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The play Oleanna brings up a variety of issues that are very relevant to today’s news headlines. For instance, sexual harassment, politics, rape accusations, and finally: gender issues. Controversial issues between gender binaries have been brought up for centuries upon centuries. It seems as long as men and women have been considered different, neither can see past these so-called “differences” long enough to empathize and understand one another. At first glance, Mamet’s play is difficult to understand and it can be assumed that this was done so very systematically to highlight the level of difficulty the characters themselves are experiencing.
The misunderstandings begin at the low level of not listening to one another and interrupting sentences to the final climax of physical assault. It seems the character Carol’s entire agenda is to get John, her professor, to listen and understand her. In turn, Mamet may be trying to get his readers to do the exact same, which causes a mirroring effect.
According to the article “Oleanna and Issues of Sexual Harassment” written by Jay Boyar, the characters definitely to do not see eye to eye.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
Boyar explains, “That is just the point: One man’s innocent remark is one woman’s sexual harassment.” (Boyar). During the latter section of Mamet’s play, John reads the accusations aloud, “He said he ‘liked’ me. That he ‘liked being with me.’ He’d let me write my examination paper over if I could come back oftener to see him in his office.” (Mamet 33).
It is clear that these statements are a double-edged sword. They hold an entirely different meaning to each character, and to each reader. It can be read as a sexual bribe or as a sincere favor with good intent. Boyar even goes as far as to state that readers of different genders may hold a certain belief, “His approach does, however, inadvertently offer an amusing litmus test; If you think only Carol is a caricature, you’re a raving feminazi. If you think only John is, you’re a male chauvinist pig.” (Boyar). This can easily remind readers of the Brett Kavanaugh case, in which many people did not research and just automatically took a side based on their gender or political standing.
In another article this argument is supported even further, “Mamet incisively demonstrates that women cannot—as too many partisans of Anita Hill claimed—be automatically believed simply because they are women.” (Paglia). The process should clearly be more intense than that. Today’s America is still struggling to create a better process on how to determine the truth between sexual harassment or flowery accusations a whole three decades after this play was written. Part of the issue in the process is that America has been set up predominately by men, and they are placed in positions of power just as John is in this play. Therefore, there is already an “us against you” attitude that women perceive when trying to go through their day-to-day lives. It can be something as simple as asking for a raise or being afraid to walk in a parking deck alone.
The world has conditioned women to be afraid and defensive at the same time. However, that does not mean that there are not women like Carol who can play upon this defenselessness that women are stereotyped with as a minority. Carol used her weakness as her strength, and as cunning as it may be, it is not noble. It only sets the system up for more failure to those who actually suffer from sexual harassment.
Despite Carol’s original pleas to gain knowledge from John and understand him, she simply could not. Thus, creating a spiral for the rest of the tragic play. An entire flip happens, and John is begging to understand her, “I want to hear it. In your own words. What you want. And what you feel.” (Mamet 37). Only they can no longer put aside their differences as things have gone too far and too much is at stake, due to Carol’s complaints. One of the most interesting passages from the play may be found on page 44, “That’s my point. You see? Don’t you have feelings? Your final argument. What is it that has no feelings. Animals. I don’t take your side, you question if I’m Human.” (Mamet 44). The two characters have finally argued enough to the point of which they can no longer consider each other human. They are not equal, and they are not just dealing with the issue of man vs woman. The continuous climaxing of the issue is extremely important to highlight that fact that if differences are not originally put aside, then no good can come from such interactions. Neither character was able to bring anything positive to the other’s lives, and it destroyed at least one person’s life. That alone is enough to prove that Mamet’s play is a successful attempt to bring light on the importance of gender controversy.
Gender Controversy in David Mamet’s Oleanna. (2022, Jan 28). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/gender-controversy-in-david-mamet-s-oleanna-essay
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