Assignment #3: Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Dramatic Literature
Anna Jensen
This assignment is due by September 24 at 11:00 PM to
www.turnitin.com
First, as you read Glengarry Glen Ross in its entirety, note two things
in the margin of your text: 1. how your opinion of each character is
developing and 2. The moments when the dramatic tension seems
very high.
Consider this definition of the well-made play from Cambridge:
well made play: A translation of the French pièce bien faite, the
well made play was first codified by Eugène Scribe (17911861). Since he (with assorted collaborators) wrote some 400
plays, he had little time for such frivolities as theory. By the mid19th century, when the term came into common use, it was
already derogatory, and yet its formulae have molded some
150 years of Western drama.
The well made play is skillfully crafted to arouse suspense. An
outgrowth of the comedy of intrigue, its action is propelled
through a concatenation of causally related events. Beginning
with a detailed, faintly disguised exposition, it gathers
momentum through complications and crises, with each act
closing on a climactic curtain. A series of perils for the
protagonist leads to the revelation of a secret in an obligatory
scene - named and analyzed by the French critic Francisque
Sarcey some half-century after Scribe codified the practice. The
well made play then closes swiftly in a logical and plausible
resolution, which implicitly accepts the ethic of the audience,
even when the author's spokesman, the raisonneur, does not
baldly voice it. Technically, the well made play thrives on
fortuitous entrances and exits, mistaken identity and quid pro
quo.
Write at least 250 words in response to the following question: We
see traces of the formula of the well-made play in Glengarry Glen
Ross. For example, there are “hot documents” that drive the action of
the plot and the dramatic tension. Discuss how one of those
documents helped to maintain the suspense of the plot. Be specific
and use lines of dialogue to support your ideas.
Enjoy the assignment! Email me with questions:
ajensen@brooks.edu