Mamet, David. Oleanna.

Summary

Introduction

The play is introduced by a quotation from Samuel Butler’s anti-Victorian novel The Way of All Flesh (1903), which wonders at the incredible adaptability of young people to circumstances and their capacity of either not realizing that they are unhappy or attributing it to their own sinfulness only.

Follows a quotation from a Norwegian folk song, which was translated into English and refers to the failed attempt of Ole Bull to create an ideal society in the American colony of New Norway. The song expresses the desire of a slave to be in Oleanna rather than bound in chains in Norway. Oleanna actually was one of Bull’s communities.

Characters/Setting

Carol, a woman of twenty, student.

John, a man in his forties, lecturer.

Set in John’s office.

‘One’

The initial situation is that of a student failing her course and a professor willing to help her, though availing himself of rather unconventional methods.

The play opens with John talking on the phone and Carol, seated across the desk, waiting for him to finish. John is purchasing a new house to go with his promised promotion but there seem to be problems with the final agreements for the house. John talks with his wife, tells her that he is coming in ten minutes and that she should call Jerry.

Carol’s paper for her class was disappointing. Carol insists that she does exactly what she is told, that she bought the professor’s book and read it, but that she does not understand anything. She admits that she has some problems, it is difficult for her also because she came to this school from a different social and economic background.

John receives another call, this time from Jerry, but he tells Jerry that he cannot talk now. Carol started to study because she desired to learn something, to know something, and to be helped in this by qualified persons. Accordingly, she wants John to teach her. She procures her lecture notes and wants to be explained his book.

Carol claims that she does not understand anything and has but one thought, that she is stupid. John does not think her stupid but rather angry. He has however an important call to make and a pressing appointment to attend. Carol takes the hint and blames the professor for thinking her to be stupid and to amount to nothing.

Carol erupts in an explosion of despair, on which John asks her to sit down again. He tells her that he was raised to think himself stupid and he accepted it as his description. He explains to Carol that when she faces a test, she must not think ‘I must. But I can’t.’ but must break her conviction of being a failure so that she could succeed (19).

John receives another call, his wife urges him to come, but he remains with Carol. He becomes more personal and admits that he likes Carol because she is similar to him. He also has problems, as everybody does, with his wife and work. The Tenure Committee announced that he will be granted the desired tenure but it was not yet signed.

Carol feels bad about interrupting John’s trail of thoughts, but she wants to know her paper grade. The paper grade and the final grade will be A if she sees the professor a few more times. The unsuccessful paper does not matter, neither the fact the class is only half over. John will start the class over for Carol in order to help her.

John shocks Carol by dismissing the higher education as a useless ritual which does not really educate:

John: ‘Now: I said ‘hazing’. It means ritualized annoyance. We shove this book at you, we say read it. Now, you say you’ve read it? I think that you’re lying. I’ll grill you, and when I find you’ve lied, you’ll be disgraced, and your life will be ruined. It’s a sick game. Why do we do it? Does it educate? In no sense. ’ (28)Education is prejudice, ‘an unreasoned belief’ (30).

John explains that he says this because his job is to provoke questioning. Despite his claim that education is a ‘prolonged and systematic hazing’, he teaches because he loves teaching (35).

Carol succumbs to another fit of deep despair, explaining that she does not even understand her being here now. John puts his arm around her should to comfort her, but Carol shrinks, as if suspecting an indecent design. Carol want to say something but hesitates and when John convinces her to tell him, a phone rings.

One voice on the phone seems to tell John that the agreement is void, while the voice of Jerry afterwards says that there are no problems. On finishing the call, John explains to Carol that there is a surprise party for him on the announcement of his tenure in the new house.

‘Two’

There has been a surprising reversal of the established situation and now it is John who does not understand and Carol who is in the position of power.

Carol comes on John’s personal request as a favour. John begins with a long monologue, explaining that when he realized that he loves to teach, he did not want to become ‘that cold, rigid automaton of an instructor’ he knew from his childhood (43). He naturally sought the tenure and coveted it for the security and comfort it provides.

Carol sent the Tenure Committee a complaint on John’s behaviour. She faithfully described the proceedings of their last interview but inscribed them sexual connotations. She called John pedantic, sexist, and elitic, accused him of wasting time on theatrical diversions irrelevant to the curriculum, and pointed out his attempt to embrace her.

John invited Carol to ask her what he did to her and possibly how he can make amends. He claims that the Committee will dismiss the complaint but meanwhile he will lose his house, the new home for his son, and the deposit he paid. Carol stubbornly insists on her position and does not accept John’s attempts to clear the situation.

What made Carol most angry was John’s dismissal of education, for which she worked so hard to take part in, as if it were a joke:

Carol: ‘But to the aspirations of your students. Of hardworking students, who come here, who slave to come here––you have no idea what it cost me to come to this school––you mock us. You call education ‘hazing’, and from your so-protected, so-elitist seat you hold our confusion as a joke, and our hopes and efforts with it.’ (52)

Her aim was to deprive John of the power which he, according to her, had abused. John explains in vain that he offers his views and it is up to the students to make their own views without fighting with him.

A phone rings. John assures the caller that he is dealing with the complaint and that he thinks it will be solved. He confirms that he is going to buy the house. Carol is on her way to go. John tries to stop her and eventually holds her to prevent her from leaving. She starts screaming for help.

‘Three’

The distribution of power remains the same as in the preceding act, but what looked at first as an innocent minor misunderstanding starts to take on tragic dimensions, culminating in the final terrible climax of the play.

Carol reluctantly accepted John’s plead and came to see him, despite the court officers advising her not to do so. John has been thinking about Carol’s complaint and he thinks that he owes her an apology. He wants Carol to hear him out, for the benefit of them both, but Carol refuses to hear what help John thinks to offer her.

Carol’s accusation was accepted as a proved fact. John will not be granted the tenure and he will be suspended. Carol insists that it is not her fault and that John is being punished for his own actions. Carol felt responsible to act on behalf of the school and her fellow students and to withdraw from John the power he had over his class.

John has been working to achieve his post for twenty years and he takes the privilege of power over students for deserved. Carol believes that John wanted unlimited power. She thinks that he does not believe in the freedom of thought but rather in his elitist and protected hierarchy. She came to instruct him that he is not God:

Carol: ‘You asked me in here to explain something to me, as a child, that I did not understand. But I came to explain something to you. You Are Not God. You ask me why I came? I came here to instruct you.’ (67)

Now it is Carol who has most of the talk and John only meekly nods to her questions. He admits that he does hold Carol for a poor revengeful creature and that he hates her. Carol explains that he hates her because she has the power. She does not seek revenge, she wants John to understand how it feels to be subjected to arbitrary power.

Carol offers John to withdraw her complaint under the condition that his book is removed from the representative reading list and banned. John falls into rage, informs Carol that this is out of question and tells her to leave. A phone rings and John learns from Jerry that Carol accused him of an attempted rape.

John receives another call, from his wife, whom he tries to comfort. Carol, on her leave, casually warns John not to call his wife ‘baby’. John loses self-control, grabs Carol and starts beating her. When he is about to threaten her with a chair, he suddenly changes his mind and leaves her alone. ‘Yes. That’s right,’ Carol concludes the play (80).

Analysis

The play contains little outward action, it is a conversation play which relies for its effect on precisely developed dialogues. There is minimum scenery and props, the cast is cut down to two actors. The play dispenses with dramaturgy notes. The two characters are specified only as to their sex and age, there are no further prescriptions as to their dress, manners, or even the motives of their behaviour. Time and place of the play are not given. This economic presentation of the play allows on one hand for its universal resonance, on the other for the plurality of interpretations.

The play is notable for its peculiar use of language. The dialogues sound real, natural, immediate. The realistic effect is achieved especially by frequent interruptions, overlapping, incomplete sentences, pauses, hesitations, etc. The written text exploits italics and capitalization for emphasis. Another special device is the phone which rings many times during the play. John usually picks up the receiver to say that he cannot talk now, or he does talk to the caller, or he ignores the ringing. The meaning of the language is often ambiguous, and so is the overall impression of the play.

The play deals with several themes and does so in a highly thought-provoking way. The main plot line focuses on the nature of power and the danger of its abuse. It also makes the audience question and re-examine what we tend to accept as facts: the necessity and nature of higher education, the fixed hierarchy of professor-student with their strictly defined roles, the need of a student to submit to a teacher even if based only on the teacher’s superior post.