David Mamet's Attitude towards a Woman in his Play Oleanna: A Feminism Approach

Abstract

           David Mamet is one of the most distinctive dramatists in American literature. He wrote more than thirty-five plays and many of them directed by himself. Oleanna is one of the most important Mamet's plays. It deals with two main characters, John who is a professor in a university seeks for his superior to his student Carol in term of machismo. In his play Oleanna, Mamet tackled with ideals of capitalistic ideology and American Institutional system to show how a woman struggles to achieve her identity in a patriarchal society. In fact, Mamet wants to create men-only world to which the woman has small role in this world. As result, their behaviors (man and woman), their views towards everybody around them is based on fear of each other. In other words, the woman wants to find some order into world of disorder, fear and harassment. This paper attempts to analyze this play based on feminist approach.