Glengarry Glen Ross Essay

The majority of David Mamets critics take a crap great focus or attention on the negative concepts and descrys of power, much(prenominal) as repression and exploitation. Mainly, this occurs in the analysis of the associations of power in the moving in universe in Glengarry Glen Ross (1983). A perspective that will be considered in this writing is the investigation of the positivity of exercises of power. More particularly, it will deal on charit open relationships which argon present and crucial in David Mamets play. Foucauldian analytics of power comprehensively marks the Ameri crumb dream and the intricacy of function of power as well as the productive effects of power in Mametian logical argument macrocosm. Despite the fact that David Mamet started writing plays after the year 1970, he was able to gain an influential and significant position in American literary. David Mamets mastery can be greatly attri preciselyed to several influences that honed his skills. When Davi d Mamet was at the board of sixteen, he admired Bob Sickinger. Sickinger intensely influenced his ideas of dramaturgy.However, Bob Sickinger who was believed to be the induct of Chicago theatre was non the only one who had influenced David Mamet. When David Mamet attended inform at the Goddard College in Vermont, he studied and trained in playacting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner. Meisner influenced David Mamets acting as well as his philosophy, by infusing into him the idea of practical and outward techniques, instead of the usual technique of internalization.After college, David Mamet was able to perform several unglamorous barters in real(a) life. He experienced driving a taxi, operative at a truck factory, and cleaning offices for a living. By the year 1969, he got former(a) job. This time, he was assigned as an office homosexualager, particularly at a real estate sales office. Consequently, it can be observed that more or less all characters in David Mamets plays belong to amicable classes exclusive of the high-class. In addition to this, nearly all the sites of his plays and literary works be squargon up generally in marginal places. For example, in Glengarry Glen Ross, the play is set in a real-estate office.The scenes at the beginning of the play in Glengarry Glen Ross bring out the dangerous, ego-threatening world that its saleswork force inhabit (McDonough, 1963). The main characters, Aaronow, Moss, Lingk, capital of Italy, Williamson and Levene, participate in degrading schemes require handsted for them to harbor jobs. An obsoleteer salesman, Shelley Levene, who was un made in attaining estimable revenues, cajoles, bullies, pleads and finally bribes his boss to appropriate him better leads (McDonough, 2006). Then, a discontented salesman, Dave Moss, campaigns to raid the sales office and usurp the leads by maneuvering the gullible George Aaronow to do the actual break-in. Lastly, top salesman Richard Roma astonishes an d influences the believe James Link into buying material goods in exchange for Romas imaginary companionship.In David Mamets play, these salesmen effect their sales by giving a fictive structure. A measly house becomes a remedy to needs that go beyond than that for shelter. The irony is that, for all their skepticism, they argon around energetic in their individual performances. They argon also most sensitive about human need when they create the fictions intended to profit on that need. (Bercovitch et al., 1994).These salesmen seek to ensnargon their customers in talking to but are no less its dupes themselves. In a particular scene in the play, Moss asks Aaronow if he is in or out, and further says that you tell me, youre out you take the consequences (Mamet, 1983). When Aaronow asked and why is that?, Moss capriciously responds be motion you listened (Mamet, 1983). From the conversation, one of them accuses his supposed garter of complicity because he listened (Bercovitch e t al., 1994).In addition to this, irony exists because these salesmen must first encounter those they would deceive before they can succeed. As such, these salesmen become hypersensitive, exchangeable a self-assertion trickster who masquerades as a psychic. They also become compellingly slender because they are conscious of the desperation, the fear and the need that coerce their clients into their hands. Somehow, that shared noesis starts to grant the material desires of their clients. In a discernible disagreement, those who can silk hat connect two isolated people are those who deploy the falsities of fiction (Bercovitch et al., 1994).The salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross are charged for their deceptions. Deceptions of which they, too, are victims, but held close for their noesis of an existing desire for trust and connection. However, the salesmen remain unaware of the consequences because of the disparities in the language they use in the short letter world. In addition t o this, they continue to be ignorant because of creation that is diminished by deceptions (Bercovitch et al., 1994).Once again, in adverse to the image which is sought by these salesmen to identify themselves, the image of women is introduced. In a particular scene, Levene advises Williamson at one point, a mans his job (Mamet, 1983). The apparent point is that doing a job is what makes a man it gives a man identity. Moreover, Levene stresses that if you dont have the balls to do the job indeed youre a secretary (Mamet, 1983). Traditionally, secretarial jobs are performed by women. Or, as Roma exclaim to Williamson when the latter blows up a transaction, where did you learn your trade, you thick-skulled fucking cunt (Mamet, 1983). Then further says you idiot, who ever told you you could work with men? (Mamet, 1983).If the identity of man is identified based on his performance at work, then failures classify a worker as woman. In particular, it is the differentiation of these tw o closely prescriptive positions that suggests any sense of identity for these salesmen. And fair(prenominal) is agreed a negative position. According to McDonough , it (feminine) is set up as the failure and lack that a man must overcome in order to establish and maintain his identity as a man (1963). On the contrary, this construct of male identity stays exceedingly caperatical and is continuously exposed by the akin antipathy that is thought to create it.The prevailing need of David Mamets male characters is for confirmation of their identity, for understanding, comfort, love and friendship. However, this need is neglected because of the fear that needing anything is a sign of weakness and it is unmanly to be insecure in ones identity. Distrust of the world which the characters recognize produces this fear. Fear of infidelity in sexual relationships, friendship and duty minutes results in distrust among everybody. In addition to this, distrust and fear lies in ones lack o f confidence within the self (McDonough, 2996).To documentation this, Stephen Shapiro in his study of masculinity argues that, male self- mistrust is caused by narcissism and reinforced by male silence, emotional inhibition and puerile attitudes and doings (1984). He also adds that the division inside men, in the male psyche, has the forceful social consequence of weakening trust in all other relationships (Shapiro, 1984). Moreover, that weakening of the bonds of trust in these relationships causes still further decay in male self-trust (Shapiro, 1984).In Shapiros view, it can be deduced that the characters Edmond, Bernie, Fox and Levene, are motivated by frantic uncertainty or lack of confidence regarding their manhood. According to McDonough, this is a sense of powerlessness that they seek to over-compensate for (1997). She also adds that it is a need to establish their manhood in the face of real or imagined challenges to it (McDonough, 1987).Most of the time, these challenge s are personal, internal insecurities. Moreover, they are regularly protected onto the out of doors world oftentimes, onto women or else onto fellow salesmen, workers or friends. Above all, David Mamets characters need they have something to verify about themselves through competition with others. As a result, they are imprisoned in a vicious belief of antagonism that they cannot escape.Within Mamets plays, antagonism shows the standards of masculinity. Roma statesI swear its not a world of men. Machine, its a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders. Its a fucked up world. Theres no contingency to it. Dying breed. Yes it is. We are the members of a dying breed (Mamet, 1983).Masculinity can observed all throughout the play where salesmen partake to themselves as men. However, it should be noted that they are not referring to themselves of gender. Rather, it can be deduced that the salesmen are a select order of people. As Roma reiterates that they are a dying breed.On the contrary, the clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders do not refer to true men. These machines take orders. The personality which these people have does not powerfully reflect their work. This can be observed in the likes of Williamson and Shelley Machine Levine. Williamson is a non-salesman while Levene is, according to Kane, more despicable than the arrogant top salesman (2004). They are considered to be despicable company men who serve simply as cogs in the corporate machine. Levines former success is frequently associated with inhumanity. David Mamet implies Levene opinionated his own destiny but did so mechanically.In some ways, Glengarry Glen Ross seems like a modernized and more mordant version of Arthur Millers shoemakers last of a Salesman (1996). Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, just like Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is in the last stages of falling apart. He continues living in a largely inhuman world, one unreceptive to any but the majority of aggre ssive personalities. A product of this world is Levene, who has been an aggressor. However, now hes old, out of luck and hes being shown up in the competition. It starts to appear that perhaps he was never all that good anyway. As George affirms, he (Levene) has no coin, very little pride left(p) (and) his confidence is shattered (1994).Conceivably the most distinguished fictional salesman is Willy Loman, whose scotch dreams ultimately divide his family and ruins him. His unyielding quest for success, together with an idealistic view of the world, results in his being done in largely due to the capitalist system. He ignores his emotional life in the certainty that the one subprogram of the real-estate business was to generate money. Although he finds that success does not bring him the cheer he seeks. Willy Loman can be considered an archetypal salesman in literature, an unusual cabal of both victim and oppressor whose demise is brought about by self-delusion and societal in sistence (Dean, 1990).In Death of a Salesman, the American dream may be Willy Lomans vision of a house and successful children with families of their own. And like Willy, the salesmen in David Mamets play all have their American dreams, though it may be different. However, these salesmen dont dream of grand houses or successful children. Instead, they dream of the rich customer who will enable them to stop working for those who exploit them. They also dream continually of success. Though similarly, as a whole, both Arthur Miller and David Mamet point out the disappointments and failures of the American dream fable and the vindictiveness in capitalistic society.For numerous cohorts of writers who have assessed the American breathing in, the salesman has been a symbol of its shortcomings. Indeed, being a salesman can lead to great riches and that it is the means for a common man to make good by complete hard work. On the other contrary, this is not the characteristic that such wri ters choose to accentuate. To these people, as Dean affirms, is a society that advocates this kind of self-improvement is a consumer society based on materialism (Dean, 1990). It has, at its heart, an maladroitness that can never be assuaged by yet additional money in the bank.The salesmen gain enthusiasm from the promise of happiness and gratification in return for material success. Their clients too are as much a part of the capitalist hegemony where their purchase is their symbol of material success. The salesmen invest these purchases with remarkable, life-enhancing properties that wed the guarantee of a better future(a). However, the truth is not the same. In the same way as the salesmens endless quest for unauthentic success is basically a chimera. The goods which they sell are quite insignificant. For that reason, the salesmen are victorious advantage of those who, like them, must dream and think of a brighter future (Dean, 1990).Stafford in Visions of a Promised Land st ops short of an allegorical instruction of Glengarry Glen Ross. Though, he does present the thought-provoking question that Aaronow, Levene and Moss are older Jewish men who may possibly be celebrated with onetime(a) will figures. Stafford also proposes that they have been paying attention to the real estate business partly by their personal searches for a promised terra firma (1996).Ricky Roma, Mitch and Murray are more likely to be gentiles (Stafford, 1996) associated both with conquering Rome (in Romas case) and latter-day Christian entrepreneurial types. On the other hand, the frequent allusions to Old Testament figures and the motif of land for sale imply, Stafford believes, that the division of the conflict into old versus new, age versus youth beliefs, gives a sense of historical perspective (1996). Moreover, these old-fashioned traditions have been replaced with a modern day religion based on greed, deceit and spiritual bankruptcy (Stafford, 1996).Similarly, in Weasels a nd Wisemen, Leslie Kane concurs that the playwright utilizes allusions to archetypal biblical characters such as the Levites, Moses and Aaron. She adds that there is as a link amid ancient and modern worlds, values, aspirations and spirituality (Kane, 1999). Yet it is apparent that insensitive business corporation has, in a sense, changed ancient Judaic ideas of moral and social responsibilities. As a result, the characters in Mamets play are caught in a moral predicament. They are rapped between their craving to acquire the land or achieve from its sale and their longing for old value systems.David Mamets job is to create a closed moral universe and to desert an evaluation of the characters behavior to the audience. He means the evaluation to be grueling rather than easy and for the audience to squirm on the hook. As Mamet has say in Decay Some Thoughts for Actors, we need not fall victim to the liberal fallacy of assuming that because we can perceive a problem we are, de fact or, not part of the problem (1986).According to an interview made by David Savran with David Mamet, Savran asks why the subtext is always about power, buying and selling (1988). Mamet responds why not? and defends it by saying I guess most American literature, the American literature that I love, that I grew up on, is about business (and) thats what America is about (Savran, 1988).In the point of view of David Mamet, the American nightspot is composed of human life based on business. When Mamet proposed the delineation of the knotty business world, he demonstrated the import of human community as well as the inevitability of conflicts among people (Wan-Ling, 2000). Whereas, the myth of the American Dream aims to persuade the audience or the salesmen that everybody has an equal opportunity to attain his success, on top of all material success.On the other hand, David Mamet aimed to expose the reality that part of such myth brings not only a adventure of the conflict on benefits am ong people but also that of the blur of boundaries between businessmanship and friendship (Wan-Ling, 2000). In Glengarry Glen Ross, the functions and effects of power due to the needs and interests of its characters are carefully revealed. Instead of simply presenting his observations on the exercise of power, David Mamet also indicated a reflection of the ruthlessness and gracelessness of the business world. More specifically, as an American playwright, David Mamet manifested in his play the realistic and materialistic American business world.through and through Foucauldian analytics of power, it can be realized that the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross are not, in the essence, fate to be repressed by the capitalistic system, nor by their colleagues. They have the plectron and the ability to resist, which would dominantly bring them to a higher hierarchy in the business world. In essence, David Mamet adduces the business world in Glengarry Glen Ross for highlighting the distortion of relationships in human community (Wan-Ling, 2000). Hence, it can be deduced that it is the characters who trap themselves. Moreover, it is the human beings who cause this distortion. And for this reason, David Mamet achieves his purpose of reminding the actualities of human relationships to his readers.ReferencesBercovitch, S., Carswell, C. H., & Patell, C. R. K. (1999). The Cambridge History of American Literature. United Kingdom The take the field Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.Bigsby, C. W. E. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet. United Kingdom The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.Dean, A. (1990). David Mamet diction as Dramatic Action. bleak Jersey Associated University Presses.George, K. (1994). Playwriting The First Workshop. USA Butterworth-Heinemann.Kane, L. (1999). Weasels and Wisemen morality and Ethnicity in the Works of David Mamet. New York St. Martins.Kane, L. (2004). The Art of Crime The Plays and Films of Harold Pinter and D avid Mamet. New York Routledge.King, K. (2001). newfangled Dramatists. New York Routledge.Mamet, D. (1983). Glengarry Glen Ross A Play. New York Grove Press.Mamet, D. (1986). Decay Some Thoughts for Actions. New York Viking.McDonough, C. J. (1963). Staging Masculinity Male Identity in Contemporary American Drama. North Carolina McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers.Miller, A. (1996). Death of a Salesman. New York Penguin Classics.Savran, D. (1988). In Their Own oral communication Contemporary American Playwrights. New York family Communications Groups.Shapiro, S. A. (1984). Manhood A New Definition. New York G.P. Putnams Sons.Stafford, T. J. (1996). David Mamets Glengarry Glen Ross Text and Performances. New York Garland.Wan-Ling, C. (2000). Theatre of Power. Taiwan National Sun Yat-Sen University.