David Mamet's Oleanna: Father-Daughter Relations

David Mamet's Oleanna: Father-Daughter Relations

The most evident and natural of all hierarchal relationships is that of parent and child. This exists from the most primitive and savage of beasts to the most evolved and developed of primates. Thus, nearly all relationships can be made synonymous and equitable with this archetypal hierarchy. The parent-child relationship is perhaps the most delicate, intricate, and dysfunctional of all relationships in existence. Parents regularly disappoint and disillusion their children, and vice versa. Children rebel from the standards set by their parents only to readopt them when necessary. Such is the case in David Mamet's play Oleanna in which the two main characters, John and Carol, assume a rather dysfunctional father-daughter relationship. The actions taken by John throughout the course of the work demarcate the assumption that his exploits are to be viewed as incestuous with respect to the rapport he and his student share. Carol, with the support of her "group," charges her college professor with sexual harassment, rape, and battery. She thus threatens to annihilate every aspect of the life for which he has strived so terribly long.

In Greco-Roman mythology, the son of Laius and Jocasta unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, thus fulfilling the statements of the divine oracle at Delphi. Similarly, the sister of Orestes aided Orestes, himself, in avenging the death of Agamemnon, their father, by killing their mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. These two yet to be identified mythological figures, Oedipus and Electra, respectively, have lent their names to modern psychology. Oedipus and Electra complexes are characterised by perverse manifestations in w...

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...e beats her maliciously. Afterwards, due to the stage directions, John does not appear to acknowledge the events of the past minutes; "He moves to his desk, and arranges the papers on it" (Mamet, 641). This is typical of domestic abuse in that the abuser does not concede to the veracity of the maltreatment. Just after the incident, Carol mocks and taunts her professor, as a small child would do. She states while looking at and away from him, "Yes. That's right . . . yes. That's right" (Mamet, 641). This taunt is quite reminiscent of one a juvenile would put forth.

Works Cited

Mamet, David. Oleanna. Schilb and Clifford. 612-641.

Schilb, John, and John Clifford, eds. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. MartinÕs, 1999.

University of Maryland at College Park Pamphlet on Sexual Harrassment. College Park. 1997.