreement about this characterization. The stage
direction has a sinister quality, further suggesting that while the players and settings of the play may seem
familiar—images of the American family—they are not actually what they appear to be.
The Grandma is yet another unusual character in the play. An old, wizened woman, according to the
character descriptions, she has a lot to say, but she is mistreated and not listened to in her family. Her
daughter treats her as though she is a burden or an object, and in response, she screams at them like a child
or an animal. Then, however, when she opens her mouth to speak to the audience, she is lucid and
knowledgable. The theater space thus becomes a forum in which this forgotten and mistreated character is
given a voice and autonomy.

Since Albee suggests that the Young Man—a nameless handsome actor from Southern California—is the
Angel of Death, the image of the old and abused woman sitting in a sandbox with him implies that perhaps
this is the scene of her imminent death. Albee subverts the traditional allegorical representations of death;
this is not an old person being haunted by an intimidating reaper, but a bright-eyed older woman relishing
the sight of a hunky young man. The encounter between the elder and her death is an erotic encounter in the
theatrical world of The Sandbox, a curious acquaintanceship rather than a portentous moral crossroads.
Grandma acts as a kind of stand-up comic, doing double takes at the man, admiring his muscles, and
conspiring with the audience about her dim-witted but beautiful counterpart.

The Sandbox Summary and Analysis of Part 2

Summary
Grandma addresses the audience, telling them that she had to raise Mommy all by herself. Daddy, she
then tells us, is very rich, and Mommy and Daddy took Grandma off the farm, brought her to their
townhouse, and "...fixed a nice place for me under the stove...gave me an army blanket...and my own
dish...my very own dish!" Suddenly, Grandma looks up, then yells to someone in the wings that it should be
darker now. The lighting changes to "deepest night" and spotlights come up on all the characters.
Daddy complains to Mommy that it's hot, but she tells him not to worry. He hears an off-stage rumble, and
Mommy begins to cry, anticipating that the sound means "...the time has come for poor Grandma..." As
Mommy cries, Grandma shovels sand onto herself while lying on her side. She mutters frustratedly to
herself as she tries to pile some sand on herself, and the lights come up denoting that it's the next day.

"Our long night is over," says Mommy, "We must put away our tears, take off our mourning...and face the
future. It's our duty." After saying hello to the Young Man, they examine Grandma, who plays dead in the
sandbox. Mommy is no longer sad, and decides that Grandma looks happy and "it pays to do things well."

After Mommy and Daddy leave, Grandma seems dismissive of their displays, then is surprised to find she
cannot move. The Young Man stops doing calisthenics and comes over to Grandma, telling her that he
has a line. He informs her that he is the Angel of Death. "I am come for you," he says, before kissing her on
the forehead. Grandma compliments the Young Man's delivery of the line. "You've got that...you've got a
quality," she says, and the Young Man puts his hands on top of hers.
Analysis
Grandma tells us more about her biography, but never quite enough to give us a full psychological portrait.
In this way, the play remains absurd, an abstracted and impressionistic depiction of a family's dynamic. We
learn that Grandma was left to raise Mommy all along, and that Mommy went on to marry a rich man,
Daddy. While we can sense from Grandma's description of living under the stove and having, as her sole
possession, "her own dish" that their cohabitation has not been a happy one, the exact nature of their familial
relationship remains obscure.

More clarity about Grandma's relationship to her daughter and son-in-law comes in the theatricalization of
her death. Grandma puts sand on herself in the sandbox in the middle of the night as Mommy cries about her
death, then "plays dead" when her daughter goes to find her in the light of day. Mommy changes rapidly
from inconsolably sad about Grandma's death, to dry-eyed and expectant of the future.

The "sandbox" of the play comes into focus symbolically as a space of death, a funeral of sorts. The
Musician is not simply someone to accompany the play, but someone to accompany Grandma's death, a
funeral musician. The sand of the sandbox becomes a substance with which Grandma can cover herself to
begin her passage to death, and the Young Man reveals himself to be the Angel of Death.
While it is not precisely clear the nature of the symbolism, the fact that the Angel of Death is a hunky young
Hollywood hopeful stands out as significant. When he must tell Grandma that he has come to take her, he
nervously announces to her that he has a line, like an expectant child in a Christmas pageant. Thus, the
delivery of the morbid news of Grandma's imminent death becomes a self-consciously stagey moment, and
Grandma is more invested in the Young Man's ability to deliver his line than she is in the meaning of the
line itself. Albee seeks to create some comic tension in the fact that the death missive is a hesitantly
delivered audition, and Grandma, like a talent agent, assures the Young Man that he has "a quality."

In divorcing the meaning of the Angel of Death's line from the "quality" of his delivery of that line, Albee
exposes the absurdity of people's symbolic relationships to death. This play is clearly about the death of
Grandma—and is dedicated to Albee's grandmother—but he writes a drama that defamiliarizes the audience
with the typical scripts of death. Mommy, who most dutifully speaks the language of funerals and death—"It
pays to do things well," she says of the funeral—leaves before the end of the play, and the audience is left
with an affectionate and kindhearted tableau between a handsome young man and an old woman at the end
of her life. In this way, Albee seeks to re-stage the typical funeral as a more ambiguous scene. Albee's play
is his own version of how a funeral might go, layered on top of Mommy's more traditional (if absurd)
conception of death and funerals.

The Sandbox Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Sandbox (Symbol)
The sandbox is where Grandma is placed and where she dies in the play. It is a symbol of the fact that
Mommy and Daddy treat her like a child, rather than a wise elder worthy of respect. It is a juvenile and
undignified place for Grandma to die. It also symbolizes the bridge between life and death on a broader
level. It represents the fact that death is a kind of return: to youth, helplessness, etc. Depending on how one
interprets it, the sandbox can be seen to symbolize either Grandma's mistreatment or the reality of death.
"Hi!" (Motif)
Throughout the play, the Young Man barely speaks except to say "Hi!" with the same enthusiastic but
vacant smile, every time someone acknowledges his presence. He is a vapid character, who does not have
thoughts of his own, and instead embraces his physical nature. His excitable "Hi!" represents his empty-
headedness and blankness, the fact that his identity is completely projected onto him—by society, by the
characters, and by the audience.
The play itself (Allegory)
The whole play functions as something of an allegory, representing the psychic world centered around
family, loss, grief, and death. The strange dream space to which Mommy and Daddy bring Grandma is
somewhere between reality and unreality, a strange beach that is also a sandbox that is also a funeral that is
also a gateway to the afterlife. Mommy and Daddy's response to Grandma's death is somewhat ambivalent,
and the emotion beneath Mommy's experience is quickly covered over with a repressed sense of social
propriety. Her line, "It pays to do things well," suggests that she is concerned with the superficialities of a
well-done funeral, rather than the meaningfulness of grief or a real confrontation with death and existence.
The Young Man (Symbol)
The Young Man, as the stage directions and the script tells us, represents the Angel of Death. He seems like
an unlikely candidate for a grim reaper, but he plays his part dutifully. His symbolic significance is left
somewhat ambiguous and he seems to represent both death, as well as youth and vitality, as represented by
his strapping good looks, physique, and penchant for calisthenics. Thus, there is a tension between the fact
that he is such a specimen of health and vitality while also explicitly representing the harbinger of
Grandma's death.
Rumble (Symbol)
Mommy hears a rumble off-stage after the lights go down. As she tells us, the noise symbolizes Grandma's
imminent death. It signifies to Mommy that Grandma doesn't have much time left.

The Sandbox Metaphors and Similes

"This is the Beach" (metaphor)
When they first arrive onstage, Mommy tells Daddy, "this is the beach," and the audience is led to
understand that the stage is meant to represent the beach. The beach and the sandbox on it represent a kind
of liminal space, in between life and death. While the stage is not made to look like a literal beach, it
represents it.
"Angel of Death" (metaphor)
The Young Man character is an actor playing the Angel of Death in the play. The fact that he doesn't know
his name as he hasn't been given one by the movie studio yet represents that he too is a liminal element of
the play space, that he represents an intermediary between life and death. He tells Grandma that he is "the
Angel of Death," and in taking on that name, he becomes the Angel of Death, making the metaphor literal:
he has come to usher Grandma into the world of the non-living.
"Under the Stove" (metaphor)
Grandma says that she was given a place to live with Mommy and Daddy: "under the stove" and with an
Army blanket and a dish. While it is unclear whether this is actually where she lives in Mommy and Daddy's
townhouse, and whether these are her only possessions, these details become metaphors for her mistreatment
in Mommy's house: for Mommy and Daddy's lack of respect for her, and for her loss of identity living with
her daughter.

The Sandbox Irony

Angel of Death (Situational Irony)
The Young Man is, as the script tells us, the "Angel of Death" who takes Grandma away to her final resting
place. Ironically enough, he is a young handsome aspiring actor from Southern California who can barely
get his lines out. There is a comic and ironic tension between the fact that the Young Man is such a healthy
looking young person—a superficial, wannabe-movie-star—and the fact that his job description is "Angel of
Death."
Grandma's Death (Dramatic Irony)
While the literal terms of Grandma's death are unclear, there is a bit of dramatic irony in the staging when
the lights come back up and Mommy and Daddy find Grandma half buried in the sandbox. The stage
directions tell us that Grandma "plays dead," and Mommy and Daddy believe that she is fully dead. Albee
leaves it ambiguous whether Grandma has literally died, but the direction that she is only playing dead
would suggest that the audience is privy to something Mommy and Daddy are not.

The Sandbox Imagery

Carried
The first image we see of Grandma is her being carried out, under the armpits, by Mommy and Daddy and
essentially dumped into the sandbox. The imagery immediately shows us that Grandma is not treated in a
very dignified way by Mommy and Daddy; they treat her like an object rather than a respected elder. The
stage direction also indicates that she wears an expression of fear, which suggests that they haven't consulted
her about where they are taking her. The image represents Grandma's lack of autonomy.
Lights Down
Albee has the lights turned up to represent the brightest time of day. When the lights are brought down, it
represents in a dramatical visual way that Grandma is near death.
Final Tableau
The final tableau of the play is the Young Man laying his hands over Grandma's hands, in a pose of affection
and care. After Grandma has been treated so horribly by the other characters, the Young Man treats her with
a gentle respect. Even though he is dim-witted, he is kind to Grandma and gives her a warm and tender
transition from life to death.

The Sandbox Edward Albee's Family Life

It is no secret that much of renowned playwright Edward Albee's work concerns familial dysfunction, and
much has been made about the connection between his own upbringing and the characters and plots of his
plays. Indeed, Albee had a fraught relationship with the family that raised him, a wealthy family that
adopted him at an early age.
Edward was adopted 2 weeks after being born, by a theater-magnate heir and his wife, and was raised in
Larchmont, New York, in the lap of luxury. He was a rebellious young man with a penchant for the creative
arts, of which they disapproved. In an interview with Vice, Albee summated his relationship to his adoptive
parents thus: "Those were some rich people who took me in. And if I had liked them, if we’d gotten along, I
probably would’ve paid more attention to them. But they had their own lives. They were busy with all the
junk they were doing, and I was allowed to develop my own interests and thoughts and become me without
as much interruption from other people as most kids get."
In spite of his disconnection from his adoptive parents, Albee had a strong relationship with his
grandmother, on whom he based the character of "Grandma" in The Sandbox. Later in
the Vice interview, Albee said, "She and I were the enemies of the family. They didn’t like her either. She
was a pest, she was old and cantankerous. She wanted her own way."

The Sandbox Literary Elements

Genre
Absurdist Drama, Chamber Play
Language
English
Setting and Context
A stage with a sandbox, time unknown
Narrator and Point of View
Grandma acts as a sort of narrator at times, but the audience is left to have their own
perspective on the events.
Tone and Mood
Absurd, Dramatic, Existential
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is Grandma. Antagonists are Mommy and Daddy.
Major Conflict
Mommy and Daddy bring Grandma to a sandbox in order to wait for her to die.
Climax
Grandma dies, Mommy feigns mourning and she and Daddy soon leave Grandma alone with
the Young Man who is an actor playing the Angel of Death.
Foreshadowing
Understatement
Grandma clearly feels disrespected by her daughter and son-in-law, but insists, "I'm not
complaining." She often assumes a wry, sarcastic tone to obscure her true feelings.
Allusions
Allusion to the fictive figure of the "Angel of Death."
Imagery
The lights going down on the stage along with the rumbling noises off-stage create the
imagery signaling that death is on its way for Grandma.
Paradox
Grandma has died, but nothing changes other than the fact that she cannot move. She can
still talk.
Parallelism
Grandma being placed in a sandbox in order for her to die parallels Mommy and Daddy
putting her in a space beneath the stove in their town house in the city.
Personification
The Young Man is the personification of Death.
Use of Dramatic Devices
Grandma uses direct address to talk to the audience. Lighting and sound signify different
narrative moments. Music underscores the proceedings. Footlights are used.

The Sandbox Essay Questions

1. 1
Why do you think this is considered one of Edward Albee's most autobiographical
plays?
Edward Albee did not hide his dislike for his family and his resentment of his adoptive
parents, a wealthy couple that adopted him when he was very young, can be seen in his
depiction of parents in many of his plays. Many biographical accounts have posited that
Albee resented his parents' snobbish privilege, and "Mommy" and "Daddy" in The
Sandbox resemble descriptions of Albee's parents. Albee was closer to his grandmother,
and this play is dedicated to her. In an interview about his work, Albee is quoted as
saying, "I didn’t make any mistakes in The Sandbox. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my
longer plays."
2. 2
Why is the initial image of Grandma so striking?
When we first see Grandma, Mommy and Daddy are carrying her onstage, one with their
hands under her arms and the other with their hands at her legs. The image is striking
because it is an especially undignified way to be carrying an older person, let alone an
older person who is close to death. The image shows us something about how Mommy
and Daddy treat Grandma poorly, and do not give her the respect to which her age entitles
her.

3. 3
What does the sandbox represent?
While it is left somewhat ambiguous and is open to interpretation, the sandbox represents
a liminal space in between life and death, youth and age. The two people who spend time
in the sandbox are the Young Man and Grandma. The Young Man is the perfect image of
youth, an attractive and in-shape young man in a bathing suit doing calisthenics. His status
as a Hollywood hopeful who doesn't seem to know much, as well as his cheerfulness and
impressionability, suggest that he represents youth. Grandma, on the other hand, is a
snarky and wise older woman who has seen a great deal of life and has a lot to say. In
contrast to the Young Man, she knows who she is and she is not afraid to tell the audience.
Additionally, Grandma represents the world of the living, while the Young Man represents
Death, so when they come together in the sandbox, the sandbox becomes the zone in
which life ends and death begins.