In David Mamet’s play, “Glengarry Glen Ross”, a group of sales representatives, Shelly Levene, Richard Roma, Dave Moss, and George Aaronow, are placed into a competition that sets all of them against each other. Their bosses challenge the four men to compete against one another in a sales competition where the winner with the most sales will receive a brand new Cadillac and the two people with the least sales will lose their job. With the ultimatum of losing their job, the men struggle to out due each other in hopes that they will come out on top (Mamet 21). Through dialogue and tone, Mamet presents the characters with a sense of desperation and determination; thus, he propels the story into countless affairs of deception and cheating, and ultimately shows how people are willing to do whatever it takes when driven to the edge and placed into a do-or-die situation.
The use of dialogue is essential to the representation of the characters and their conflicts in “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Language plays a dominant role in nearly all aspects of the play. Each individual in the play has their own unique way of communication, representing who they are as sales men. Take for instance, in Act I Scene I, Levene pleads to Williamson for better leads as Williamson is leaving the office. Although Williamson does not cooperate with Levene, Levene still stops Williamson several times and attempts to make bargains. “Fuck it…. Get on my side. Go with me. Let’s do something,” Levene tells Williamson in this scene (Mamet 23-24). This use of dialogue demonstrates the persistence and strong desire to succeed. Their conversation shows “speeches overlapping” and “thoughts unfinished”, thus emphasizing Levene’s persistence and determination to win over Will...
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...cters show how distressed they are when threatened with losing their job, allowing Mamet to portray the difficulties and struggles of what it takes to come out on top. The characters will do whatever it takes to survive. Their attempts to sale reflect society’s selfish ways of always trying to be the best. Moreover, it demonstrates the desperate side in all humans that awaken when threatened.
Works Cited
Browne, Terry. “An overview of Glengarry Glen Ross." Drama for Students”. Detroit: Gale.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross. New York: Grove Press, 1983. Print.
Worster, David. "How to Do Things with Salesmen: David Mamet's Speech-Act Play." Modern Drama 37.3 (Fall 1994): 375-390. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 166. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
One decision is all it takes in the life of a person to go from one path to another. The decision can be a good one and affect one’s life in a positive manner or a decision can be a poor one and result in negative effects. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Abigail Williams and John Proctor make life altering decisions. Willy Loman, the main character in The Death of a Salesman also written by Arthur Miller, makes a decision that will change his life. This paper will examine the life changing decisions made by the characters in these books, the reasons behind their decisions, and the consequences of their decisions for their lives.
Hadomi, Leah. Fantasy and Reality: Dramatic Rhythm in Death of a Salesman. Thesis. 1988. N.p.: N.p., N.d. Gale. Web. 6 May 2014.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999. 1636-1707.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "Death of a Salesman" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 1212-1280. Print.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream. This American Dream, fueled by money, is the main source of anxiety in Willy’s life. The anxiety of income is reflected today in the issue of minimum wage. James Sherk, a writer of the Tribune News Service, plots thoughtful points against raising the minimum wage. However, his use of over-exaggeration and odd comparisons leave his argument less than convincing.
In 1949, the pinnacle of contemporary American playwright, Arthur Miller, published his works “Death of a Salesman”. After the advent of this play, not only caused a sensation in the theaters in the United States, but also became the Western model of modern tragedy as one of the most important drama after America's World War II. Miller was twice won the “New York Drama Critics Award” and also awarded the “Pulitzer Prize.”[
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the cost of selling oneself to the American Dream. Willy Loman, the central character, is madly determined to achieve affluence that he overlooks the value of his family and himself in the process. He instills in his sons, Biff and Happy Loman, that being charismatic will hand them a prosperous lifestyle. Happy trusts in his father’s ideology while Biff’s beliefs contradict them. Biff deems that success is a product of happiness and contentment, not a paycheck. Out of all the sociological theories, social conflict best emphasizes the author’s perspective of how conflict, through class and family, can deteriorate the American dream. By analyzing the play’s themes- social class and family- through the sociological perspectives: structural-functional, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist, we can predict what drives these characters to behave and perceive things the way they do.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949. Print.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999
Miller, Arthur “Death of a Salesman” Literature: Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 205-13. Print.
Oleanna by David Mamet The fast pace, repetition and interruptions evident in the interaction. between Carol and John are clear illustrations of the unwritten contest to have the last word and be right in act 1. The use of these dramatic and linguistic techniques are what make the interaction between the two characters, so fascinating. Both are constantly struggling to maintain their dignity and reputation.
In conclusion, Millers’ work portrays the death of the American dream while Mamets’ work takes that death and uses it for social criticism on capitalism and the world it has created. Death of a Salesman is modern in that it has a common man as the tragic hero and his downfall is during modern times, it adds irony to Aristotle’s nature of tragedy, it has a clear plot and characters, is subjective, and has a clear distinction between high culture and low culture. Overall, it is a warning to the audience to make sure they do something meaningful with their lives rather than chase the capitalistic American dream. Glengarry Glen Ross is considered a postmodern play because it doesn’t create meaning for its characters lives, doesn’t try to make any point across to the audience other than entertainment, is playful, and it doesn’t give us any catharsis.
Glengarry Glen Ross deals with a group of men, in their forties and fifties, who work together as salesman in a real estate office. One would think these men were all friends and there were no problems. But in reality these men are sneaky and conniving and are competing with each other to be top salesman. What’s at stake? Top salesman receives a new car and the loser gets fired. In this play, I do believe there are some victims, to an extent.
In post-Depression America, the United States endured internal battles in political ideologies between capitalists and Marxists, which is the focus of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. According to Helge Normann Nilsen, author of “From Honors At Dawn to Death of a Salesman: Marxism and the Early Plays of Arthur Miller,” the Great Depression had a profound impact in forming the political identity of Arthur Miller: “The Great Depression created in him a lasting and traumatic impression of the devastating power of economic forces in the shaping of peoples’ lives” (146). This lasting effect on Miller is embodied in the character of Willy Loman, an unsuccessful salesman whose life collapses from the strain of his competition for wealth, demonstrated by Nilsen as she claims the fault lies in the “Impairment of [Willy’s] conscience and sanity by intolerable economic pressures” (155). Because of his focus on material success, which Marxists view as a critical flaw in capitalism, Willy loses his sanity battling the corruption within himself and the American free market system. I believe, however, that while Miller embraced and promoted Marxist values and that the messages in Death of a Salesman are directed at capitalists, Miller was not condemning all aspects of capitalism. Although his portrayal of Willy may seem politically biased, Miller’s portrayal of Charley as a generous and kind man contradicts the notion that Death of a Salesman is purely Marxist propaganda. Miller, therefore, was not denouncing capitalism, but calling instead for reforms within the existing system.
"SparkNotes: Death of a Salesman: important quotations Explained ." SparkNotes . N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .