David Mamet's three-act play 'Oleanna' is essentially
about the destructiveness of miscommunication, with its emphases on academy politics,
teacher-student relationship and sexism & sexual
harassment.
Concerned about her failure in the course,
Carol, a college student, meets her professor, John. Carol alleges that she doesn't
understand the verbose lectures of her professor. During the most part of act 1, the
professor appears as callous and interruptive, engaged in telephonic conversation with
his wife regarding real estate matters, while Carol is unable to speak out her mind. But
John then expresses 'empathy' for her, and wants to bend the rules to give Carol an 'A'
grade if she agrees to meet him to discuss the matter. John touches Carol's shoulders on
several occasions asking her to sit down or to stay on in the
office.
Later, Carol writes a letter of complaint against
her professor alleging that John is lewd and sexist. She claims that his intention was
not good when he touched her shoulder. She believed it was a case of sexual harassment.
In the final act of the play, John is fired and he is about to leave. It is further
known that Carol has filed criminal charges of battery and attempted
rape.
There is no real serious sexual harassment in the
play, and both the student and the teacher are deeply flawed. Carol shows an underlying
deviousness, using the plea of physical contact as a means to take revenge on her
teacher. The teacher is pompous and foolish.
Mamet handles
the theme of sexual harassment and sexism in a curious, critical light. It is not a
simple case of the harassment of the female by the male, but the callous, dubious,
pompous foolishness of the male power vis a vis the intriguing appropriation of male
power by the female by using the ploy of sexist bias and sexual
harassment.
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