Glengarry Glen Ross Key Facts

For those who may be doing this play for coursework

?
  • Created by: Eliony
  • Created on: 05-11-13 15:31
View mindmap
  • Glengarry Glen Ross (Key Facts)
    • Genre
      • Drama
      • Satire
      • Dark Comedy
    • Language
      • English
        • Though the characters speak with heavy slang colloquial grammer
    • Time and place written
      • Chicago, 1980s
    • Climax
      • Williamson corners Levene and gets him to confess to the robbery of the office, collapsing Levene's attempt to 'beat the system'
    • Characters
      • Shelly Levene
        • A washed-up real estate salesman in his fifties. Shelly "The Machine" Levene was successful years ago, but recently has hit a streak of "bad luck" and finds himself in danger of getting fired. He desperately wants to save his career, and this desperation is usually grotesquely apparent.
      • John Williamson
        • The manager of the real estate office, who is in his early forties. Williamson's job is to oversee the operations of the office and to assign the salesmen their leads. The salesmen dislike him because of his status as "company man"—he merely follows orders from Mitch and Murray, and the salesmen do not think he really understands the business.
      • Dave Moss
        • An angry real estate salesman in his fifties. Moss harbors a great deal of resentment toward the company. He is not a subtle man, and tends to lash out angrily when under pressure. His sheer aggression makes him a more successful salesman than Aaronow or Levene, but he has none of Roma's verbal agility.
      • George Aronow
        • A timid real estate salesman in his fifties. Aaronow is extremely meek and mild- mannered. In conversation, faster talkers like Moss and Roma easily overpower him. His dullness is evident in his conversational tendency to merely repeat what other people are saying to him. Like Levene, Aaronow is not on the board and is in immediate danger of getting fired.
      • Richard Roma
        • A big-shot real estate salesman in his early forties. Roma is the top name on the board at his office, which means he is currently the most successful salesman.
      • James Lingk
        • A quiet, timid man in his early forties. We know that Lingk fears his wife, but we do not know what he does for a living or virtually anything else about his personal life. Lingk tells Roma that within his marriage he does not have the power to negotiate business deals.
      • Baylen
    • Protagonist
      • Whilst the play is an ensemble piece, and Mamet does not encourage us to like or identify with one character above the other's; Levene's actions and conflicts carry the greatest dramatic weight.
    • Antagonist
      • American business culture, as enacted by all the characters, and sometimes particularly personified by the offstage characters, Micth and Murray.
    • Falling action
      • Baylen takes Levene into Williamson's office to interrigate him again; Levene's arrest is imminent
      • Roma tells Williamson that from now on he wants of Levene's commisions, making Levene's defesat and humiliation complete
    • Foreshadowing
      • There are no specific instances of foreshadowing, though the downbeat, pessimistic tone of Act 1 prefigures the downbeat, pessimistic outcome in Act 2
    • Tone
      • Dark, occasionally satirical, the salesman's deviousness is sometimes so broad as to be assuming, but there's also the sense throughout that Mamet is quite serious about condeming the system he portrays.
    • Themes
      • Speech as mode of action
      • Success and failure
    • Motifs
      • Meanigful words vs. meanigless 'talk'
      • Cons, scams and angles
      • Manhood
      • Having a 'big mouth'

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all Mindmap resources »