Oleanna Literary Elements

Drama

English

The office of a university professor

Carol and John each narrate the play through dialogue, expressing their points of view in turn.

Serious, Dramatic

Both Carol and John can be considered the protagonist and antagonist, depending on the point in the play and the point of view of the audience.

John acts inappropriately towards Carol, leading her to accuse him of sexual assault. This prompts an extended, escalating power struggle between the two.

Shortly after John's promotion is blocked by the tenure committee in response to the report Carol filed, John becomes aware of the rape charge bought against him. In hopes of dismissing the charges, he asks Carol what she wants. She tells John that the charges will be dropped if he bans his book (amongst others) being taught at university as it is considered inappropriate. He angrily dismisses this and tells her to leave her office. As she is leaving the office, Carol overhears John call his wife "baby," over the phone, and she instructs him not to do so. John then becomes violent and beats Carol. This is both the play's climax and conclusion.

John's declaration that he is removing the "artificial strictures" separating teacher and student foreshadows the highly unorthodox conflict between this particular teacher and student, in which the strictures of formality and politeness fall away.

Carol's report to the tenure committee is powerfully understated, expressing only the bare facts of her interactions with John, but in carefully chosen language that quietly evokes violence and power imbalance.

Though the play does not feature direct allusions to any real figures, audiences would have seen it at the time of its release as a long meditation on the Anita Hill hearings, in which Hill accused the Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.

The play's imagery remains fairly static throughout in terms of stage setup, featuring an office with a desk, which emphasizes both the cloistered nature of the university and the power dynamic between John and Carol. Meanwhile, a ringing phone provides an aural image that breaks up the play's dialogue and reminds audiences of the outside world. When Carol becomes angry, she evokes images in her dialogue to humiliate John and to point out his flaws.

One of the play's great paradoxes is simply that neither John nor Carol can be regarded as the antagonist or protagonist consistently: each one has understandable motives and yet abuses their power. Another paradox is John's academic work: while he values his position as a professor and is afraid that Carol will take it away from him, he also writes academic critiques of the university power structure, insisting that students deserve more power over their instructors.

Each act opens with John and Carol in the same position and same place, implying that their protracted argument has, in certain ways, created little change. Furthermore, Carol's power over John, gained as the play continues, parallels the original power dynamic, in which John holds power over Carol—though the players switch positions, the elements of power imbalance remain consistent.

Carol comes to personify abstract concepts of feminism and progressive politics, while John personifies the concepts of privilege and the status quo.

The use of dialogue, particularly moments where Carol and John speak over each other, allows Mamet to highlight each character's struggle to be heard and to feel listened to. Furthermore, irony is used frequently in this play, particularly to show the ways in which each character abuses power when he or she is able, in spite of claiming to want justice and fairness.