Oleanna
In the play Oleanna, David Mamet reveals a relationship between a professor, a student, and their battle for power and dominance, which ultimately has destructive consequences. The play introduces two characters with opposite personalities that conflict and ironically their status exchanges. Although the dialogue is frustrating by executing many interruptions and incomplete sentences, it reveals Mamet's traits of being realistic and portrays lots of conflict. Mamet illustrates effective usage of symbolism and irony to convey a controversial scene for the viewers. In the first scene Mamet effectively expresses the powerful status the professor, John, holds with his actions of constantly interrupting the student, Carol, in their conversations and use of complex words that she doesn't understand. The professor acts as though he is highly educated and professional, and
Carol expresses helplessness by cowering from the professor. Oleanna can be perceived as an annoying play with its pinball diction, but with deeper thought of the symbolism portrayed in the characters by Mamet, it achieves great effectiveness. Finally towards the last section of the video, John has no tie, sleeves up, and he is chain smoking. The student's character is an "attempt to portray a bid for power by an embattled young women"(Nielson 1) Ironically by the conclusion of the play John achieves physical power over Carol by knocking her to the floor and raising a chair as if to hit her. The changes in his appearance obviously are an outcome of his well-established life being destroyed by the misinterpretations of his student. Carol appears somewhat frazzled and unorganized in her T-shirt and untamed hair, and lingers on every word the professor says with notes to support it. Later in the video of Oleanna, he appears with messy hair, loosened tie, and casual shoes. The student is degraded by John calling her "a vicious little bitch"(Mamet 79). The audience sees that the professor is calm, collected, and in control throughout the first scenes by the way he carries himself with his organized office and briefcase. The loss of the professor's power and control is shown throughout the play with Mamet's use of symbolism in the character's appearance and actions. The viewers see the professor dressed in a coat and tie, dress shoes, and generally well-groomed hair to begin with. She is perceived as a struggling student in her class with her numerous outburst of "I don't understand"(Mamet 22) and asking for explanations for everything John says, whether speaking to her or not. The detail John reveals to Carol becomes her ammunition. John empowers himself expressing, "we're buying a house"(Mamet 17), numerous times and discussing his promotion to tenure.
Common topics in this essay:
David Mamet,
Wrongfully Accused,
throughout play,
professor student,
appearance actions,
power control,
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